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138 items tagged "Randomness"

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August 16, 2010
10:44
Pls (don’t) call me back
» ‎ talfryn.net

Had I that phone conversation a few months ago, my response would have been so different. I would have been afraid. Now that I’ve already gotten more than I could have asked for, I’ve nothing to lose.
August 15, 2010
17:14
Oh yeah…
» ‎ talfryn.net

It’s one big party in Singapore after another. As if the National Day Parade earlier this week couldn’t satisfy the patriotic fervour of the masses, there was the grand Opening Ceremony of the inaugural Youth Olympic Games yesterday. This time, the 2700 spectators, including representatives from 204 National Olympic Committees (countries and territories), were all given mini Singapore flags to wave. My eyebrows twitched. It looked like another NDP: multi-racial cultural performances, flag-raising and the National Anthem, the story of Singapore in chapters of song and dance, lots of little children running across the stage, cheesy music and lyrics, drumming and and visual effects. And there was a giant furry ’scary’ monster that’s supposed to represent our deepest inner fears. The human scale was small, choreography was poor in many aspects and the whole thing just lacked impact. But ahh well, it’s a show for youngsters performed by youngsters. So long as they’re having fun, and are proud to keep their country’s flags wavin’ high. We keep thinking in terms of publicity and PR value and credentials. ‘Adult talk?!’

I was on the bank opposite from the floating platform, from where torch-bearers would send the flame on its last leg by boat across the waters of Marina Bay. Witnessed the fireworks and the lighting of the lighthouse cauldron by the Youth Olympic Flame (Xi, now here’s a lighthouse you’d want to shoot!).

Headlines in the local news today were full of praises for the show and for Singapore. Took a glance at BBC, Sydney Morning Herald, CNN, and some other international media. Took a closer look, dug around a little. Couldn’t find anything about it. So much for this being a truly world-class show and the nation’s largest international event. Let’s see what the next 13 days of Games and the Closing Ceremony will bring.

Passing the flame

The Float@Marina Bay

Boom boom
August 11, 2010
19:05
No turning back
» ‎ talfryn.net

Another of my decisions, actualised.

I handed it to her, accompanied by a soft sigh, “I guess it’s about time.”

To the other, well, the other did all the talking. Questioning. Hoping I wasn’t being serious. I didn’t need to say anything, just watch him read it. I tried smiling.

It was kinda poignant, dignified I hope.
August 06, 2010
4:14
Back and going again
» ‎ talfryn.net

Last day in London tomorrow.

All too soon.
August 03, 2010
0:26
Hola!
» ‎ talfryn.net

Travelling with family is so different. More luxury, less adventure. I prefer more adventure. Could do with less miscommunication, embarrassing moments (Neil Gaiman: “Of course, everyone’s parents are embarrassing.”), and conflicts of interest. Not that I’m ungrateful. It’s just kinda saddening that at our age, so many of us prefer to travel with friends. We see more out of less, and are able to do more with less.

* * * * *

Am bumping into Gaudi everywhere here in Barcelona. Spent hours in La Sagrada Família, one of the most impressive architectural wonders I’ve ever seen. I think it’s impossible to be a visionary without being mad. Gaudi was most certainly mad…

* * * * *

Holidaying aspects aside, my parents have been most… amusing and saying the most unusual things as of late. Some in jest, but for the most part, I actually think that they’re being serious. Which makes it all the more amusing. And to a small degree, confusing. In an objective sense.

* * * * *

I try to keep away from reading my emails, but in the end I succumb – at least to my personal alternate work email, knowing that there’s always something that requires urgent attention. It’s a curse. And it’s already August – the Youth Olympics is almost upon us. Emails pouring in, and there’s an endless list of to-do. I don’t know about others but it seems that real holidays can’t exist anymore in this digital age when you’re supposed to be constantly connected. Dad’s in the other room working too (which is why I can afford to use paid internet…)

Gotta hit the ground once I get back.

National Day’s also just round the corner, and Facebook is full of stati and photos alluding to some patriotic message or other. Very bad timing. NDP plus YOG… I’m not sure if I can withstand it. It may be too much too soon.

* * * * *

Deadlines have been set. Now I need the discipline and willpower to stick to them! Not everyone will be happy, but as more than one friend has taught me… well, they’ve taught me many things.
July 29, 2010
16:08
Quirky London
» ‎ talfryn.net

Where you’ve to pay to be a bum…

Where morning crowds gather at Buckingham Palace for a glimpse of the guards in red tunics and bearskin hats…

Where anti-war protesters camp out (34 days and counting) on a hunger strike right on Parliament Square…

Where conspiracy theories abound…

Where the 2012 Olympic is set…

Where one simply can’t get enough of things British…

Where two legs just aren’t good enough…

Where the average chair can’t quite make the cut…

Where you’ll find stars and red carpets right next to Chinatown…
July 11, 2010
7:08
The family crucible
» ‎ talfryn.net

The difficulty is as often in children’s relationships with their parents as it is with their peers. They seem unable to label their feelings accurately, showing instead a sullen irritability, impatience, crankiness, and anger – especially toward their parents. This, in turn, makes it harder for their parents to offer the emotional support and guidance the depressed child actually needs, setting in motion a downward spiral that typically ends in constant arguments and alienation.

Such parents are typically disapproving, harsh in both their criticisms and their punishments. They might, for instance, forbid any display of the child’s anger at all, and become punitive at the least sign of irritability. These are the parents who angrily yell at a child who is trying to tell his side of the story, “Don’t you talk back to me!”

~ Daniel Goleman
July 08, 2010
19:51
Avalanching
» ‎ talfryn.net

I want to be able to wake up, and have nothing ahead of me, nothing to prepare, nothing to tend to. I want to have a night where I don’t have any work to do, no meetings to attend, no obligations to fulfil.

Every Friday I look at the weekend coming and by thinking about it I already feel tired. Every weekend I look at my schedule for the new week and I get even more tired. Every day, unexpected and new poo comes and…

I wonder how I would manage to survive the next onslaught. I survive, and it’s a mystery, but it’s also tortuous.

It’s always just a bit more to go…
June 29, 2010
17:17
Cease, I say!
» ‎ talfryn.net

At the heart of every frustration lies a basic structure: the collision of a wish with an unyielding reality.

The collisions begin in earliest infancy, with the discovery that the sources of our satisfaction lie beyond our control and that the world does not reliably conform to our desires.

And yet, for Seneca, in so far as we can ever attain wisdom, it is by learning not to aggravate the world’s obstinacy through our own responses, through spasms of rage, self-pity, anxiety, bitterness, self-righteousness and paranoia.

