que pasa

My ayi kinda reprimanded a bit today. "Your place needs to be cleaned every week! Too dirty!" This was after not having her come by for a month because I was home for 3 weekends. So she had to work extra hard today. Anyway I agree with her, the apartment is rather dusty despite my efforts to sweep mid-week. But moving forward, so long as I can schedule her to come in every week to clean, my apartment should really be much more manageable for her - cleaning is afterall based on handling incremental changes. I don’t know where all this dust comes from, but there is no dispute that shanghai is VERY DUSTY.

It kinda reminds me of what I'm trying to do, following on from my last post. This one time onslaught of changes I'm implementing might completely overwhelm me if I don’t watch it. I mean, it's easy for me to do start all these things but they aren’t any good if I can’t keep them up. So the key for me is find a way to integrate them into my life so that it's easier to keep the momentum going.

It has been a fantastic 2 weeks back home. Was able to catch up with the usual suspects I always want to hang out with when I come back - this was truly time well spent. Also found some long-lost friends - like my primary school friend who found me on facebook by going through profile photos of many many people with the same name (hmm guess I look pretty much like when I was a kid). And of course, I managed to do some shopping too (yes I saved up all my money to spend back here to boost the Singapore economy and yes I did find Ion rather disappointing).

It's been a rather busy 2 weeks too, strangely busy I would say. The intention was to spend more time at home with family (especially now that my bro is overseas studying) so I have deliberately tried to do more dinners at home, yet somehow it doesn't feel like I've achieved that objective because they aren't always able to eat with me. And the days when I have dinners out, it's the days they have dinners at home. I need to get better at this – shall schedule dinners next time so that I go out when they are out too. After all, they have their own plans too.

But I realize I have also been quite "pre-occupied" with fluff i.e. things that don't really matter. It's a bad habit I picked up in Shanghai – this laziness of the mind. Maybe work is tiring so I just want to "switch off" when I go home but I now suspect that has just been an excuse for how I have been idling my evenings away. I spend a lot of time and (for lack of a better word) RAM on things that (in hindsight) haven’t been purposeful. As I write this, I’m thinking that "switching off" doesn’t necessarily mean letting the mind and body idle. Or, why should it be a "switch off" rather than a "switch to (a different mode)"?

For instance, I have certainly been lax in my blogging – that is a symptom of a deeper problem. I used to (and still do) think blogging was challenging because it required effort. I admit now that I’ve been very irregular in my blogging because my mind has been lazy. I do journal but it’s been about fluff! I know it’s fluff because if it were anything meaningful, I’d put it up on here to share.

I have also been lax with my body. I’ve fallen pretty sick 3 times this year (and it’s only October) and my complexion has gone to the dumps because of my poor diet, poor sleeping habits and lack of exercise. I tell people I feel all of 30 years now but that’s entirely my fault.

I have also been lazy with my soul. While I still recognize that the Shanghai spiritual environment has been very good for me, I haven’t been making full use of it. I’m just kinda chilling in the waters, not working out my salvation. I’m not chasing the waves, I’m just waiting too see what debris the waves bring to my feet as I stand pretty far away from the shore. What a waste!

Oh then there’s the same recurring problem with relationship-keeping and building. Wow, could anyone have squandered away more time than I have!?!?

In a blog post in February this year, I said that I feel that Papa gave me 1 more year to revive me. I am embarrassed to say that I have not made good use of the past 8 months. I have 11 more months in Shanghai and I am aware now that I should really get myself in shape, in all aspects of the word. So that I will be ready for wherever I’m supposed to be next. This is me holding myself accountable. Please check in on me from time to time, I might hate it but I will need it. Thanks!

Was talking to Jukebox the other day and we were planing our Fall 2012 Europe tour to 10 countries.  Pretty excited about it because i've never toured Europe before, except for popping in and out of the UK, Holland and Finland for work a bit.  So we were budgetting and talking about saving up and stuff, and how we were going to prepare (like making a friend from every country we wanted to visit), and couchsurfing and stuff. 

Fall 2012 is a long time more though.  But it's the furthest i've planned ever.  I realize that i don't have a mid-term plan or a long-term plan.  It bothers me from time to time that i don't know where i want or hope to be.  I think 4 years ago i was pretty career-minded and wanted to climb up the ladder of success in the 1st company i worked for.  Then i switched career paths and in my present job, there isn't a "ladder" to climb anymore, i do well when the companies I am servicing do.  So there isn't a career goal so to speak.

I've been wondering if it's ok not to have mid or long term plans.  It bugs me sometimes that I don't.  Truth is, i don't know where i will be next September.  All i know is my contract got extended another year so this is where i'll be.  And I know that for now, i am in the right place because Papa has been doing some pretty neat stuff in the past year i've been here, and there's more good stuff to come.  And i think there are some things that i'm meant to do for the year coming up here. 

