190109

Social studies researchers have worked out that 19 Jan is the most depressing day of the year. This is when people receive their credit card bills, after the Christmas blow out on spending. Everyone back to the daily grunt of work, memories of the holidays faded away, feeling just that bit fatter and the workouts at the gym just that bit harder. 

Today is depressing alright. There was a road accident which caused massive 2-hr jams in my area. I had to get off my bus and walk 40mins to work. I was late by then and that made a mess of some other people's day since my morning stuff didn't get done. By the evening, i've been beaten and didn't go to my usual Monday night spin class. Rationalizing that i've already brisk-walked 40mins in the cold today. 

What to do when i had a bad day?

- washing dishes is quite therapeutic, i make sure my detergent smells nice. and i use warm water. everything smells abit like taking a bath. except u come out dirty rather than clean?!!

- a diy facial

- didn't do this today but buying a new lipstick is very uplifting. especially if u buy it at a nice shop and let the sales staff try different new products on you. a little blusher, a little cream that smells great, a new shade of lipstick you've never tried. ahhhh.

- exercise helps but really, i reached home at 9pm, cooked dinner and now its 10.30pm. I would like to get ready for bed rather than do an aerobics tape. another time huh. 

have a busy week as there are lots of dinners to go to this week!

nite!

korean cool

i am obsessed with korean cooking nowadays. learnt to make kimchi jigae (stew), and make it about once a week cos i love it so much. i also shop almost weekly at a korean supermarket.

2 young guys run the store and they have got some pretty addictive korean pop on their ipod which they play over the store's stereo. this is one i can't get out of my head. it's a fun song, wll and jody might like it (or already know it and got sick of it!).

Mighty Mouth - Sarang Hae

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sq1oZ6xnk5Q&feature=related

old-fashioned advice

for all its liberalism, london does not tolerate tardiness. 

- try showing up for a doctor's appointment just five minutes late, your appointment will go to the next of the 20 people on the day's wait list

- booking tickets for a popular concert only one-month ahead, forget it. Madonna's concert sold out in something like 2 hours. Wimbledon queues start the night before the game, in Wimbledon itself.

- taxi's are not an option (and due to traffic and quirky winding little roads, mostly actually gets you there slower than public transport).  

- the dry cleaners do not open on Sundays, locksmiths charge 100 pounds for call outs.

- most shops close between 6:30pm and 8pm. work does not end till 7pm.  

- there is no walk-in option for anything.

unless one enjoys doing nothing and staying in all the time, u have to do the old-fashioned thing and try to be on time, be organised, not to forget anything, show up when u are expected.

old old friends will recall how often i am in detention classes due to perpetual lateness in arriving at school. i have hilarious memories of how my entire family wakes up late and the pandemonium that ensues in the house as we all try to get ready in the same five minutes and then the crazy rush as dad drives me to school on his motorbike. 

i remember Mrs Boey (the much hated school principal - recalling how we wished the microphone will explode in her face in the middle of assembly?! :P) warning us sternly about how tardiness will ruin us for life. It is good advice, even if it came from Snowball herself. Like in yoga practice, if something takes quite a bit of effort to achieve, then you probably just need to do it more.

good dream on wilkie road

First day of normal commute to the office went surprisingly smoothly despite the throngs of people now returning to London and to work after the holidays. For the past 2 weeks, i've been pampered by empty tubes and buses, quiet pavements and queue-free cafes as most of London is somewhere else, celebrating the festivities with their families. Good things just don't last!

Upon arriving at work, I was greeted by one of those emails that just brightens an entire day. A good friend sent an email, simply titled 'Your Dream Home'. She had attached a link to an advertisement - Apartments for sale on Wilkie Road, and wrote simply that - 'this sounds like what you would like!'. 

Some day I'll like to live in:

A small apartment (preferably walk up, built in the 60s), with large windows looking into the canopy of many trees - like my current apartment but with a newer bathroom.

Painted entirely in white, furnished with brown wood furniture, with large art deco prints or something cubist on the wall. Barely any clutter. 

With a decent kitchen (meaning a proper gas fire hob, none of those electric or induction rubbish, and an oven with light inside so you can see your food cooking). A deep kitchen sink (only SK knows why). With a large avocado green or mustard yellow SMEG fridge freezer that works and require no defrosting. And room enough for a well-used dining table that could sit a large group of friends.

On a pretty, tree-lined road in Singapore that is secluded enough to be quiet but not so secluded that none of your friends want to come and see you. With interesting, quite possibly also single, neighbours from all over the world.

I can already map out my me-time Saturdays on Wilkie Road in my mind. I'll wake up early and spend some time staring quietly at the canopies of the raintrees outside my window.  Have the first cup of coffee while checking facebook. Slowly make my way out for breakfast at a nearby museum cafe or soya bean curd at Selegie (if its still there), could have roti prata too. Read the papers over breakfast. Take a walk round the area - is there a new exhibition at SAM or the substation, maybe cycle to Botanic Gardens? Head to the gym. Do some grocery shopping. Head home, and come back out in the evening to enjoy a drink at a nearby bar (maybe Wild Rocket's bar - where i can just turn up in usual un-glam clothes and sit outside on those rattan chairs?) where the staff would undoubtedly know my name - the old woman who sits alone on weeknights in the corner with a magazine but on certain weekends come with a whole big bunch of very wild, very glamourous, lao-hiao friends with their multitude of children.

It's not much, but it's a nice image that's worth going over again and again in my mind. With each round, it gives just that little more pleasure as another layer of color gets added to the picture. Day dreams could be almost as good as the real thing. What's more, that my friend remembered my dream and was putting detail to it, helping me will it into existence, was like a warm hug on a cold January day.

I am hopeful too.