A single idea recurs throughout his work: that we best endure those frustrations which we have prepared ourselves for and understand and are hurt most by those we least expected and cannot fathom. Philosophy must reconcile us to the true dimensions of reality, and so spare us, if not frustration itself, then at least its panoply of pernicious accompanying emotions.

~ Alain de Botton, The Consolations of Philosophy
June 25, 2010
17:20
Floods and erosion
» ‎ talfryn.net

Today was exceptionally bad. Not just the weather.

Stared at emails, couldn’t reply. Stared at the screen, couldn’t type. Stared at papers, couldn’t read. Sat in meetings, couldn’t talk.

Feeling so fatigued all the time, although I’ve already been getting more sleep than usual.

Being poooh-ed into a downward spiral.

Since when did I start becoming so self-destructive? So full of doubt? So irritable, so full of anxiety? So unable to cope?

Lunchtimes, the outdoors, the cinema – these are but temporary relief, only for as long as they last.

This crippling inability to do pretty much anything at all, including the thing I need to do most urgently, is such torment!

So much counts for nothing; so little for so much.
June 23, 2010
18:28
Suuuck
» ‎ talfryn.net
June 17, 2010
17:40
Perpetual stream
» ‎ talfryn.net

We watch we frown we sprint we stumble we try we do we bicker we tolerate we work we play we listen we worry we munch we starve we want we refuse we moan we laugh we question we find we fly we sink we read we forget we blink we sleep we complain we share we promise we pretend we don’t care but we do we pause the butterfly is still caged its wings are tattered we continue we wait we hope we [can] [never] stop

June 15, 2010
10:47
Wavelength
» ‎ The Summit Trail

Lately I can’t seem to detect the right channel. So I am going to switch it off for a while.
June 11, 2010
17:38
Office Hierarchy
» ‎ The Summit Trail

/* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";}
“When top level guys look down, they see only shit;
When bottom level guys look up, they see only assholes…”
June 07, 2010
11:56
Random Hedgehog
» ‎ The Summit Trail

Copyright: Edward Monkton

May 25, 2010
12:04
I like it soft boiled
» ‎ talfryn.net

What a joy it is to peel an egg clean… when the membrane comes smoothly off the albumin, exposing the shiny white surface beneath. What a great difference it makes to the morning, and what a difference a great morning makes to the day.

Until the shitty stuff comes in.
May 10, 2010
17:28
The great lep forward
» ‎ talfryn.net

The butterfly, the butterfly.

Remember… the butterfly.
May 03, 2010
6:26
Silenced April
» ‎ talfryn.net

April 2010 is missing from my archives. No posts, just plenty of pooh pooh.

I think it’s a month I’d rather forget.
May 02, 2010
14:39
And we’re baaaaack!
» ‎ talfryn.net

No, it’s not that I’ve been too lazy to blog. Problems with the hosting, server troubles, got locked out of my admin account, yadda yadda. It’s been a month of wasted hours and feeling helpless. Couldn’t do anything, couldn’t fix it myself, couldn’t… wait anymore.

So I started anew, installed WP again, upgraded to a newer version of the theme, and migrated some stuff over. If this goes down again before I put my plan into action, somebody’s-gonna-get-a-hurt-real-bad…
March 24, 2010
9:53
Hanging in there
» ‎ talfryn.net

These weeks, I feel like I’m becoming like that donkey with a cartload so full and heavy that the animal has been lifted off the ground. It struggles and runs on air, then gives up and hangs limp from the harness. You can almost hear a baying sigh – heeehaaaaaawh…

‘Cept that this Husky is determined to keep running, despite the IBS and all!

Increased responsibilities at work and the Scouts (however did I get sucked into these blackholes) mean that I now have little time for myself and my family. Plans on the personal front are also not moving as fast as I’d have liked.

And Xiyunicus is coming to Singapore!

(For the record, this is a dead squirrel (Callosciurus notatus))
March 09, 2010
16:29
Time to use this again
» ‎ talfryn.net
March 03, 2010
19:41
No perfect size
» ‎ talfryn.net

Sometimes I just wish that this country wasn’t so darned small and the world wasn’t so darned big.
February 28, 2010
16:43
That colorful building
» ‎ talfryn.net

My sis had a visiting friend over the weekend, and my family invited her to join us for dinner at Clarke Quay. We passed by the river cruise ticketing box, and Mom thought that it would be rather exciting to take a river taxi down the Singapore River, and so we did, on the DUCK and HiPPO hybrid powered eco-friendly electric boat. There was a friendly tour guide who pointed out the sights as we went along.

When the then-Hill Street Police Station, now MICA Building came into view, the commentator introduced “that colourful building… which is now called the MICA Buildling. MICA stands for the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts”.

And what do they do?

He had but a one-liner to share with the Japanese, Taiwanese and us pretend-tourists on board: “They’re the ones responsible for censorship in Singapore”.

And there you have it.

I’m not sure if I was the only one who appreciated his style of humour.
February 15, 2010
20:14
Trivial lessons
» ‎ talfryn.net

Today I did something on a public light bus that probably made the observer-passengers and the driver think, “she’s so stupid”. But inside me, I was laughing. I was happy, for I had learnt something.
February 14, 2010
16:11
CNY in fog
» ‎ talfryn.net

View from my window this morning:

Quite typical up here.

It’s a mild winter – feeling like the upper 10s instead of a 11°C, yet the locals are all wrapped up like they’re training for an Arctic expedition. Something that amuses me greatly, every time.

* * * * *

“唔准哭,” he tells me. But how can I not? ‘Tis a sad, sad thing, for it’s beyond the point of no return, and everyone’s given up. So many have even left. I wonder if we’d still return every February… we were so close to not returning this round, for what’s the point, when we know that reunions are no longer possible?

People, even those you think are thought were closest to you, can be cruel. Even to you.

點解要搞成噉…?

Such a mess.

February 12, 2010
13:26
Happiness
» ‎ The Summit Trail
January 31, 2010
23:56
Impermanence
» ‎ The Summit Trail

Feeling unsettled over the fact that everything seems to be changing…

On another note, I feel the itch to go to Jerusalem and it seems to me that the calling is getting louder. In Islam its said that you should go to Jerusalem during a time of tribulation.When the tribulation comes I shall go. Meanwhile…Patience.

January 27, 2010
8:34
Stumped by a name
» ‎ talfryn.net

Clinic staff [over the phone]: Can I have your name?

Me: Xxxxxx Xxx. Xxx is my last name, X-x-x.

Clinic staff: Chinese name?

Me: Um, Xxx is my surname…

Clinic staff: What is your full name?

