Closing Time

They cleared the alcohol shelf before shutting down the bar. 

I think they don't trust me very much.

There goes perspective.

A Little Perspective Goes A Long Way

Ever felt in the doldrums? Like nothing's going your way or nothing's happening, everyone's having it better, you're lost, frustrated, going in circle, caught in webs/poison ivy/vines/thorns? 

Maybe it's time to get some perspective. 

A little perspective goes a long way (in getting clarity).

One of the best ways to gain perspective, I find, is to leave my usual comfort zone and to take a little trip - even  a work trip. Packing is not fun, but taking off into the air/ hopping into the car for a long drive somewhere is fun. As the plane takes off, i feel like i'm zooming out of my life - into space - and gaining a different perspective. Literally. 

The runway and the airport start to shrink, then you see more and more patches of green. Light leafy green, dark musky green, super dark chlorophyll green. Houses become rows of concrete, you start to see long stretches of road with lines of cars resembling streaming lines of little dots (so small you can't see the colour of the cars). Then you see large bodies of water - could be a reservoir, could be a lake, a meandering river... then you don't see the houses anymore but just a large swathe of green.

Then the OCEAN (yes, i live pretty near the ocean).

Then you rise above the clouds, and are above everything else. Literally.

Then you feel like you're above everything. Figuratively. 

It's a good feeling (unless, of course, you are afraid of heights or small spaces. Then you'd probably be very freaked out by now.)

Perspective makes me a bit heady, then it makes everything look and feel so clear. Suddenly, it's not so hard to figure out what's important, and what's not. What makes me tick, and what gives me dread. What matters, and what doesn't. Then if by many strokes of luck, you meet some randomly wonderful people who have led random and wonderful lives, it makes you wonder about the things you sweat about in your life, the impact (real or imagined) of your decisions, and if your worries are justified at all.

And now, as I sit here alone by the bar at Ansara (www.ansarahotel.com), a small but very cute boutique hotel in Vientiane, Laos; sipping a glass of Baileys on the rocks and sharing my thoughts here, while 4 young Laotian hotel staff stand around the hotel front desk watching some video and chuckling to themselves, I wonder...

... when did some perspective hurt anybody?

Gordon Ramsay's Fight Against Shark Finning in "Shark Bait"

Watched this last night. It's not new, but it still baffles me as to the cruelty of finning. Unlike animals on land, the cruelty of sharks is less visible to the public because you basically just don't see the carcasses. As Ramsay says in the video, it's like going to an African safari, chopping the limbs off a lion, and letting it bleed to death.

Childhood, Imagination and Floorplans

(drawing not mine, but taken from a website)

As a child, I enjoyed looking at floor plans. I would create imaginary people in my head, and envision them walking through the curved doors, along the paper corridors, in and out of bedrooms, using the bathrooms, jumping into the pool and so on. I had a fascination for interior of homes, building and designing little pockets of cosiness, unique corners, hobby areas. I even created a world inside my personal drawer - the coin holder was a swimming pool, the piled little Minnie Mouse address books were steps to a platform, my erasers were people. I shifted furniture in my bedroom once every 2 months, pulling out the drawers of my work desks, draping blankets over the tables (with the drawers drawn out), to create a little private underpass from the bedroom door to under the bed (and of course, i then slept under the bed - for effect.)

I didn't grow up to be an architect, or an interior designer. Thankfully, my current profession still allows me to indulge in floor plans, design, textures and ambience of areas.

Imagination is such a powerful thing.

I Love Laughing! Do you?

Hello Fishie Fishie!

A very happy lion fish just chillin'

Here is the only one good decent picture I took from my two dives in the Maldives last week. The flash of my camera didn't always work - in fact only when I was very close to my subject; which doesn't always work depending on how effectively buoyant I am. I always thought it such a pity that we can never see the full beauty of the underwater world with our naked eye due to the seawater, sunlight etc. Imagine if we could see everything in their pure natural colours!! I hear that's what you get when night diving - but night diving doesn't quite work for (1) someone who's afraid of the dark, and (2) claustrophobic. Both of which, yours sincerely am.

A Peep into the World of Short Memories

Inspired by SneakyNiki's comment on the previous entry, here are some pictures from my dive today. The site is not great and I only had a regular camera, so pile on the imagination!

Where you going, big fella?


Who comes to disturb my slumber???

Just hanging out with the guys...

Life in the fast lane.