It's when i think of how i can trust Papa to take care of me that i feel better about not fixing my own plans.  I'm learning that he does have better things in store for me if i would just actually look to him more.  And he is taking care of my family than i could ever do myself.  The key is to actually count on him i guess. 

...the new natural wonders of the world!

Saw this deck of slides of the newest natural wonders of the world.  Some are breathtaking.  (Some were photoshopped a bit too much though)

Turns out I'm not the only one who's a fan of Mac's breakfasts.  In my past 3 visits to this particular Mac's near my place, I've noticed this bunch of 6 middle aged men who sit in the middle of the restaurant and have energetic discussions about various topics.  I say various topics because they're speaking Shanghainese, which I don't understand.

They're there every week, before I arrive and stay around after I leave.  They're having a great time.  Talking rather passionately, as if they're discussing on some very important matter.  Then again, they could just be bitching although they wouldn't looks so amiable if they were, bitching gives you a pretty mean facial expression while you're at it (take it from me, I know). 

I guess there comes a time when you can no longer do the Boys' Night Out or Girls' Night Out.  That time is probably when you're married with kids and should be spending nights at home so you can hang with the kids before they sleep.  Or when you're too old and just can't hack the late nights anymore.  So the workaround is Boys' (or Girl's) Morning Out, where 1 parent stays at home to hold the fort with the kids while the other goes out.  Or because you're finding it your body prefers earlier mornings to later nights (which seems to be the case as you get older). 

Trust me, these guys are having a good time.  They sit with their coffees or teas and they move one of the small tables to join together with the one they are gathered around to form a comfortable table size of 8, and then they just sit around and start debating/discussing.  It's just cool to see that they're comfortable in a place like Mac's, which usually comes across as a place for the young to youths to people below 35.

When I grow old, I wanna be like that too.  I wanna have a bunch of friends I can do Sunday breakfasts with in air-conditioned comfort.  Preferably Mac's so that I can have my Sausage McMuffin with Egg at the same time, and oh, that arabica-coffee-beans-brew too :)

Facebook blocked in China.  UGH.  Just as I was having fun with the status updates...

Some of you have probably seen the soap The O.C. and enjoyed the drama that was going on there.  I'm seeing The R.C. over here, live.  The Residents' Committee.

The other night, when i came home, there were 20 people gathered in the lobby (which made it feel rather claustrophobic actually) talking at the top of their voices.  In shanghainese.  On the way up, I asked the other passenger what was going on and my memory is fuzzy on this, but she either said that they were talking about the new R.C. or changing the R.C. 

Some of you know what I'm talking about.  In every private estate, some residents get voted into a committee to represent the interests of the community and make decisions for the public good.  Turns out over here, in my 1 block estate, it's time for elections again (and it's time to please the people) or we just changed the R.C (and they wanna flex some muscles, like the first 100 days of the President coming into office).

So, we've had

• that old billboard torn off the wall (exposing these small square toilet-looking mosaic tiles)
• the dingy "reception" office/apt on the ground floor renovated (it now has a new coat of spanking white paint on the wall so bright that it blinds you when you come in, and it took like 2 weeks to get it done too so you couldn't possibly miss it)
• the crappy cracked leather sofas that were sitting in the what-we-call-a-lobby removed leaving no place to sit (though to be fair i didn't think anyone was sitting on them anyways)
• the cleaning crew come and scrub the floors of said lobby smack in the middle of the day when there was tons of traffic and did not look any better for the cleaning (but it's almost as if they wanted to make sure everybody knew the cleaning crew came)
• new white zone lines painted for the bicycle parking section (not that you didn't know where where it was before with the 50 plus so bikes parked in the same area)

Maybe they'll do something really useful and and offer each apartment a few free hours of cleaning service... 

Remember the park of the stupid cows?  I was there last night .  There was a mad party going on at the flat square (non-grass area), well kinda.

I walked closer to see what people were gathering there about and then I heard wafts of waltz-type music playing.  There were all these middle-aged/senior couples dancing together in the courtyard.  Real moves.  They knew the footwork, the poise, the hand/arm positions.  Some were even dressed up and were clearly performing for others.  Some couples would prance their way around the courtyard very elegantly, others would just stay around the same area and move slightly.

Then there were all these people at the periphery.  Taking a break from the prior dance, waiting for their partners, or waiting to be asked to dance.  Kinda like high school prom all over again.  As can be expected, there were more women then men, so some women starting pairing up to dance.  Not too shabby really.  Id say there were like a few hundred people there.

And these folks can dance.  It was nice to watch, I found myself smiling at all these couples waltzing around.  This is clearly some sort of exercise for them but I also wondered if people saw dancing as a romantic thing.  Somehow I stereotype middle aged Chinese folks as un-romantic but I could be pretty far off.

Anyway, I stayed to watch 1 song, and the music switched to some cha-cha music after that.  The couples on the floor moved off, and another group came on and started busting their moves.