Me: Xxxxxx Xxx is my full name.

Clinic staff: What is your Chinese name?

Me: It’s not in my full name.

Clinic staff: If I call you in Chinese, what is your name?

Me: Xxx Xxx, but it does not appear in my full name.

Clinic staff: No Chinese name?

Me: Yeah, no Chinese name in my full name. Xxxxxx Xxx is my full NRIC name.

Clinic staff: Ok, thank you Miss Xxx. See you later.
January 15, 2010
10:47
Chatterbrain
» ‎ talfryn.net

I keep hearing voices in my head. Not the schizophenic sort! but more like silent monologues, if you will. I’d be an observer to a scene or an earwitness to a conversation and the dialogue would just fade out and there’d go my voice, like a scripted voice-over in documentary, providing a running conceptual abstract commentary inside my head. They run so fast that my real voice would hardly be able to catch up. Philosophical and socio-political musings, mainly. At those moments I’d think: This is brilliant, I need to write this down! But when I grab a pen or get to my keyboard, all the thoughts just go pwoof! in a word cloud of lifting haze.
December 06, 2009
16:49
In times of postlessness and wordlessness
» ‎ talfryn.net

Keep track of updates via Flickr. It is by far where I’m most virtually active these days.
November 16, 2009
15:54
Been wanting too use this
» ‎ talfryn.net
October 28, 2009
16:30
Adrenaline thoroughly drained
» ‎ talfryn.net

It’s been a heck of a week and more. My portfolio during this period could not have been any more varied: graphics designer, photographer, PR manager, personal assistant, driver, tour guide, nature guide. Appearances ranged from field trip garb, business executive look (Mom has been tremendously pleased), hiking boots, heels, flats, shorts, skirts, business jackets, hair let down, hair bunned up, ponytailed, contact lenses, spectacles, etc. etc.

Been round to Sungei Buloh, MacRitchie TreeTop Walk, Pulau Ubin and Chek Jawa, Singapore Quarry and Dairy Farm Nature Park, National University Hospital, KK Hospital - and somewhere in between was squeezed the main reason for everything in the first place: the three-day Asean Biodiversity Conference which my office co-organised.

I was attached to the keynote speaker - who flew in from Harvard - for the duration of his stay in Singapore. A man of great conviction, perception and knowledge, and youth, I might add, he is perhaps one of the most impressive personalities I have met across the continents so far. I have learnt much from our chats, and from listening in to the exchange of ideas he has had with the numerous dignitaries and who’s who we’ve met. Not only about his pet topic biodiversity and human health (the preface to his book can be found online), but just about anything under the sky: politics, philosophy, America and the world, culture, music, education, science, healthcare, architecture, economics, national identity.

Again I am inspired to write about what has been conversed but I have been reluctant to fend off this certain shyness about analytical writing in the public domain, on a personal blog…
15:32
Nutty kiasuism
» ‎ talfryn.net

An encounter at a petrol kiosk yesterday marked the near-end of my liaison officer-ing stint.

I was waiting in line at the cashier’s when the lady in front of me, upon hearing of a promotion for peanut cereal bars, asked the sales assistant to hold off swiping her credit card. She stood by the side and ripped the packaging off one of the bars.

“I want to try one first. If it’s good, I’ll buy more.”

Fair enough, I thought.

She munched on. I looked on, and waited. The sales assistant was still holding on to her card. I waited some more. The lady then started picking bars off the shelf.

I asked, “So it’s that good, huh?”

She was busy counting her bars, “No, I just like the nuts.”

Uhh, whatever cracks your nuts, then.

She continued counting.

The cashier decided - good on her - that she would serve me first, for which I was grateful. When I left the kiosk, the lady was still crunching away and counting bars.
October 07, 2009
16:11
The purpose of a sole
» ‎ talfryn.net

is to prevent you from slipping.
October 02, 2009
16:07
One took off
» ‎ talfryn.net

Me: 我有啲嘢想講畀你聽…
Then I tell her.
Mom: 呵, 你死咯你!
September 27, 2009
18:18
Cued
» ‎ talfryn.net
September 24, 2009
16:51
Uh-oh
» ‎ talfryn.net

September 17, 2009
14:08
Just for fun
» ‎ The Summit Trail

Got sent this from work today. Thought I would share! (Not 100% correct but you get the jisk…)

September 15, 2009
18:28
There were plants and birds and rocks and things
» ‎ talfryn.net

It’s sad that the first thing I can think of to blog about is how peaceful it is to drive through the city centre at midnight. No cars honking, no taxis cutting into your lane, no fuss. Just you and the car. If only it could be just you and a horse (with no name… in the desert).

* * * * *

Does anybody find it weird to be sending and addressing an email to a recipient who has the same name as yourself? Suddenly, you feel much less unique.

* * * * *

My lappie is finding itself inadequate to the task of handling PhotoShop’s scratch disks and memory requirements. First time having to design a banner that would measure 8 metres across. SOS!

* * * * *

A colleague fingers the fieldguide page detailing bird species descriptions.
Bird-ringing trainer: “What are you looking for?”
Colleague: “Sex and age.”
Laughter all around.

* * * * *

Work in play. Play in work.
Why must that be wrong?
‘Cos “that’s not the way society works?”

* * * * *

Ideas aplenty. Focus…
Focus.
Decide… hurry!
September 08, 2009
9:39
Bunkering down
» ‎ talfryn.net

So it takes the flu and a couple of days’ MC to make me appreciate the simpler pleasures of life.

Why can’t we, in our working lives, ever seem to find the time to just sit on the sofa and read a novel? Or lay in bed and dream?
September 03, 2009
17:37
You are what you read
» ‎ talfryn.net

Christians who do not read the Bible,
Muslims who do not read the Qur’an,
biologists who have not read Charles Darwin,
Scouts who have not heard of Scouting for Boys,
statesmen who have not touched Machiavelli,
and more.

Does not reading what we are expected to, unmaketh us?
September 01, 2009
16:36
Talfryn turns 6
» ‎ talfryn.net

It’s September already. For six years I’ve been blogging, six years of life chronicled.