Oh, hello there, Master Shifu!

Sorry to disturb! Don't go!!!

A Fish Market. hurr hurr hurr.

Why do stars up above the world so high get so much attention?

What about the stars under the sea?

Looks like an office building of sorts.

This could be a waiting area for... the dentist?

These Feet Are Meant for Walking - Udhoo Rock, Maldives

Went diving today! Haven't been in the waters in about 18 months. Thought it'd be refreshing to be swimming with the fishes, and it was. No mobile phone, no emails, no social media, no talking, no listening... just swimming! The visibility wasn't great though, and aside from 2 moray eels, 1 scorpion fish, 1 large turtle and tonnes of maldivian trigger fish and the usual reef suspects, there wasn't anything earth shattering/ water splashing. I hear it's whaleshark season, but I have never been a lucky person.

That's why I think I am destined to have to work hard for my life.

Not that that bothers me though.
=)

These Feet Are Meant for Walking - Maldives

This is my third time in the Maldives, and it still does not fail to amaze me how turquoise the waters can be and how ridiculous the geography of this place is. What was Mother Nature thinking???

Got stung by jellyfish today - second time in my life; and after sharing my first jellyfish attack from 7 years ago last night!!! The coincidence!!! It first hit me on my calf. I brushed it away, and then it came back to hit my thigh. I just couldn't believe my luck, until the pain escalated. I swerved and squinted into the water, looking for the sonofagun... and there it was, with its rainbow coloured tail shining in the waters like one of those plastic battery operated child's toy. 

One upside to the experience though... i found out that the following is true: pouring pee over a jellyfish sting helps to stop the pain. 

Thou Shalt Be "Heard"... And Then Seen.

Recently, I have been exposed to the concept of "social media" alot.. through work, through random discussions and through my recent registration on Google+. Social media, probably one of the most earth-shattering revolutions inh the 21st century, is taking over the world. Or so we think. I'm not sure yet how much we really need it, but it has definitely become a quintessential part of our life and part of how companies do their business.

I am no expert on the workings of social media, but i am undoubtedly part of it. Unashamedly. I blog. I tweet. I check in on foursquare. I wrote my first tripadvisor review last week (though it wasn't published, i think it was too well written to be credible). And I have a Google+ account. 

Often, I wonder what draws people to participating so actively in social media. It seems to be a huge generational thing, and basically, it stems from a desire to be heard. Now, what is the correlation between this generation and the desire to be heard? What happened along the years to emphasize this desire? Or have humans always wanted to be heard, but never had the accessible channel? One article described ancient cave drawings as a form of social media. I can understand that, but it didn't have the speed and far-fetching consequences that social media has today. Social media has taken down governments, I'm sure it could take down a brand.

So anyway, this desire to be heard, to share stories, to read about other people's stories, to connect with strangers - where does this desire come from? Is it because the current generation has been so involved in the economic boom characteristic of the last decades, that humans have forgotten how to socialize in person? Do we feel forgotten and forsaken, to a certain extent, such that we seek to establish connection with whoever is willing to listen/read? And blogging! This scream to be heard, to be "somebody" in the cyber universe... it all makes sense to me, but seems nonsensical at the same time. If it's already challenging being heard in the normal human universe, doesn't it seem even crazier to want to create a cyber universe (thus enlarging our TOTAL universe) and attempt to establish a presence?? Very odd!!

The internet used to be a playground because everyone could be anonymous. Yes, the experts and the sneakies could still sniff out your true identity, but by and large, you could take on a handle (nickname) and take on another identity. Perhaps a "cooler" identity, perhaps more goodlooking, more eloquent, more outgoing. But these days, it's actually incredible being anonymous on the internet. Google+ came along and connected all the dots. My gmail is connected to my Google+ which has also connected by blogspot account. And through blogspot, I am connected to my twitter account and flickr account. And through my twitter account, i am connected to Facebook and Linkedin. It is no longer to be humourous on Facebook, critical on Blogspot and professional on Linkedin.

We are trapped in our own doings. The vast, endless cyber universe has us, pardon the language, "by the balls". We are out there, but no where at the same time. 

That being said, I still have this blog. So why do i participate so much in social media? Perhaps, I add value. Sometimes with my travel tips, sometimes with tales of adventure, and at one point, i hope to impart some knowledge through this blog. 

