Having "Me" Time

It's Sunday.  Sundays are times for relaxing and as I've written before in my post entitled "Lazy Sundays Wanted" its a day I want to just sit back, relax, and plan my week ahead.  Since my post exactly 9 months ago, I've been getting alot better at not running around on Sundays.  Still it's a work in progress and I will have to keep working at it, most probably for the rest of my life. I have recently realized that sometimes to stop myself from running around doing things on my "To Do List", I have to make myself go to a coffee shop and relax.  The place of choice is most often Starbucks as its convenient to find on almost any street corner.  Once there, I am away from all the things that distract me from having a good rest.  There's no messy room for me to keep feeling I have to clean it up.  No boxes left unopened that must be unpacked.  No old exams and bluebooks since college that are just gathering dust w...

I like, you like. We all like different things.  Life is strange, everyone of us like different things. It makes things complicated sometimes, but then it is also the spice of life.   Imagine how monotone and plain everything will be if everyone on earth all liked a particular shade of blue and loved the exact same food.  We would be one big monotonic human race. Boring. Oftentimes though, we forget that others like different things.  Sometimes we like things done a particular way or like things a certain way to such an extent that we come to think that is "THE" way to do things, the ONLY way.    We'd start thinking, "I like A and B, because of C and D.  And because I think so, it is the best way.  Everyone should like and do it the way I do.  If they don't, they are making a mistake." We get so obessed in our beliefs and so set in our likes we project ourselves onto others, all the while, forgetting that he/she is not like me....

Sitting amongst my belongings, clearing out old documents, and finding the proper place for my things I wonder about life and death.  It's really quiet here in my new house, and absent of my TV, DVD and stereo which have yet to be unpacked, I have a lot of quiet time to ponder and contemplate about life.  I like it actually.   I wonder mostly about what will happen to all these accumulated things once I am no longer on this earth and how they affect my life? Then I think about death.  Life is fleeting.  This past New Years, news of horrific accidents made me sad.   Those who died were good people, with good lives and families which loved them.  Many were young.  Life could be taken from us anytime, anywhere, in anyform. Gone in a flash. So when the time finally arrives, what matters then?  Is it all these belongings we have?  Is it the title we hold or the positions we held?  Is it the money in our bank ...

Adjectives are a funny thing.  We use it to describe things, objects and people that surround us. It is something we do almost unconsciously and so I have lately noticed how adjectives used to describe one changes. For a very long time, I was always described as "chubby" by those who know me.  I was then likened to a panda and then a penguin.  All very cute animals, and terms of endearment but if you noticed, pandas and penguins are black and white and have no waistline!  Now,  I have become "long neck" or even "chopstick legs." Perhaps I'm a long neck dinosaur or a twiggy twig walking? Oh the stick insect! Whatever adjective we are described as by our friends and those who know us, I think the most important factor to remember is to be healthy.  No one is perfect, we all have flaws and there are countless adjectives to describe us humans.  Therefore, it matters not what we are called,  what...

After two weeks roaming around Singapore I have to say I am happy to be home. Although I enjoy going around and exploring new places, trying out new dishes and meeting friends, nothing beats the warmth of being back home surrounded by family and loved ones.  Even if we don't meet everyday, somehow the thought of being in the same city is reassuring.  It's warm and I feel fortunate to have such a lovely family. It's funny when you look back on years past.  There was a time when I would want to go away for weeks on end and not miss a thing.  Life was fun and I was young.  Now, I can feel the years creeping up on me ever so quietly and I find myself saying "I miss home. I miss my family." "Home" for me has always been a funny thing.  I remember being asked on countless occasions what I considered "home" since I moved country every couple of years.  I wasn't really "Thai" becaused I hardly lived there and I was hardly a citizen of...

After the silent Shinkansen ride where everyone was quiet, and extremely orderly, I arrived in Tokyo.  The capital of Japan, Tokyo was a completely different story from Osaka, Kyoto and Nara.  With a population of 13 million people it was bustling with people.  Everywhere I went, I was surrounded by people. At first glance of the underground map, I thought I was looking at a painting by Jackson Pollock with coloured lines and dots scattered all around the page in seemingly random patterns.  It was a piece of art in itself, but upon close study of it, you realize that there was really quite a lot of sense in all this chaos and a pattern emerged.  This combination of JR trains, Toei Line Trains, or Tokyo Metro Line allowed you to go anywhere you wanted to.  It is no wonder that Japan has one of the most extensive network of surface lines in the world. I stopped at Shinjuku station to see what this shopping area ...