to dream or not to dream

You wake up everyday and work from Monday to Friday, and often, Saturday too. If you finish work early, you and your partner go to your parents’ place for dinner and see your child for a few hours. If you work late, you buy a packet of char kway teow from the hawker centre but eat it at home because it’s too warm to eat there. You’re not crazy about the job but you know that if you keep at it, you can afford a car in 3 years’ time, and in 5 years’ time, buy a condo close to the primary school you want to send your kid to. Your conversations with people are either for the purpose of networking, work, or for familial obligations you cannot avoid. On weekends, you play golf with your friends at your country club or watch a movie with your partner. Once a year, you go on a ten day vacation to New York, London, or Paris, and when your children are big enough, Disneyland.

Alternatively, you wake up and you have no idea what is going to happen today, tomorrow, 6 months or a year later. Ironically, because of this uncertainty, all possibilities exist for you. You can be the Prime Minister of Singapore, you can make a movie, you can cook a meal you have never cooked before, eat at a place you have never eaten before, you can color your hair red, you can skip instead of walk, you can volunteer at the school you have always wanted to volunteer at, you can write a book, or you can have a baby even though you don’t have a maid. You have conversations with people who set your heart palpitating and your mind on fire. Your weekday is not so different from your weekend because everyday you are thinking, creating, and more important, imagining.

Most of us recognize the first story and its pursuit of the 5 Cs of “cash, condo, car, country club, credit card.” It is the Plan, which imposes a conclusion on you, and you work in order to make all the pieces fit. A bus stop advertisement I saw recently said it best: “We spend all our youth chasing money, and when we attain it, we spend all our money chasing youth.”

A Dream, on the other hand, carries you on its wings to worlds that your heart and mind have never known.

extracted from Popagandhi


i wonder, how many of us are actually brave enough to chase after the 2nd option. especially in this pragmatic society that is Singapore.

[27/12/09] Jisan Forest Ski Resort 지산 리조트

ok.. here's a v v v v backdated post! my first ever ski trip! ^^

we were supposed to go to Kongjinam instead of Jisan. tried calling Kongjinam the night before we were supposed to depart, but to no avail. sooo, we decided to take a gamble & head to Kangnam to wait for the bus. However, we were unable to find the bus stop from which we were supposed to take the bus.. >_<

thank God i spotted the shuttle bus for Jisan - 지산 리조트 and since it wasn't full, the bus driver allowed us on. :) and so, that's how my 1st ever eventful ski trip started off. it took us ard 1 hr to get to the ski resort since it was outside of seoul. however, i wasn't feeling too gd that day. i suspect it was due to the super duper oily food that i had been having for the past few days..



the rolling ski slopes of Jisan

so we decided to sign up for lessons since all of us had no experience in skiing, with the exception of LX. thank God she had the Samsung card, which gave us 50% off everything! :P hehe. and so, we proceeded to undergo 2 hrs of training, which i don't think helped that much. haha. i couldn't stop no matter how i tried & i ended up crashing into the orange barrier. screaming at the same time of course.. i couldn't think y no one came over to help me but just stood and stared.. >_<

but of course, i think esther aka KJI was the ultimate! hehe. she ski-ed (if you could call it skiing) down from the 2nd tier of the ski slopes, but couldn't control herself and ended up sliding under the orange barrier into the training area. haha. n she crashed into the 'mini ski travellator' as well.. hahahah.


the training area


LX


KJI

but i have to say, the ski outfits that were loaned to us were really like military uniforms. plus we had our number tags to boot! haah. straight out from boot camp!




JT & myself!

it started snowing halfway thru & it was really fun! hehe. skiing while the snow fell... hehe. didn't take that many pictures cause my camera decided to be temperamental and not behave... >_< i think its time to trade it in for a new model. ho ho .


falling snow


blurry photo of us taken on the way out of jisan!


snow covered bridge


since it was snowing pretty heavily, we decided to leave early cause it was likely that the roads would be congested. and true enough, instead of the 1 hour that it usually takes to get back to seoul, we took almost 3! since we missed the shuttle bus back to seoul, we had to go back via public transport. n that involved us walking in the snow for ard 30 mins out to the bus stop, taking a city bus to the inter city bus terminal, before transferring to the express bus that brought us back to Seoul. on our way back, the bus was really stuffy and hot.. plus we were all bundled up in our winter wear.. unimaginable.. pfttttt. we saw trucks sprinkling salt on the snow so as to increase friction to prevent accidents from happening. n of course, our bus driver drove v v slowly all the way back to Seoul. partly because of safety and partly because of the huge jam on the highway.