Looking back, I realise how far I’ve come, and it’s now time to chart out where I’d like to go from here.
August 23, 2009
17:21
Whirl of a week
» ‎ talfryn.net

Was manning the visitor services counter for GardenTech over last weekend and on Monday…

Meetings at work on Tuesday, followed by talks at NUS, part of the DBS 60th anniversary lecture series…

Went back home to find that my Pericallia ricini moth adults had copulated and laid huge batches of eggs…

Attended on Wednesday a sharing and discussion session with a researcher from UC Berkeley on the arboreal acrobatics of one of my favourite animals - the geckos…

Marine macrofouling buoy survey in the ports on Thursday morning, and brought my visiting cousin (the youngest of them at ten years’ old) to the Science Centre in the afternoon…

Mahler at night…

Scouts Centenary comm meeting on Friday night immediately after work…

Buloh guided walk and mangrove reforestation with the Scouts on Sat morning…

A recce around Buloh and another meeting in the afternoon…

The Japanese Association’s Natsu Matsuri (summer festival) later that evening…

The Ministry of Parrot’s Parrot Parade today at Sungei Tengah…

And all of sudden I’ve found myself the caretaker of a few hundred newly-hatched Pericallia ricini caterpillars…

And the proud new owner of a handsome, three-month old Ornate Lorikeet!
August 07, 2009
15:39
“Cannot tahan”
» ‎ talfryn.net
I went ‘fishing’ during two extremely boring and redundant 3-hour-long briefings today. Don’t mind me. I’m sure my bosses share the same sentiments, having been forced to sit through the same.

If there’s anything that turns me off and makes me squirm in my seat, it’s poor English. Or heavy Singlish, in what should be a professional setting. Mis-pronunciation of words, grammatical inaccuracies, punctuation errors, missing Ss…

‘Ambulance’ becomes ‘Ambulen’
‘Lamp post’ becomes ‘Lampo’
‘Dollars and cents’ become ‘Dollars and cen’

I clench my jaws and breathe out sighs, and hope that the next presenter(s) would bring less pain to the ears. But nooo… it’s mediocere mesolectal English at best.

We were advised to read the FAQ guidelines so that we could “familiarise with your[our]selves”, and go to “bied early” to “rechar energy”.

* * * * *

One more thing, also cringe-worthy.

Has anyone else noticed - and is bothered by - the increasing overuse and misuse of the word ‘actually’? Everything these days, it seems, is apparently not what we expected.

“The soup-of-the-day is actually cream of mushroom.”

“We will actually put up signs at the pick-up point.”

“If you click this button, it will actually bring you to this page.”

“Those who actually work outdoors, will actually have to come in earlier.”

(And the little voice in my head would reek of sarcasm: “Nooo kidding… Wow, really?!!”)

* * * * *

Oh, actually, I’m not quite done yet.

Another pet peeve, an SOP for written communication especially prevalent in the civil service…
1. I was on the line with a NatWest banking manager just now. British accent and all… very refreshing.
2. When he learnt I was calling from Singapore, he told me that he had visited the island just last year during Christmas, and had found it to be a lovely, modern city.
3. “The people speak a funny English,” he said.
4. I laughed.
5. Thank you.
July 29, 2009
15:35
Really?
» ‎ talfryn.net

Man, Tsim Sha Tsui, HK

July 17, 2009
2:55
Comedian
» ‎ The Summit Trail

I guess the joke is this. Ha Ha Ha. The funny thing about life is how you go about doing your everyday business and you fail to see where you are going - at least for some of us. Was a little flustered today over the various things at work. Downed 3 cups of coffee and 2 cups of fairly strong tea. I was in this hyper mood of sleepiness. You can tell if you are sleepy because you want to sleep, but the caffeine pumping around the system is like this person holding your eyes open with one hands and slapping you with the other the whole entire day. The worst thing about my life right now is my mattress. It is a bit dented at the middle - Jac if you thought yours was bad wait until you try mine. When I lie there, I feel my back doing a 3 dimensional bending in 2 axis. Its seriously bad for my spine. So I roll out of bed at 4am, and I wanted to take out the airbed because the airbed is seriously so much better than my mattress. When I say my life is quite bad I mean it - I’ve been spoiling myself on keeping myself entertained like buying 23″ Samsung monitors and PS3s. But when it comes down to the essential, I spent 5 pounds on 2 lousy pillows and the mattress which came with the room is so bad that it doesn’t matter how you flip it it will definately give you back pain in the morning.

So, I’ve officially decided that I need to move on in my career line rather quickly because I don’t like being in the bottom of the food chain. It feels like you’ve got this bursting energy you’re trying to get out of your system, and you look around you in this big fish tank, and all these big fishes swimming about and I feel like a clown fish. This is NOT because I am particularly funny - having said that, there is a guy around me who looks like a clown and I cannot stop thinking that he would make a perfect clown. I didn’t dare say because he is one of the big fishes, can eat me if he wants - as I say - bottom of the food chain - almost like algae and plankton: graduates! I do really like my work though - not really a stand up comedian job, but an Engineer. Well, it comes to a point when people don’t see you as an Engineer. I am just some IT person, who can’t really program. Well I can, but you know - big fish, small fish - we’re all fish. Same thing.

I really need the control over my own work - I’m quite possessive I think. I like to have dominion over my own responsibility. Some would argue that dominion in itself is a responsibility - but I would like to have responsibility over my responsibility. This leads me to talk about team player. I think its important to build trust with the team you are working with. I had a go at some of my colleagues/friends today over work. I think when I take my work seriously, I take it very seriously and I will do it well. So people around me will get quite annoyed over how serious I get because they find it difficult to meet my expectations. So I decided to chill out - downed another coffee, got a few more slap in the face by caffeine.

They kept shoving me cake today. But I’ve decided I will stay away from cakes because of the sheer size I have grown since I came back to the UK. Its amazing how much 2 years could do. How I wished I could have Japanese food everyday. People get a little disturbed over raw fish and tentacle-ful things. Wait, “a little disturbed” is putting it mildly. They pull their face, stick their tongue out and look at you like you’re some Martians who came to this civilised world of Earth and tell them your staple diet is some slimy maggots or something. I guess I like my salmon raw - they keep me fit. What can I say?

I have come to really integrate into a multicultural foreign land, I think. When you tell them you’re half Chinese, they start to ask you whether you know Kung Fu and gets very disappointed when you couldn’t catch a fly with a chopstick. I’m talking about clinical stereotype here. The real stuff. Almost like people looking at you strange when you tell them you come from America but isn’t fat. I miss my own people, where are you all out there?! The weird and wonderful who loves everything - the true treehuggers. A colleague told me today - I had Chicken Chow Mein and I never thought Chinese food can taste so good. Then when I asked him whether he tried duck, he looks at me funny and said “how can you eat duck?!” AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Seriously, I am about to burst. This conformation of civilisation is like a joke. It is a joke.

If you have time, check out Shappi Khorsandi - a truly great comedian.

July 06, 2009
17:14
Unupsub
» ‎ talfryn.net

Oh, the irony. With the two separate events that I will come to be involved in, in the service of this nation-state, one might think me some patriotic, zealous, public-spirited citizen, when I am in fact admittedly quite the mild dissenter. I was a willing volunteer for the first, but the second was an appointment I was forced to assume, one which I deem myself ill-suited for.

