You are currently browsing the category archive for the 'life' category.
Step 1: Quit your job
Step 2: Plan a travel itinerary that will take you across the world and back
Step 3: Pack light (this is learnt the HARD way)
Step 4: Bugger off for a couple of months
Step 5: Repeat
And… that was exactly what I did for the past couple of months, living outta my suitcase and sleeping in planes, buses, boats, trains, hostels, hotels, and tents. I clocked in a total of 24,864 miles and crossed a couple of continents. I experienced the warmth of cities like San Francisco, it’s vineyards, and it’s sprawling suburbs… I survived the Nevada desert and experienced all the highs and lows of Burning Man, admired the dried golden landscape of the bay area, humbled before 2000 year old trees in Yosemite and along the way… I reconnected with friends all over the globe and made some new ones along the way. And that was just the first 3 weeks of the trip. Hahah!
SAN FRANCISCO is arguably my favorite city in America. This city has a most bizarre wall of fog that just lolls around the city even through the dead of summer, I mean all you have to do is to drive over the Bay Bridge or the Golden Gate Bridge and all of a sudden it’s 10 degrees warmer and you have to start peeling off your layers. Bizarre!
Gorgeous F Market Streetcars
Secrets of a Fortune Cookie Factory
We stumbled into a hole in the wall Fortune Cookie Factory in a small alley in Chinatown. I was so excited! And it was just amazing to watch these bunch of old men fold fortune cookies at lightning speed! Here were some of my fortune cookie predictions: A plesant surprise is in store for you soon (Oh! Goody!) Now is the time to try something new (logical advice to keep things fresh) A short strange will soon enter your life with blessing to share (keep an eye out for magical gnomes).
Vineyards in Napa Valley
Shawn and I boldly leaped into the mysterious world of Left Hand Drive when we decided to rent a car to drive to Napa Valley. Oh my goodness! It was so strange to be on the ‘wrong’ side of the road and to have the gear shift in your right hand! Yikes! We visited a mock-castle vineyard called Castello Di Amoros, and I was repulsed by how the management of the castle tried to idealized it’s imagined history despite being built just 10 years ago?!! Bllehh! In the words of a wise English man I met later on… ‘We kick ass with the castles we’ve got back home!”
Lunch on a lawn outside City Hall
Eating on lawns while busking in the sun is definitely one of Life’s greatest pleasures. (Unfortunately for us, living on a tropical island city like Singapore, it is NOT something you’d normally do unless you enjoy perspiring profusely while trying to eat a fast melting sandwich in your sweaty palms. Not entire glamorous is it?) On September 11th 2009, flags hung at half mast, we sat on a lawn outside of San Francisco’s City Hall which made worldwide headlines not too long ago when they legalized same sex marriages. It was a good lunch. Poetically poignant.
GREEN TORTOISE was whom we signed up with to go to Burning Man. For USD$550 you get food, water, transport, bike space and a common shelter out for five days out in the Nevada desert. The camp also comes with it’s own art car (a lighted green bus shaped like a tortoise with an erupting volcano at it’s helm), prime party real estate on the Playa (6:30 & Chaos, only 5minutes away from Center Camp), no showers (eeewww…) and a hundred other happy campers from all over the world.
Unfortunately, I only hung out at Green Tortoise village whenever I was sick on the Playa. Dehydration, heat exhaustion and the common flu saw me sitting in camp for entire afternoons with a cold towel over my face. Oh yeah… those were definitely the really low points of my Burning Man experience. 
But with every low… come the incredible highs! Catching up with my poifriends! Exploring amazing art on the playa! Learning how to hoop in the middle of a white-out at center camp, going for Tittie Tassle class with my darling MK, and of course… the burning of the man as well as the parties that followed!
My most magical time at Burning Man was spending sunrise at the man’s ashes after the night of the burn. Those few short hours, in my opinion encapsulated all that Burning Man meant to me. There were knife jugglers, singers, dancers, single long poi spinners, a bunch of die-hard Burners branding themselves with the man, and last but not least, a few of the most generous Burners cooking up a storm of pancakes and coffee using the heat of the smoldering ashes! Yup! Just put your frying pan and coffee pot on the ashes, wait for it to cook and share your food with everyone. Yup. That did it for me.