And rarely... okay, sometimes... I wonder if someone feels the way i do about certain topics, understand what I mean, agrees with what i look out for in life, or connects with me on some level. Almost sounds like i'm looking for a soulmate. Maybe that's it. The big question mark as to whether, on this earth of 6.8 billion, there are people like me. Maybe if we met, we would be really good friends.. but for some reason or another, not attributed to fate or destiny, it is not possible.

At the end of the day, we all want to feel special, no matter what our beliefs are. Some of us believe in reincarnation and that we will be around for a long time. Some of us believe that our existence is fleeting and that we are here because we are here, and there is no need to think so hard about it. 

While we seek these answers to justify why we are here, i guess we will just continue to ride this BIG social media wave to convince ourselves that we are "somebody" and that we can add value/ make a difference/ make someone's life better via a tip or two.

VERY VERY STRANGE.

The Heart Is Willing, But...

This must be the lowest point of my blogging life (fine, it hasn't been THAT long).

I have been sitting in front of my laptop the past 45 minutes, thinking about how I wanted to phrase my thoughts, what I wanted to say, where I wanted to begin, and if I should begin, if I will have the resilience to complete a blog entry.

45 minutes later, I have achieved nothing. My thoughts are not clearer than 45 minutes ago, and all I have to present after that 45 minutes of contemplating is...

... this.

I am probably better off in bed. I will try again tomorrow, from hopefully a more inspiring place with more fascinating stories, and ideally with a picture or two to make up for today's disappointing performance.

I have too many labels in my blog entries, it's not possible to classify them in a logical manner anymore. Should I go back to all the past entries and re-label them so that they make more sense?

How Do You Keep At It? The Blogging?

At some point everyday, I have a strong urge to share some random thought, incident or revelation through this blog, and for a few minutes, I am inspired and raring to go. I think of how I'd phrase my lines, which pictures I will attach and so on.

Then I think of when I can sit down, in quiet and peace, to actually write them down and post them. Tonight, tonight.. after dinner, after the laundry, after I tidy up the mess on the dining table...

Then comes the night, the dinner, the laundry, the almost-tidy up. Oh look, the sofa.. it's beckoning. Maybe i'll take a little break. Maybe watch abit of TV while i'm at it. It's only half past ten, I still have time...

Then it's half past eleven, and I realize I am tired. Shoots, and I haven't showered yet. Let's go shower, then I feel energized and can write that blog entry. I hit the shower, and oh, that's the bed. Oooh... the bed. It's almost midnight. If I go to bed after midnight, it's going to be really hard getting up in the morning. Maybe I can write that blog entry tomorrow.. what was it I wanted to write about anyway? And which pictures? Which thoughts?

For those of you who don't blog professionally but manage it on the side, how do you do it??

Please, be oh so kind, tell me.

Death of My Hotmail Account

My hotmail account is dead. Someone hacked into it, sent a bunch of spam mail to my friends over the span of a week or so. Hotmail blocked my account, and required me to verify myself so as to reinstate it.

Now, i created my hotmail account EONS ago, before the age of google, before the age of gmail... probably during ICQ times. The security question i created then was this:

First child's middle name?

The funny thing is, i don't have any kids, so god knows what i was thinking at that time. And i also thought at that time that it would be a great idea to set my hotmail in spanish, so as to practise my spanish. Now, the help language is completely in spanish (yes, i'm kicking myself now), which of course, i don't completely understand.

Desafortunadamente, no hemos podido verificar que es de tu propiedad la cuenta de Windows Live ID proporcionada con la información dada.

De acuerdo con el compromiso de Microsoft en proteger la privacidad en la red, Windows Live ID se toma la seguridad de las cuentas seriamente. Pasar el procedimiento de validación puede ser difícil y nuestros agentes siguen guías estrictas de validación antes de autorizar un restablecimiento de contraseña. El proceso de validación se aprueba o no. No podemos darte comentarios sobre si la información de la cuenta dada es correcta o incorrecta. Esto es para proteger la integridad de la Live ID.

He aquí algunas recomendaciones para ayudar a proporcionar información precisa, lo que nos permite garantizar con éxito validar que eres el propietario de la cuenta.