Friends overseas have commented that I am losing my accent - “Stop the Singlish!” they cry. Thus I was glad that an Australian I was speaking to recently suggested that I sounded American-Canadian to her.

Today an Imperial College-mate, back in Singapore on a visit, applied on us the term ‘civil servants’. I shuddered. Yes, I’m in denial. But I know why I’m here. Passion. Real passion, not the sort inculcated into you through workshops and Newspeak. 反感, y’know?

Yes, I’m bold. So what of it? I’m not bogged.
June 29, 2009
18:34
Fragility, frailty, fate and fear
» ‎ talfryn.net

No matter the class, race, or culture. No matter the place, time, or situation. The capacity to feel loss, to fear death - perhaps not in itself, or that of oneself, but that of others, and other things - and to love. These are central to what it means to be human.

Sitting there in the heavy silence, the eyes uncomfortable in settling on anything else but the floor, the ears picking up the wails and low murmuring of relatives - not mine, but a friend’s, the heart wanted to cry out not only in sympathy, but in realisation of a lesson learnt. That the human body is a fragile thing, that we are all living in a false sense of security that we are immune to the random nature of fate, and that we are, after all, human.
17:09
Darkness
» ‎ talfryn.net

I don’t think I’ve managed to clock so many working hours across consecutive days, including over the weekends, since I started working. Not complaining, for I rather enjoy it, but there is only so much I can sustain before feeling burnt out. I hope I can be forgiven for having a 臭脾氣 in the only place I dare let my emotions show and snappiness get the better of me.

* * * * *

There’s been this wave of depressing news and occurrences lately that you wonder if the antepenultimate apocalypse isn’t coming. Listening to Requiems seem entirely apt. They lend a feeling of solemnity and yet also a spiritual uplifting that can’t be found anywhere else…
June 24, 2009
17:15
Headless Gallus
» ‎ talfryn.net

It’s kind of redunculous that they’ve completely dug up the roads running through the front porch and driveway of our office. Impassable, unwalkable, for there’s no road left. Heck, there’s no ground left. It’s like a waterless moat. Or a ladderless trench. The only way to get to work these days is to slip through a gap in the hoarding into what feels like a construction site, briskwalk down a newly-paved fire engine access road (don’t really like having Bangladeshi workers watching me from both sides…), and leave the path to traverse this unlevelled grass patch to the right of the house. Then there’s a choice of either going in through the backdoor, or through the front after hopping over the four-language DANGER — KEEP OUT signboard thoughtfully placed a few steps away from the mini-abyss that separates the adjacent narrow concrete flooring from what’s left of our front steps.

I can imagine giving directions to our office: “When you see the side of a colonial house with with pots of plants and many booties hanging on the grilles - that’s us! PS. It is not advisable to come during or after a rain; umbrellas aren’t sufficient - you will need WelliesPhua Chu Kang boots. PPS. Heels are not recommended, no matter the weather. PPPS. Please bring torch if leaving after dark.”

Now… let’s zoom into the office, where my colleagues and I have embarked on a late-night regime, as is usually the case during preparation for conferences. We can get quite, quite busy. Call me a masochist, but… I like.

Quote of the day: “I miss running around like a headless chicken and talking to big people.”
June 07, 2009
18:28
Not a jay
» ‎ talfryn.net

In response to this.

And this one isn’t tagged RSPB.
May 23, 2009
8:35
The week in pictures
» ‎ talfryn.net

The Japanese Ambassador and his wife prepare to start off Ikebana International Singapore Chapter’s 40th Anniversary gala with a Kagamiwari Ceremony (Sake Breaking Ceremony).

At the office, some of us were landed with the responsibility of fledging a young mynah, whose nest was removed from the ceiling boards in a preemptive motion by our admin staff to prevent another stinky affair.

Kent Ridge Park - An Argiope is met with death at home at the jaws of the much smaller Portia jumping spider, one of the most intelligent of hunters.

An oriental whip snake finds itself the centre of attention at the Dairy Farm Adventure Centre, in the break between the NSS Bird Group book launch and NSS AGM 2009.

Volunteers from the biodiversity and environment circles in Singapore gather for a weekend of social, outreach and educational activities at the Toa Payoh HDB Hub in the inaugural Envirofest.

Also happened within the week: breaking in the new car, NPSS photo-sharing session, Prof Peter Ng’s talk on International Day for Biodiversity on invasive alien species in Singapore.
May 20, 2009
11:34
Blackadder
» ‎ talfryn.net

Definitely the best British sitcom, ever.

Ahh, the verbal dexterity!

I think I’ve found my portable antidote.
May 14, 2009
16:30
Wanderlust
» ‎ talfryn.net

The urge to roam has been growing stronger.

Feeling starved and restless.

Physically, psychologically, intellectually.

Very badly.

… …

Very, very badly.

All these tools, these drivers of globalisation, these reducers of distances. Worlds are bridged closer, yet remain far apart. Friends seem so near, and yet so distant. Blogs, Facebook, and instant messagers help me connect, yet I end up feeling even more disconnected. Photos of or by others are keys to shared happiness yet they also open the gate to envy. Reading BBC is like medicine, yet it fails to soothe.

They only remind me that there is still that whole wide world out there, and I am here. I am - having settled and having the opportunity to remain settled - ironically feeling unsettled, and feeling guilty about it. And feeling guilty about feeling guilty.

Constancy has to be temporary, if not it’s just hard to bear.
April 22, 2009
16:06
Earth Day visitor
» ‎ talfryn.net

Pea blue (Lampides boeticus) on my parents’ bed.
April 14, 2009
17:21
The mozzie that landed on Semakau
» ‎ talfryn.net

On a grid chart of Singapore waters that was laid out on our desks during the course. What were the odds?!
March 16, 2009
16:57
The blackhole
» ‎ talfryn.net

Nothing pretty about this picture… it’s blurry, poorly-framed, and the subject’s hardly anything of interest. But it’s like my mind right now. Wavy, twirly swirly, proceeding almost in straight lines but not quite, little circles in some parts. Oh, and there’s that deep, black, hole… which probably isn’t really that deep at all, if you shine a light down it…
February 05, 2009
15:02
Technology conspires
» ‎ talfryn.net

First it was PhotoShop, which for some reason refused to start up and always froze at the loading screen.

Then it was my blog, when the image upload function malfunctioned. And the book reading list plugin also started giving me errors.