but it was a rather memorable trip all in all! but, the next time, i would like to try tobogganing instead. hahaah. i think its much much safer. the skis were rather cumbersome & jutted out in all the wrong places!

the start of something better, i believe...

am finally going for my 1st real interview tomorrow. though its not really sth that i'm THAT interested in, i suppose its a start!! n let it be the start of many more good things to come!

was re-reading some of the entries that kaye & myself posted back in 2008, when we were still in korea, and i realised that we were really happy with the life that we were leading back then. i guess that's y we keep wanting to go back somehow.. i don't know if things will still remain the same, 2 years on, but i would like to believe so. :)

for some reason, i feel more at home in korea than in HK, even though i've lived in both before. perhaps its the air pollution and the practicalness(?) of HK and its people that make me more adverse to living there? i should start exploring other countries soon. n 1st up, will be vietnam! but i don't feel as excited as i felt when i was going to korea/hk. maybe, its still a long way away from the trip for the euphoria to set in? or perhaps its just work. haha. i seem to be using work as an excuse all the time. actually, its the perfect excuse for everything. like how u want to get out of gatherings with people whom you don't really like, u can just say, oh, i'm busy with work. i've a deadline coming up. or if you want to escape those dreaded family gatherings, work is always there for you. its the perfect all encompassing excuse. :)

when can i get out?

과거, 요즘, 미래...

가끔식 좀 우울할 때 한국에 있었던 시간을 생각이 나..
다른 사람은 듣기 해도 지치겠지만 내 맘이지.. ㅋ

여행을 다시 가고 싶다.
8월초에 게이랑 배트남에 가기로 했어! 원래 일본과 한국에 가려고 했는데 일 떔에 계획 좀 바꿨어. 좀 섭섭했지만...

지난주에 여가치가 싱가폴에 놀러 왔어.. ㅋㅋ. 괜 오랜동안 안 만나거든! 1.5년 쯤?


(여가치의 조카, 여가치, 나)

만나서 넘 반가워.. ㅎㅎㅎ.

경희대에 만나던 친구들.. 요세 어떻게 지나는지 넘 궁금해.. 좀 게으러서 우리 서로 연락 잘 안 하는데.. 몇 명만 아직 연락하고 있어.. 수연,주영(X2), 사치코, 갑철 오빠, 수경 등...

아... 물라 물라...

많은 사람들 나 왜 한국에 일하고 싶냐고... 그냥 아직 어린니까 해외에서 일하고 싶고 다른 문화를 경험할 겸 다른 나라에서 살고 싶은 뿐이야.. ㅎ

단어 많이 까먹었어.. ㅠㅠ. 안 사용해서 그럴 까? 근데 이상하는데 어제 갑철 오빠랑 채팅할 때 나의 한국어 실력이 올라가라고 저번에 보다 더 자연스럽다고 얘기했거든! ㅋㅋㅋ. 좀 자랑하고 싶어.. ㅋㅋㅋㅋ. 그래도 나의 수준이 그렇게 좋지 않아.. ㅠㅠㅠ. 더 잘 하고 싶은데...

CFA위해서 공부해야 돼.. 이제 부터 진짜 진짜 열심 공부해야 겠다.. 12월까지! 화이팅!! ^^

조권 - 고백하던 날

조권 - 고백하던 날

어떻게 말할까 수백 번 생각하느라
잠을 설쳐서 얼굴도 엉망이고
오늘따라 머리까지 맘에 안 들어
하루종일 안절부절

어느새 너를 만나기 한 시간 전
꽃집에 들러 꽃을 좀 사려는데
장미를 살까 다른 꽃 살까
에라 모르겠다 "아줌마 예쁘게 해 주세요."