• Revisar la información proporcionada para la cuenta y verificar su exactitud.
  • Puedes revisar la información proporcionada visitando el enlace dado en correo electrónico "Ayuda de Windows Live ID - Validación de Cuenta e información de Restablecimiento de contraseña". Este correo electrónico va a ser enviado a tu dirección de correo secundaria que nos has dado durante el proceso de restablecimiento de tu contraseña.
  • Si necesitas hacer correcciones, por favor, publícalas a través del caso del Centro de Soluciones de Windows Live.
• Debes identificar cualquier información faltante.
  • Revisa la información publicada e identifica cualquier pregunta que te puedas haber saltado o podrías responder.
  • Si necesitas publicar información adicional a preguntas que no han sido respondidas, por favor publícala a través del caso del Centro de Soluciones de Windows Live.
• Publica cualquier información adicional a través del caso del Centro de Soluciones de Windows Live.
  • Agregar cualquier información adicional detallada que nos ayude a validarte como el propietario de la cuenta, es realmente apreciada.
  • Algunos ejemplos de información adicional de la cuenta son:
    • Una lista de carpetas de Hotmail.
    • Contactos de Hotmail o Messenger.
    • Asuntos de correos en tu cuenta de Hotmail.
    • Si has cambiado tu código postal, dirección, o cualquier otra información, danos los datos previos.

Mientras más información brindes a nuestros agentes, mas equipados están para validarte exitosamente como el propietario de la cuenta.

Entendemos el inconveniente que es para ti no poder acceder a tu cuenta y esperamos asistirte con la recuperación de tu cuenta.

So... bravo. My hotmail account is dead. Bye bye hotmail. Bye bye emails from a long time ago (and all my love letters!)

These Feet Are Meant For Walking - Vientiane, Laos

Apologies for having been missing in action the last few weeks/ months. I have been working my feet and have been doing tonnes of walking! I have so much to share, but not enough resilience and motivation to write about all of them. What is one to do when in such a situation???

Well, I promise to write again very soon, and hopefully with a few accounts of ridiculous adventures and profound thoughts to share. In the meantime, I'm going to continue walking, and I hope you are doing tonnes of walking too! 

p.s. make sure you treat your feet well! They are going to carry you along for many years to come!

Positivity is the Elixir of Youth

Over lunch on my own today, I watched a young gay couple enjoy their lunch at the table next to mine. They were in their teens, looked very fresh and trendy, were cute individuals and looked sweet together as well. I smiled to myself, and thought, ah, the wonderful years of being young and free.

I’m not that much older (or so I wish to believe), but of late, have entered this stage in life when suddenly you have to make very “grown up” decisions. I never thought much about age, and disregarded the social expectations of age-coherent behavior. I remember one time, when I was 27, I was fooling around in the back seat of the family car with my three younger sisters. Dad looked at mom, and said, “are you sure she’s 27?” I found that hilarious and motivating, actually, and secretly was proud to be silly.

Now, I find myself having to make wiser financial decisions (fine, I’m turning 30. No big deal, I hear you say? Yeah I know it’s no big deal, but things just happen you know? What am I to do???), plan a wedding, contemplate career changes and think about family planning. It seems a little surreal. On one hand, I feel empowered and excited about the future, on the other hand, I can’t help wonder if I’m ready to grow up just yet. I still want to learn DJ-ing (and I somehow just cannot imagine how a family woman can be a cool DJ – but it must be possible right? Right???), backpack through the silk route, do fun stuff that only young hip people seem to do. And I wonder, am I missing something? Will it be hard for a married woman, with children at one point, to still be cool, young, fun loving and have time to learn stuff???

All this is probably self inflicted. Who says I need to get married, and who says I need to have children soon? But you see, this is part of that whole growing-up-and-making-grown-up-decisions phase, which bums me sometimes. Being an adult is still more fun than being a kid, i feel. I don’t miss being a student, definitely not having to do homework and study for exams; and i like that i am earning my own keep and can travel when i want.

But I do miss the times when my biggest concerns were how to chase boys around the block as fast as I could, how not to look too nerdy but more hip, and how to hide the pimples on my face.

Daft Hands - Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger

Gotta love this!

An Amazing Life with an Amazing View

Last Wednesday, I woke up bright an early in a small B&B in Central East Bali to this incredulous view. I had arrived at the B&B in the late of the night, and could not see what was beyond my fluorescent light-lit verandah. It was a very cool evening, temperatures were probably hovering at about 15 degrees. We had a simple dinner of papaya curry (try to imagine that!), some local vegetables, the chef's special fried chicken and soto ayam; before a long conversation ranging from movies, to books, to religion (of course), and the meaning of life.