Then my beloved D200 decided it had enough (it was perhaps getting jealous that I had acquired the G10) - a white line started appearing in every single photo I took.

A helpful duck took it to the Nikon serving centre and obtained a quote for the sensor replacement. It would cost me a third of the price of a brand new D300, the successor to my current model.

My D200’s been with me for two years and a half, which, in dSLR camera lifespan speak, and in my opinion, is quite a respectable duration. Shutter count is nearing 46k, so it’s got a while to go yet before it rightfully retires.

But then again, there are those who would appreciate an early retirement…
January 29, 2009
15:33
Back… back where?
» ‎ talfryn.net

Wherefore this sense of restlessness?
January 26, 2009
6:54
Happy CNY
» ‎ talfryn.net

Happy new year to all from HK!
November 26, 2008
16:12
Grar
» ‎ talfryn.net

When I’m behind the wheel, camera, bush, or book, I feel inspired to write… more intellectually, academically, and educationally. Words flow… invisibly.

But once I’m behind my lappie, the mind rebels.
November 21, 2008
16:25
Henry
» ‎ talfryn.net

There are times when you weren’t expecting that you’d need a cab, but when you do, you wonder if you weren’t fated to have flagged down that very cab that you did. Wednesday was one of those times.

I got into the taxi, and told the cabbie uncle my destination. His response: “Geylang? Geylang ah… dangerous place leh!”

My mom had said a similar thing when I last visited the NSS office, which unfortunately is situated in this most unsavoury part of Singapore. She had cautioned strongly against my going there again. Thanks to an officious-sounding purpose (these sessions, held quarterly, are called the ‘President’s Chat’), she relented.

Anyway, not being inclined to make small talk with the taxi driver, I merely nodded and went, “Err, yeah, I know…”

We were at a traffic light junction, and he took the opportunity to slurp a few mouthfuls from the Nissin cup noodles that he had placed in a mug holder by the side of the steering wheel. “Don’t mind hor,” he looked at me through his rear view mirror, “I makan first before it gets cold.” I smiled politely.

We managed to get past a few more traffic lights in silence, and then he asked, “Do you play 4-D?” I wondered what it had to do with Geylang, or instant noodles. I answered no. He then asked if I was interested in statistics. I said that it would depend on what sort of statistics. He then launched into a monologue about how he has a degree with distinction in stats, and how he has been studying the 4-D system for a decade. He has pulled out all available records on every single 4-D draw since its inception, and has discovered certain ‘truths’. He believes in his work, even though his ‘wife and girlfriends’ don’t (at that point, I became curious, but refrained from interrupting as I didn’t feel it prudent to further distract him from the roads). He was going on about numbers and permutations - at which point my mind turned itself off - and something about the AABB or ABBB combinations which stand the highest chances of seeing an opening. Something else about an AAAA occurring only every X years, and so on and so forth. That if you ‘invest’ $XX in which ever combination, you’ll likely Y% receive a $XXXX return.

I had a feeling that he’d recited all this a thousand times.

We turned into Geylang Road, and he found the inspiration for a topic switch. He continued talking just as ardently about the various even-numbered lorongs of Geylang and the predominant countries of origin of their red lighters. He knew their price ranges. He added that he used to be in the police force, as if that explained where he obtained his intimate knowledge of the area from.

And just before I alighted, he was going on about AIDS and suicidal men…

I was eager to get off, and slip into the Sunflower building on the corner of Lorong 28, which, I was told, was the most notorious street of them all. While giving me the change, he told me his name. So that if I ever come across this name appearing beside a lottery windfall in the news, I’ll know that it’s him.
November 05, 2008
16:27
George Bush!
» ‎ talfryn.net

Is only for now!

Or so the lyrics from Avenue Q go (the Filipino cast yesterday was excellent. My dad bought a CD of the original Broadway cast recording and declared that even the Americans weren’t as good!)

* * * * *

The world was watching…

I experienced the moment in a conference room with dozens of international participants… most were too distracted by the live Electoral College vote figures on their lappy screens to be paying the presentations any attention. Applauds and jubilant cries erupted when one of the co-chairs announced to election results. Well well, so Obama won.
November 04, 2008
17:35
Pwoor feet, cramped fingers
» ‎ talfryn.net

If I were allowed to say just three words to sum up these last couple of days, it’ll be:

I hate heels.
October 27, 2008
15:18
Hungry politics
» ‎ talfryn.net

Saw this at Hip Diner USA at Bugis Junction and just couldn’t resist not taking a shot. In case you can’t read the signs, the one on Obama says “Democrats or Republicans | All are welcome” and McCain’s goes “US Election Promotion | 1 for 1 McCain Honey Stung Chicken“.
October 19, 2008
7:44
Off she goes
» ‎ talfryn.net

We woke at 5 yesterday morning to send my sis to the airport. Surprisingly, this year’s expedition was met with less resistance (but no less the fuss (private post)) than previous school trips. Hiking in the mountains of Korea, visiting the North-South DMZ… sounded like the tamest activity out of all the other options (an expedition to Ladakh, hiking in the Himalayas, biking down the Mekong River, manning a sailing ship around the coast of Australia). And since she’s already survived Chang Mai, Taman Negara, and others besides - the lucky thing, Korea should be alright.

At the airport, having seen the kids through the departure gate…
Parent A [chuckling]: Freedom!
Parent B [shock horror]: No no no… just more worries!
My mom grins on, obviously identifying with Parent B…
October 17, 2008
10:30
Husky mentality
» ‎ talfryn.net

Talk about conditioning. I went to the supermarket, and as habit dictated, had a $1 coin ready and inserted, or tried to insert it, it into the coin slot on a trolley. It would not go in. So I tried another trolley. And yet another. And only then did I realise that all the trolleys were unchained to one another. There wasn’t even a need to put in a coin…

I unparked a trolley, and just then next to me, another shopper was struggling to slot in a coin, and looked confused when the second trolley refused to take it in. I wanted to point out to her that it was not necessary, but by her third go, she had it figured out as well.

* * * * *

Upon reaching home, at the carpark basement, I entered the lift with a Caucasian lady. She was carrying five big colourful knee-high, doubleshoulder-width bags. She put them on the floor, and I saw that they were full of groceries. They were those eco-friendly bags - from SAM, Carrefour, and one had the words ORG-A-NIC printed across it. Whereas I had only two A3-sized CitySuper eco-bags slung from my arms, and about five plastic ones from the supermarket. I thought I was doing alright, but she put my efforts to shame.
September 18, 2008
12:15
Find
» ‎ talfryn.net

Ever flipped back and forth, and back and forth, through pages and pages of printed material and wished there was a Ctrl+F?
September 11, 2008
17:29
Wanna get shiny teeth?
» ‎ talfryn.net

I don’t suppose anyone would take to blogging about the affairs of tooth-brushing. But this I simply have to mention. It’s about my toothpaste… my new tube of toothpaste. Nothing else in my bathroom intrigues me more than what’s on its label, and I can stare at the tube every morning and every night and still find it amusing.

