Marriage Advice 

Jane Wells

(1886)

Let your love be stronger than your hate or anger.

Learn the wisdom of compromise,

for it is better to bend a little than to break.

Believe the best rather than the worst.

People have a way of living up or down to your opinion of them.

Remember that true friendship is the basis for any lasting relationship.

The person you choose to marry is deserving of the courtesies and kindnesses you bestow on your friends.

Please hand this down to your children and your children's children.

Finding Footing

It's been a long time since sitting down and penning thoughts. 

And quite a lot of self love practiced in between. 

Amidst mourning for the death of a relationship, much of life can be found, and they still exist. 

So the major project right after was really to upkeep the room. 

I've discovered Marie Kondo "The life changing magic of tidying" which was much raved about. 

Her magic formula to tidying are real simple, 

# Keep only things that spark joy. 

# De-clutter by category, not location 

And having done that, I went through a therapeutic process of loving what I keep. 

And promised myself, find joy again. :)

回忆的泥土 让生命有厚度

On Legos

How fragile anything can get.

One moment you may be holding on to the lego set

which you've taken much time and effort in building

next moment, it's all in pieces on the ground.

the silly ones will pick them up and do a rebuild.

and ask, so perhaps i should glue them all together?

the stubborn ones would perhaps keep it in a pristine box and say,

I shall never touch it so it will never fall.

yet who can work against the law of nature or change external factors?

A strong wind, or an earthquake, a careless hand,

and in seconds it can be destroyed

The insightful one will probably just chuckle, not so much with a resigned note,

but with understanding,

for the beautiful thing about lego is its possibilities,

not merely the product. 

Burma

Before the memories fade away from the cascading workload that follows, I suppose highlights of the 8-day Myanmmar trip is worth penning down.

Alyssa and I began our journey at Yangon savouring our first Burmese local eateries. I find the food dubious initially and rather afraid to try.

After which we visited the grant shwewadagon, which was pretty much the grandest whoch we lay foot on. A worthy note is that Yangon has been developing rather quickly. While many visitors reviews complained about the lack of Atm and slow or non exisitent internet, it was far fROM the truth. Atm sprouted all throughout the city and internet was reasonably accessable. I took a lazy afternoon nap at one of the halls, not something one does in the awe of Buddha, I know. And we proceed to indulge in narccisim once more.

We have also visited the reclining Buddha, you will be familiar with if you have ever visited Thailand or Penang. I suppose the Burmese as staunch as they may be, takes these trips to the temples as part of dating excursions too.

For the second day, we flew off to Bagan to be greeted at our comfy resort. The stupas are the highlights, not to mention the horse cart riding which ferries us to most of our attractions. 

At first sight you may be wondering why men goes spitting intermittently and how they may be vampy looking with their bloody red gums. Soon we found out about the country obssession with betal leaves. 

So Bagan was where I am tested again on my phobia of heights. 

The stunning sunset and short walk was my personal favourite. 

Other than that Bagan has nothing much to offer, so we hid in our comfortable resort room, the cool enclave to the sweltering heat. 

Following which we did an overnight bus to Nyuang Shwe, which unfortunately was pretty much of an adventure. We alighted t the wrong plaCE in the middle of the night, and possibly had to take a two hour ride to our destination. Luckily a tour bus passes by and we hopped on. We finally got to swap to a tour bus which goE's to our destination during our pit stop and the driver did not even intend to make us pay.

Speaking of which, I find myanmmar People generally kind, honest and down to earth. My Nike shoes had not once been stolen as they were left outside the pagodas we visited. (Probably also because most of them were not brand conscious and finDS no need in theft)

All the taxis ride taken brings UA directly to our destination, we never once felt insecure with handling cash. So I would say it is pretty scam free as opposed to other south east Asian countries.

We continued with our trip in Inle Lake, following an aborted hike because of the heat, my upset stomach and Alyssa menses.

Inle was a boat cruISE hopping on and off din between visiting markets, some factories and pagodas.

We had a hard time trying to spend away our kyats. Because, there is simply nothing to buy except food.

Finally, another long 10 hoilur overnight bus back to yangon where we indulGED in some fine dinning.

So to conclude, it was really an underwhelming trip. I suppose there is alot of potential after foreign companies infurtriate and bring along more developments. Scenery wise, so so. Food wise, pretty uninspring too. 

Perhaps one thing yo rave? We kindda underspent, with a large amount of USD left. This is the city yet to be consumed by consumerism, I say.

The Millennial

I am a millennial, determined by my age. And there are many traits, appearantly associated with millennial, traits such as lacking grit, an unjustified sense of entitlement etc. While the degree of such traits differ amongst individual, the consensus is that in general, it is accurate of millennial. 

I don't like to be labelled as such. However, in comparison to our parents' generation who would frown at switching of job, job hopping or remaining umemployed, I have to admit I lack perseverance or sense of duty like my parents' generation do. 

And I wonder, if millenials can deal with hardship as they come and solve the problem instead of avoiding them altogether or blaming unfavorable circumstances. 

兵来将挡，水来土掩。这才是面对难题的适当态度吧？

The book

Its been ages since I last finished a book. Recently, I bought a copy of Lee Wei Ling's "A Hakka Woman's Singapore" and had been reading sporadically, completing it only after a month or so. This is a compilation of articles from her ST column. It was a refreshing read. Issues discussed lent a humanistic view and despite her at times fiery persona on media, many of her views in the articles are sound and very emphatic. 

While survival of the fittest may be the natural progression, we should not be too bent on efficiency above all else. There are so many perspectives on how things work, and compromises and balance is probably the way to a more dynamic and livable environment. 

These articles, instead of being anti-establishments which some people like to quote and use it against the government; opens up pockets for discussions, to fine-tune and evaluate the directions of where things are going. 

And the depictions of the Lee's family life, (Much of the articles had circulated on social media last year during LKY's passing) lends a poignant persona of LKY rather than the ever combative side. I suppose no one can be a fair judge on whether he did things right. What amazes me is that he stood by his conviction, and he did what he deemed was for the greater good of the nation. The fact that it was based not SOLELY on passion, but rational thought and meticulous planning, made him a great man.