Now, i shall not dwell into the discussions of the meaning of life. It is far too large to be contained in one blog entry, and far too indulgent a topic for me to write about. In a nutshell, i do not believe there is a meaning to life per se, and i justify my existence by trying to be a better person, and to make life more pleasant for the people around me. I think life, is like a glimpse between two dark eternities. There is no beforelife, nor an afterlife. I like to think this way, to be honest. It reminds me of the temporary and fleeting nature of my life. I'm not afraid that i will be no more, but more afraid of not utilizing my life to the fullest.

Recently, together with Koks and a good friend who resides in the godforsaken land of the vikings, we came to the conclusion that the best life strategy is summarized in 3 alphabets.

E, D and F.
Eat, Drink and F**k.

The funny thing is, when my companion and I were discussing about the meaning of life in the darkness of Central East Bali, he mentioned that life is about relationships, good food and wine. That struck me. Maybe there is some truth in this EDF life strategy. Maybe we're really onto something here. Maybe it could really work. I thought about it for a few days, and wondered... how about family? That falls under relationships... how about travels? how about.... music???

So now, I've revised it to the TMFED life approach... and it's pretty exhaustive i find. What about work and professional success? I am still struggling with that one, it always elicits mixed feelings... but perhaps that is merely a means to achieving the TMFED way of life.

At the end of the day, perhaps that's all that matters.

Buat Blog?

I got a small shock when i opened my blog today. Instead of the usual "Create a Blog" on the top right hand corner, it said "Buat Blog". For a moment, i couldn't understand what that meant. And then, ka ching! I'm typing from my room for the night in the exotic island of Bali, and "Buat Blog" is Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesia's national language) for "Create a Blog".

We live in a very very connected world.

Talking about a connected world, the recent catastrophe that has hit Japan is most heart wrenching and devastating. In this part of the world (Asia Pacific) near the "ring of fire", earthquakes are not uncommon. It's more of the recent consecutive series of earthquakes and tsunamis in recent history that is disturbing. I do not remember growing up to read or watch the news about widespread devastation, of people dying in the hundreds of thousands, of villages or parts of a country being wiped off the earth (yes, i know, in Africa, shit happens all the time, but that's another bitter story).

I remember the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004 which hit Indonesia, Thailand and Sri Lanka really badly. I remember sitting at my work desk, and watching the death toll rising exponentially on live news feeds. After it surpassed the 50,000 mark, my little brain could not fathom the scale anymore. It just seemed like a hell lot of people. Poor people. Poor people who couldn't afford to live in better areas.

Then there was the earthquake in Szechuan Province, China; and the earthquake in Christ Church, New Zealand. Oh, and let's not forget the eruption of Mount Merapi in Java, Indonesia.

And now, the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

In our daily pursuit and obsession of the latest technological developments or material acquisitions, it is extremely humbling to be reminded that we are and will always be at the mercy of Mother Nature. That at the end of the day, most of what we've been concerned about, do not matter; and we're back to the basics and the bare necessities.

It's a sad sad time. My thoughts are with our fellow humans in Japan, and the helpless in Libya, and the hungry in Africa, and the exploited in Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand and China....

... there's no end.

The New Starbucks

Starbucks' new logo without the wording "Starbucks Coffee" around the green lady.

It's kinda clean, and certainly opens up new boundaries for the company to go into other product lines aside from coffee. Not sure i'm a big fan of the green insulating sleeve, though it does look younger than its khaki predecessor.

(please excuse the mess of wires in the background. i could have moved it, but was too lazy.)

Indochine Kitchen » Eggplant with Chili, Sambal Terong

Holy Macaroni!! The pictures on this page got me salivating at midnight - NOT GOOD.

Indochine Kitchen » Eggplant with Chili, Sambal Terong

...but, but, but, it looks so totally amazing.

*note to try out asap!*

Kick Ass Beef Goulash

Feeds 4 adults.