Here’s my shameless one-liner plug for Colgate Total: “PROFESSIONAL CLEAN contains a DENTIST-LIKE ingredient for smooth and polished teeth!”
September 09, 2008
14:59
Finless victory
» ‎ talfryn.net

It’s a silly Chinese tradition and cultural notion that if shark’s fin soup doesn’t make an appearance on some fancy gala dinner menu, it’s a cheap show. The response to my objections, coming from my mom though it may be (perhaps that is precisely the cause), makes me sick. My sis and I will keep up the pressure.

Edit: Victory is ours! Mom has gotten the event menu changed.
August 09, 2008
4:05
Fake CNN
» ‎ talfryn.net

I’ve been receiving a lot ‘email alerts’ from CNN. It first tempted me with a headline about a man-eating python, then another one came telling me to ‘Be a happier person with your family’. How tailored to my tastes, eh? But waitaminute… I never did sign myself up for these news updates. One quick check of the originating sender confirmed my suspicions.

Don’t be fooled. These phishing spam emails look entirely authentic, and so are the pages the links bring you to. But hidden in the Flash program that it prompts you to download is a malicious Trojan.

See:
CNN Alerts: My Custom Alert malware
New Trojan Bait: CNN Videos
August 06, 2008
15:52
Birdtalk
» ‎ talfryn.net

It can get pretty noisy up there on Dempsey Hill.

July 31, 2008
19:32
On Motivation
» ‎ The Summit Trail

How I wish that I have more motivation. Lately I have been slacking more and more. Don’t get me wrong, life as a graduate is very relaxing, almost seem like I have retired. But this this not a mindset a 23 year old graduate should have. I should be keen to find a job, contribute to society, earning money, becoming self sufficient.

After Japan, I know it will be time to pull myself together. You know, whenever I have to fill in a form, I get very stoned when I have to fill in the field “Occupation”. No longer can I put down “student”. I have to put down “unemployed”. Moreover, when people asks, what do you do. I tell them I am a “graduate” - what does that mean anyway? I use the term synonymic to “retire pensioner”.

Having said that, I have become less and less of a fan of society. I am not happy with people telling us what we ought to be rather than what we want to be. Not many people can say that they have lived out his childhood dream. Have a watch of this last lecture of Randy Paushe on youtube. He was a computer science teacher from the states and was diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer and gave that final lecture.

After reading “Like the Flowing River” by Paulo Coehlo, I put up a new favourite quote on my facebook wall.

Death is always sitting by your side so that when you need to do something important, it will give you the strength and courage you need.

I know some people might regard this quote as somewhat morbid. However, I sense a great hint of optimism in this quote. The other day I was in hospital after the doctor showed me the x-ray I took of my lungs. He said that the lung was supposed to be dark on the x-ray, but 1 side of it was white. Even though I am sure it probably wasn’t anything not curable, but that night, I was thinking what if I did have a terminal disease - suddenly I didn’t feel trapped. I felt that I would be able to live life for myself, and not for anyone else. I agree, this is a very selfish mentality, but how many of us can say that we are living out our childhood dreams, ticking off the items in the Bucket List?

I remember when I was in kindergarten, I passed by “Cambridge Street” every day, and I told myself that one day I would go to Oxford. I know - but that is how my mind thinks. Without any idea of what to do, how to do it, I just knew I wanted to go to Oxford. From that day on, I was living that dream, getting that goal. To be honest, there were only ever 2 things on my bucket list: To go to Oxford and to go to Japan: Both I have “almost” completed - ok, didn’t go to Oxford, but I went to Imperial, which is just as good.

Today, sitting here, knowing that I am on track - I feel somewhat satisfied. However, it is not until now when I realised how naive I have been. I am starting to look at life from outside in rather from inside out. We, at least me, are brought up to think we must be the best if not we are not worth much. That was what and how I knew I could go about getting what I want to get in life. Because to be the best, and to be amongst the best, we can be what we want to be. I wanted to be a president back then. But yet, I have chosen a scientific path because I had been programmed to believe that science is better than humanities. However, it wasn’t until I studied that Jewish Enlightenment, and the European Enlightenment when I realised that science was nothing more than a substitute for God, and that science was an attempt of mankind to rule our lives.

Yet nowadays we live in the age of technology and science. But yet we become more addicted to work, addicted to money, addicted to the advancement of our economy. Its true that people live longer, but do we live happier? Today, I was walking in one of the villages up North of Hong Kong (the border of China). Watson asked me “What is this?” - pointing at a pig sty (where the villagers used to keep their pigs). I told him, “its for pigs.” Then he asked, “where are they now?”. I said, “supermarket”. Martin told me before graduating that he wanted to be a farmer. I was quite happy because that was his personal legend - that he should become a good farmer. However, society tells us that it is a waste to be a farmer with such high level of education. So instead of living our personal legend (borrowing the term from Paulo Coehlo), we choose to live according to the rules of society - those who studies a lot must work on good jobs. “Good” meaning jobs which will benefit the economical wellbeing of the society. We then spend heaps and heaps of the money we earn in high class restaurants and hotels so that the society can function properly. Instead of buying the milk from the farmer who milked the cow, there could be other people who helps package the milk etc. so that when it is bought, the price is marked up 200%. Lets not go into fair trade here! What is fair anyway.

I am still sitting here being an idealist because I know my personal legend is to be a traveler, to be the world’s local man. But how is that possible?

14:31
Almost as if on cue
» ‎ talfryn.net

After a week’s break and relative calm, hell starts again.
June 19, 2008
16:09
Hyde Park… one last time
» ‎ talfryn.net

As it goes, I’m still here. I was supposed to leave on Monday, but I’m still here. Various reasons. It’s that same feeling all over again - sitting at my desk, with a novel or my laptop for company, the room entirely empty save for the few pieces of luggage on the floor, echoes bouncing off walls.

I had some time, so I went across the road to Hyde Park, as I usually do before my flights. Such a lovely day…

And I’m off. For real this time.
June 17, 2008
1:56
Leaving
» ‎ talfryn.net

So I guess this is it. After having postponed my flight back twice, prolonging my stay here for as long as I dared, my boxes are finally all packed, as are my suitcases. Only little things remain… those that I will be leaving behind, bits and pieces to which I attach a strong sense of sentimentality but they are of no use to me now. Some of them have been with me since Sydney, the electrical appliances with their triangular pins still attached to their travel adapters.