오늘은 널 만나면
예쁘다고 말하려 했는데
얼굴 보자마자
"내가 꽃 샀으니까 네가 밥 사!"
어쩜 이런 말만 나와

도대체
멍청한 건지 아님 순진한 건지
이렇게 한심한 말만 튀어 나와
사실 내가 하려 했던 말은 말이야
난 널 사랑해

밤새워
연습했던 말 다 잊어 버리고
멋없이 그냥 건넨 꽃다발에도
밝게 웃어주던 많이 좋아하던
넌 천사야 You're my angel


밥 먹고 이런 저런 얘길 나누며
언제 말할까 기회만 엿보다가
지금 할까 지금이야
사실 나 이젠 아무것도 안 들려

내 맘은 너 아니면
안 된다고 말하려 하는데
둘 다 외로운데 한 번 만나볼래
계속 이런 말만 나와

도대체
멍청한 건지 아님 순진한 건지
이렇게 한심한 말만 튀어 나와
사실 내가 하려 했던 말은 말이야
난 널 사랑해

밤새워
연습했던 말 다 잊어 버리고
멋없이 그냥 건넨 내 고백에도
밝게 웃어 주며 고갤 끄덕여 준
넌 천사야 You're my angel


널 사랑해 널 사랑해
밤새 연습하고 하지 못한 말
널 좋아해 널 사랑해
꼭 해주고 싶던 말

도대체
멍청한 건지 아님 순진한 건지
이렇게 한심한 말만 튀어 나와 (너무 한심해)
사실 내가 하려 했던 말은 말이야
난 널 사랑해 (너를 너무도 사랑해)

밤새워
연습했던 말 다 잊어 버리고
멋없이 그냥 건넨 내 고백에도
밝게 웃어 주며 고갤 끄덕여 준
넌 천사야 You're my angel

You're my angel 내가 더 잘할게

지붕 뚫고 하이킥

원래 로드 넘버원을 보려고 했는데 좀 무섭고 우울하니까 보기했어.. 오늘 지붕 뚫고 하이킥이 보기 시작했어. ㅋㅋ. 생각보다 넘 재밌고 웃겨. 그냥 그렇게 5회를 봤어.. ㅋㅋㅋ. 126회가 있는데 아직 한참 걸려.. ㅋㅋㅋ. 좋다... 근데 마무리 좀 슬프다고 들었는데.... ㅠㅠ 그래도 즐겁게 봐야지!

on Singapore..

i came across this post while web surfing and thought that the ideas from this post were so beautifully written that I should share it with you guys. Any attempt on my part to reconstruct it would probably massacre and change the original flavour of the post.

so here goes...

Every once in a while friends and acquaintances, often those who haven’t stepped outside of Changi airport, decide to tell me their views on Singapore. Sometimes, they tell me it is such a beautiful efficiently run city. Some others just can’t believe how people can live in a place that has such a stifling government and care about nothing else, but their materialistic needs.

I don’t usually bother to argue. At the end of the day, its not my home country and my feelings of loyalty are, at best, stretched. But I can’t help but feel that Singapore is misunderstood. Singapore is the quiet girl in the class who gets straight As in the exams, but is never really popular in school because she is such a prude. Yet she tries really really hard to be the cool-kid. Her parents tell her that she should “seriously” have fun! Yet, they tell her that grades are all that really matters. The poor prude girl is really confused. Could anyone have known that beneath the pristine doll-like image, there is a silently troubled child, with a complicated and sullied inside, every bit as human as anyone can be.

People don’t see the real Singapore – the real Singapore doesn’t exist in the tall financial centers or the huge malls or the parliament buildings, where they make us believe democracy has some role to play. Singapore is not limited to the yuppies who aspire to buy the latest Porsche or the Armani-aspiring corporate mogul-wanna-be who couldn’t care less about what happens around them, as long as they get their 5 (or is it more now? )Cs. Thats just what is presented to the outside world. In fact, even many Singaporeans see themselves through those tinted shades.

If you want to see the heart and soul of Singapore, wander not through Millenia walk or Suntec city, but through the narrow roads of China Town or Little India or Arab street, or even the little parks around Bishan or Ang Mo Kio. The fat lady who sells you the Char Kway Teow or the little girl who brings you the ice kacang at the hawker centers, has a story to tell, if only if you had the time to listen. Singapore is not a land of boring, law-abiding people who don’t think and who work and walk like machines – its a place with as much life and emotion as any other, if only you would look beyond the surface.

If the heart of India is in her villages, the heart of Singapore is in her HDB flats. Thats where the dreams are dreamt and tears are wept. If the Singapore government doesn’t hear the collective sigh of the heartlands, they would miss out on reaching out to the real Singapore. And if they don’t let us see the real Singapore, we will all go back with our own false images. If Singapore seems to you like a land straight out of Pleasantville, its only because someone has put a thick filter which blocks out all the colours, somewhere between your eyes and the reality. And you know who that someone is. It is often one’s flaws that makes us human, and thus beautiful. As you desperately try to hide your flaws, you also hide yourself. Singapore, isn’t it about time that you let us see the real you?

The next time someone talks to me about Singapore, I just wish they would talk about not just the concrete buildings or the super clean streets or the democracy that doesn’t seem to be, but something less superficial. Lets talk about the heart of Singapore, shall we?


extracted from Silenteloquence