Ingredients:
1 kg of beef cubes (or the original recipe asks for horse meat *gulp*)
1 tbsp all purpose flour
1 tbsp of paprika (or more if you like it hot!)
1 tbsp of cummin seeds
1 tbsp of white wine vinegar
2 tbsp of tomato puree
3 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil
1.5 litre of water
1 chicken or vegetable stock cube
1 tin of peeled tomatoes or fresh tomatoes, based on personal preference

- Marinate 1 kg of bite-sized beef cubes with 1 tbsp of all purpose flour, 1 tbsp of paprika, 1 tbsp of cummin seeds, some pepper and salt.
- Brown the beef cubes in a heavy based pot (I use my trusty Le Creuset) in 3 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil, for about 8-10 mins. You will find that a sticky brown paste will accumulate in the inside of the pot.
- Add 1 tbsp of white wine vinegar, scrap the brown sticky stuff off for about 2-3 minutes.
- Add 2 tbsp of tomato puree, mix thoroughly for a few minutes.
- Add 1 litre of water and a vegetable or chicken stock cube. Bring to boil, and then reduce heat to simmer for about an hour. Stir occasionally to ensure beef cubes are not burnt, and that there is sufficient water. Add more if not.
- Add a tin of peeled tomatoes (or fresh juicy sweet ones, if you find them. Probably those you can get on vines, but darn they are expensive!)
- Simmer longer if beef cubes are still too hard (they should break/ disintegrate easily). Another 30 minutes should be fab.
- Top with fresh cut onion rings and serve with baguette.

Best eaten the day after! You can batch and freeze for those lazy nights in too!

Top 15 Things to Do - Five Years Later

I wrote this in an old blog in November, 2005; about what I wanted to put time aside to do:

1. Spend some time each week to sketch, paint, draw or colour.

2. Write my collection of short stories.

3. Spend at least 30 minutes everyday reading my books

4. Improve my wardrobe.

5. Create collages of various themes.

6. Take pictures of strangers.

7. Pick up acrylic painting or interior designing class.

8. Enrol in tennis class or ashtanga yoga

9. Hold my own art exhibition in due time.

10. Make Christmas Cards (need my art box from home...ART BOX!!!)

11. Write emails to far away friends

12. Get at least a glass of wine/alcohol a week

13. Visit cafes and bookstores and stationery stores

14. Make friends outside of work

15. Be happy and mad.

-----------------

5.5 years later, and I'm still hoping for the same things.

That probably means:

a) I know what I like, and I know what makes me happy.
b) I am just so lazy I keep procrastinating and haven't made any of the above happen.

Hello Belarus!!!

I have readers in Russia and Belarus??? How marvellous!

Time Froze in Galle, Sri Lanka

Galle is like a town frozen in time. The old town is still reminiscent of its colonial days - charming architecture, vintage cars, antique clocks.

The First REAL Post of 2011

My last blog post was a little strange, a little funny. I remember thinking I had the perfect thought and the perfect blog entry in mind to kick off 2011. But after those few paragraphs, I thought I could do with a short rest. I stood up, walked to the couch, and didn't get up till 2 hours later!!!

Now, you may think, okay, here's an alcoholic... but no. That was the most amount of alcohol i consumed this year so far. Oh wait a minute, then there was the hen party, and there was some serious drinking there too (and too many accidents involving half a dozen champagne glasses, a stool and bandages...)

The year has been relatively eventful so far, and in more good ways than bad. 2011 is going to be a big year of changes, I can feel it - for me and for a lot of people around me. Besides turning the big 3-0 (which seems to scare everyone, i'm not sure how terrified i am yet), Koks and I are planning a huge party, our friends are planning huge parties, new family members etc. It's all happening.

So amidst all that preparation, all that pinot noir, and all the celebrations, we are now in March, and almost done with the first quarter of 2011. Where did all the time go???

I have, however, put in a lot of thought into what 2011 will be, for me. 2011, I hope, will be the year of:

- Ballroom Dancing, more specifically Waltz

- Diving (but we will realistically only have time in the second half of the year.)

- Baking (this is a tricky one, because i'm also trying to watch my weight, don't know how i'm going to marry the two!)

- Europe (2 visits to Austria and 1 visit to Greece planned!)

- Newspaper Reading

- Jazz songs on the Sax

Hmm, that doesn't look so bad does it?

What will this year have in store for you?

2011 - Year of Discovery

HAPPY 2011!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, yes, I know i'm kinda late. I have been procrastinating and wondering how best to write the first blog entry of the year. What should I say, to you and to myself? Something inspiring to kick start the year, something poignant, something significant?

After 8 glasses of pinot noir within an hour, I somehow feel that I am ready to make that entry now. Maybe the magic is in losing the strictness of your thought, and just saying what you feel. Perhaps it is indulgent, possibly unpractical... but who's to say what really matters in your life, and what really makes sense?

*passed out*