Sunrise as seen from the Man's ashes
YOSEMITE seriously humbled me. The force of mother nature, impossible rock cliffs and two thousand year old trees definitely has that sort of bring-you-to-your-knees humbling effect. I was lucky enough to spend 3 days enjoying the valley, while most people try to cram it all into a 1 day trip. I spent my nights at Yosemite Bug Lodge where I befriended fellow happy campers, who were really generous with ride shares! Whoohoo! Had the world’s best lunch up on Glacier Point, the view just made everything taste better. I also noticed something about the sound of the wind as it came through the valley and through the pine trees. It wasn’t howling… it actually sounded like… applause. 
Lunch at Glacier Point
Mariposa Grove
ARRANZ-BRAVO was the man whom I fell in love with on my last day in San Francisco. A Catalan master with an astounding overture of work that started even before I was born. I am now a delightful owner 3 of his drawings from within his series of drawings titled Els 25 de maig.
Els 25 de maig VI
Els 25 de maig XIX
Els 25 de maig XVII
18th August 2009 - The Straits Times (by Sujin Thomas)
Jailed for living in an illegal tent
HOMELESS and unemployed, Noor Mohammad Yassin Ismail pitched a canvas tent at East Coast Park in May, 2007, and lived there for almost a month – without a lease or licence to do so.
He was discovered on June 26 of that year, after he was apprehended by park rangers.
In court on Tuesday, Noor was asked to produce his Identity Card or passport but he said that he had lost both items.
It prompted District Judge Mr Shaiffudin Saruwan to retort in jest: ‘I suggest you use a bicycle chain to tie yourself to a tree or you may lose yourself as well.’
Pleading for leniency, Noor, who is tanned and skinny, said that he seldom ate, only doing so if friends gave him food.
He added that his mother is paralysed and looked after by a younger sibling, while an elder sister does not care about him.
He was fined $800 but could not afford to pay the fine so he was jailed four days instead. He could have been fined up to $2,000.
I am utterly disgusted by District Judge Mr Shaiffudin Saruwan careless remark: ‘I suggest you use a bicycle chain to tie yourself to a tree or you may lose yourself as well.’
I mean… here is a homeless guy, who can’t even afford his meals, so how can you expect him to have the money to renew his Identity Card or Passport. Where is your compassion as a judge? Where is the compassion you have a human being? To find out more… check out the on-going debate at The Online Citizen – Where’s the compassion in our “Fine City”?
I have been watching this video over and over again, and it just gets better every time. Thank you Nevisoul (Thomas), may your passion for poi never fade. I hope to see you on the playa and I also hope that you’ll come for Bornfire in Singapore later this year! To find out more about Nevisoul, feel free to check out the blog.
So we spent last Sunday night at Momo’s house playing Rockband. Ayu sure felt some rockin’ in her belly while we were all singing our little hearts out and making the loudest racket you could imagine in the Tampinese heartlands. Hours later… she was in labour and we have a new member join the band! Ladies and gentlemen… Introducing the little rockstar himself… Adil Khairul! Welcome to the world little man!
Adil sun tans on the balcony
Feimao, Grandma & Adil
Here’s a great little video of my dearest friend Paul doing a cover of one my favorite songs by Lior – This Old Love. This song brings back so many bittersweet memories of my last year in Melbourne. It was one heck of a rollercoast year in 2005, but in a blink of an eye, its 2009 and so much has changed. Change for the better, change for the worse… nonetheless, it goes to show the impermanence of Life. Meanwhile… please check out some of Paul’s other great videos on his youtube channel. Beware… he loves to sing into a broomstick and wear crazy headgear sometimes. 
Paul: I love the new microphone, the sound is brilliant.
I’ve been religiously following Crystal and Bjorn’s blog called: Life can be wonderful! Wwoofers’ journey to enlightenment of the soul. The blog chronicles their adventures as they go woofing through England and beyond. Their adventures thus far have been nothing short of amazing and I am incredibly proud of them for taking the path less traveled. Quitting their jobs in advertising and pursuing a crazy dream to get closer to the environment, to foster better relationships with people across the globe and to really live Life and to enjoy working with the land.
