tripletxtreme

Boy it's been a while since I've done this.

No real reason - I just love this song, it's so evocative.

Hope everyone has been well.

So I have made it back to Singapore - it is every bit as sticky and hot as I don't remember. The humidity hugs me like an overzealous aunt, and I feel like I'm constantly under the oppression of the sun and the water that hangs around in the air. But this is where I grew up, this is the place where I became who I am today, and so for all the heat and the sweat and did I mention the heat, i still am glad to be back.

It is 7:59 am here, usually I wouldn't be up this early but I am still jetlagging. Spent my first day back hanging out with jac and hongjie at jac's house, we helped to make pizza and then we drank lots of tea and talked about lots of stuff. it was almost as if I'd never been gone, except for the fact that we were all talking about college experiences rather than about PW or about 1B or about army. What felt the same was I guess the distance, or closeness, I felt - it's different from talking to any or all of the people I've met in my first year of college. There's a shared experience. There's a relatability. I feel more at ease. Perhaps it's just a function of time; it probably is. I also think it's a function of timing - I can't help feeling that beyond this point in my life, most of the new relationships and friendships that I form with people will be fundamentally different from those before, just because my earlier years felt so much more formative. That's not to discount any of the new friends I have made though, and again I am speaking way ahead of time because only time will tell and really it's only been a year. So yes. Time shakes its shaggy locks at me in weary disdain.

Spent all of yesterday at my Mom and Dad's workplace, helping them with the latest order of chemicals; this time it's mosquito repellents. Left home at 8, got back at around 10pm. Talk about a long day at work. I don't want to say too much about what the work was because it's not terribly interesting, but essentially from it I got a glimpse of a couple of things:

1. My mom and dad work extremely, extremely hard. And I haven't ever really heard them complain about their work or say things like "Do you know how hard we work for you"". Even when they do it's very embarrassedly, and it's usually when we do something terribly wrong. Point is, they work hard.

2. Earning money is not easy. This is one of those things which will keep coming back  to hit me in the head, I think. Money doesn't grow on trees and even if it does those trees don't grow by themselves and you still have to harvest the money and that requires time and workers and investments and machines...anyway, point is that there's a lot of work that needs to be done, and a lot of starting work will seem useless and fruitless and not profitable but it is an investment.


Few more things I didn't get down, but I have to go now, training starts at 9.

Today we drove around Austin - it's very much like Berkeley, full of young, hip adults trying to find a little niche to fit into, or creating their own. Lots of neat little cafes, shops, restaurants - we went to a place called hopdoddy and had burgers and shakes, but really what most people do there is buy their specialty alcoholic drinks. Walked around a bit, visited Allen Boots which is a specialty store that sells cowboy boots. Found one which said " Sale: $999.00", it was black and silver and it had a skull and crossbones on it. Original price was something like $1,500.

Went to the park afterwards and I taught my cousins how to use a little stream to race "floats", which are basically anything which is small and light enough to float. I read about this in Winnie-The-Pooh, and when I told my little 7-yr-old cousin about it you should've seen his face light up.  Ended up spending almost 30 minutes there, just racing little pieces of plastic or wood or fruit peel or whatever else we could find.

Went for a run, about 9.5 km, I just measured. Have put on at least 2 kg since coming to the US - which is not too bad, given, the amount  of dessert I've been making/eating. Going to try and keep it down though.

Home in a few days. I cannot wait.

I am in Austin, Texas right now, staying at my aunt's place. This morning I woke up and decided to go with my aunt to her Fitness Class. At first when the music started playing and everyone starting the side-to-side stepping that seems to characterize every gym class(not that I've been to many), I thought to myself "This is going to be a joke" Turns out I was completely wrong, and by halfway through I was aching all over, muscles burning and all that. By the end of it there was sweat everywhere and I had aches everywhere and all these women around me were probably wondering how I even made it into the class. Still, what an experience. Might be going back for more tomorrow.

It's been an interesting summer so far. Started off with a week in Orlando, where I spent 3 days in Disneyworld by myself, and then a day at the beach, again by myself. Drove up to Atlanta,Georgia for a 3 day church conference, and then back down to Florida. Flew to Austin, Texas for another 3 day church conference, and now I'm here just chillaxing and spending a week with the cousins. If you're wondering why I'm going for so many church conferences, it's because I think it's a pretty worthwhile way of spending my time. I go there and listen to speakers and meet other Christians and talk about God with them, or about whatever other things we might end up talking about, and I learn a lot about the Bible and about God and about the meaning of my life. Quite a good deal, I must say. It keeps me grounded.

I realize that I need to have things to occupy me. If not I end up, well, wasting my time. Typically that means surfing YouTube watching contestants on "The Voice ( UK)" and "The Voice ( US)" and recently "The Voice(Australia)".  I don't get anything from it,except a feeling of awe. Which is great, but, well, time could be better well spent. Like playing with my cousins. Or reading a book.

I still find it very thought-provoking that we humans have such a struggle between what we want to do and what we actually do,what we desire to do and what we end up doing. And also the ways we deal with this conundrum, either by explaining it away or finding an excuse for it, or just learning to live with it.

Back in Singapore in about 6 days.