Crystal & Bjorn in Cornwall
Crystal is an old friend of mine whom I’ve known since I was 6 years old. Yup.. I can’t believe that we both went to the same primary, secondary and polytechnic schools together. While in polytechnic, she took the path of Mass Communications, and ended up working in Advertising; while I took the path of Film, Sound & Video, and ended up behind the camera in the Media industry.
We haven”t kept in much contact over the past few years, but when she was back in town recently, I got a chance to have dinner and drinks with her in Little India. That little reunion reminded me of how much talent this whirlwind of a woman has. She is incredible with the written word, and behind that brilliant smile, she holds a tongue that can throw you off your tracks if you dare to cross her. She doesn’t put up with bullshit, has a deep sense of commitment and swings between being a Monica and a Pheobe (characters from the sitcom Friends) every time we meet, which sure makes for interesting conversations. But anyway… their blog is truly inspiring, and I only wish Crystal and Bjorn all the very best on their incredible adventures ahead. Namaste!
My eyes and ears were opened by a new friend today – Ian. Here is a guy who has been dating with one of my best friend for awhile now, but whom I’ve never gotten to known beyond superficial levels of Hello and Goodbyes.
But today, today… he really opened my mind. I pointed the camera at him and posed to him a simple question: “What do you think of this piece of Art?” He thought for awhile, and then proceeded to give me a detailed and profound insight into how he viewed this particular installation. He measured every nuance of his answer, and generously suggested his many readings of what he felt about the piece. I was deeply impressed and suddenly humbled.
For me, I’ve viewed this piece of work for two nights in a row, and it has always been just an object, in a warehouse, at an art exhibition, that I had to include in a video. To me, it was merely somebody else’s work, that I did not engage with, because I was busy doing my work – videotaping the event. But now, all of a sudden, Ian’s observations brought this object to life and it reminded me to engage with art. It also reminded me that I should view all future projects as ART|Work. Engage with real Life first, and then weave that into the video. Don’t forget to focus on what is really in front of you, and not just what you see through a view finder. Engage with Art. Engage with Life.
This is probably the 11th night in a row that I have been dealing with insomnia – or rather… bits of insomnia. I fall asleep at around 12am, suddenly awake between 3am to 6am and sometimes, if I’m really lucky, I get to go back to sleep before getting out of bed at 7:30am. Am really really really exhausted from this disrupted sleep schedule. Bleh… and then to top it off, there are the inter-mitten nightmares that range from burning kids alive in a tree, to having cervical cancer or falling off cliffs. Cold sweat and stressful nights? Hell yeah.
But… it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that this sudden change in sleeping habits is directly related to the difficult decisions that I’ve been making in the past week. In many ways… it feels like I’m back in the driver’s seat and like a newbie, I’m checking the rearview mirror, crossing out the blind spots and cautiously changing lanes on this highway. A little burn-out and weary… but I’ve still got my foot on the gas and wind in my hair.
Now… lets see if I’m lucky and can grab another hour of shut eye before the morning comes.
There’s nothing more inspiring than reading the words of this boy wonder. I am absolutely in awe of how he goes about making music and inspiring change and positive action in everything that he does. Please check out Jason Mraz’s blog here.
Honestly, it is a challenge to stay that kind of a person everyday, but I believe that it is absolutely possible. To rewire the brain to learn about looking on the bright side of Life. It’s all too easy to just raise your hands to and say ‘I give up! Life is shit! Whatever!’ or to close your eyes and ears to all that is happening around the globe. But it speaks volumes when you go out there and seek change, to stay positive, to be grateful and to be humble. It is as hard as hell, but do it anyway, because you want to.
So I spent the weekend on a cruise-to-nowhere and I came face-to-face with 2000 dirty greedy faces, stuck on a floating casino, eager to gamble their days away. Or engage in extra-marital affairs, smoke, drink or stuff their faces at the buffet line.
Buffet Pile Up
Recent Comments