I tell people that I might be back next year. Might. But one can never be too sure about these things.

And I guess… I will miss this place, despite its many shortcomings. I’ll miss most of all my friends, and the spontaneity, the freedom, experiences of life that London has to offer… the lifestyle that I had come to have and taken for granted. It’s so different, and it’s one that I’d never have in Singapore.

Saying goodbyes are never easy. I know it will hit hardest when that plane takes off from that runway at Heathrow.

We just keep moving… settling down… uprooting ourselves… moving on… and on. ‘Tis the life of a dogged wanderer. Another chapter closed.
June 12, 2008
2:02
LondON
» ‎ talfryn.net

It was clear skies beneath me as the plane (an A380!) descended into Heathrow. Usually, it’s all fog. I was reminded that this wasn’t when I’d usually be arriving in London; I’d be departing, to miss the best times of summer.

The past two days I was in a short-sleeved top with a light jacket tied around my waist and I’d be warm. Today I had worn a jacket and it was chilly cold. This is London… the unpredictable, foul-weathered London…

… where sundown is at 9pm. The skies were still bright when we were done with dinner. Good light for shooting, but it messes up my circadian rhythms, as if it wasn’t already confused enough as it is.

I was asked how I was feeling. I said I initially thought I’d be sad, that I’d miss this place, but not that much. It’s a love-hate relationship. But once you’re on the streets, dodging that puddle, on the Tube, minding that gap, evading burly characters, converting those pounds, calculating in miles, you don’t think about it anymore. It’s London, this is London, and it’s all that matters for now.

And I can’t believe that a toilet brush is not to be found in the whole of Bayswater.
June 06, 2008
19:36
Lift… drag… thrust
» ‎ talfryn.net

There’s so much I’d like to say, but so much of it doesn’t need to be said.

* * * * *

From the living room windows, I can see our old apartment, just a few blocks and one postcode digit away. We’re barely two weeks settled at the new place, but it already feels like home; it has already been witness to much. Too much.

* * * * *

I’ve finally, finally booked my return flight to London. This trip… this journey… has been many months late. And this trip, unlike the many others before it, will be the shortest yet. And the most final. This Monday I’ll fly, and in a week I’ll pack up four… five years of my life and tie up any loose ends, and come Monday I’ll be leaving London behind. Another move… and another conclusion - not a very clean cut, this one - to another chapter in life.

* * * * *

Not everything in life goes according to plan. Plans I did have, but they are at the mercy of those forces out there. For now, I need to be here. I am needed here.
May 26, 2008
16:29
18 floors high
» ‎ talfryn.net

Just me, and an empty, unfamiliar house. No people, no furniture, no noises. No yet. Just the bare walls, floors, windows.

Even if it was only for a few minutes…

Peace. I felt the air I drew in. I heard. Inhale. Silence. Exhale. Silence.

I felt like I could cry. The emptiness made me happy. I was happy to feel the lightness.

Then the phone rang, and the world came shattering back down.
May 25, 2008
18:29
The house is a maze
» ‎ talfryn.net

We’re moving again. 9th move in Singapore. What fun. What a mess. My nose is dead.

May 09, 2008
16:50
Herbie and Amora Therapy
» ‎ The Summit Trail

Somehow amora therapy helps with sleeping…This is herbie looking through the aroma therapy pot thinggy. He says hi to everyone who helped save him from a Japanese person

May 08, 2008
20:28
Suspending suspense
» ‎ talfryn.net

Tomorrow we’ll be far away…
Tomorrow we’ll discover…

Will it be release? Or will it harbour the beginnings of yet another onslaught?

Until then, I shall wait. Let that classic tune from Les Misérables echo in my mind…

One day more…

If only we could manifest that same fighting spirit shown of the revolutionaries…

One more day before the storm!

May 04, 2008
21:06
French people on Dutch blogs
» ‎ The Summit Trail

I am utterly confused by comments left for me on other people’s blog…Why not just leave it on this blog?? o_0

April 27, 2008
18:12
Picky reads
» ‎ talfryn.net

I’ve finished the entire Frank Herbert original Dune series back-to-back, pacing myself out towards the end (since I realised I completed Pullman’s His Dark Materials a tad too quickly, by which time it was too late). Nothing beats the thrill of a virgin read.

After that, I picked up a couple of others and put them down again. What I feel like reading corresponds to my mood, and that at present remains undefined.

Read a few pages of Wodehouse, managed a few laughs out of it. Too shallow; got tired of it after a while. The Englishness was freshening though. But I felt more non-fictiony. So I bounced between Gould, Dawkins and Jones. Odd, I thought I enjoyed Steve Jone’s writing much more when I was in high school.

I would dearly love to finish Jared Diamond’s Collapse, but it’s in London…
April 16, 2008
13:36
*knock knock*
» ‎ talfryn.net

*hollow echos*

*stirring within*

Yes… I’m uhh… alive.
March 26, 2008
15:47
New park in the city
» ‎ talfryn.net

I’m not sure where my mom got that idea from, but it was a welcomed move. Last Sunday, she carted the family off towards PSA along Alexandra Rd where she heard there was a new butterfly farm or something. I was asking friends before that, about a ‘new butt place in town’ but they were as clueless as I was. Turns out that it was a new horticultural park, managed by NParks, linked by park connectors to Telok Blangah Hill Park and Kent Ridge Park. Manicured grass, neat plots of land showcasing themed gardens, playgrounds for the kiddies, and high-tech greenhouses at the back. A nice Thai restaurant and function rooms at the visitor centre, its architecture reminiscent of the Zen aura we felt whilst at The Lalu Sun Moon Lake in Taiwan. It’s still very new, and aside from a couple of Changeable lizards that we saw, not much of the fauna has mmm… moved in yet.

Haute Nature

First park in Asia to blend recreation and retail with research and technology

There is now another alluring option in the Garden City if you want to relax amid lush foliage. HortPark is a 23-hectare recreational and technological park developed by Singapore’s National Parks Board at a cost of SGD 13.1 million. The first park in Asia to house recreational, educational, research and retail activities related to gardening in one location, it also aims to become a knowledge hub for training and value-added services… …

~ Singapore abuzz, Mar-Apr 2008 edition, Singapore Tourism Board

Photos :: HortPark
March 20, 2008
13:56
It’s not just a bird!
» ‎ talfryn.net

When you’re beyond calling a bird a ‘bird’, you call it a ‘Pink-necked Green Pigeon’ or a ‘Pacific Swallow’ or whatever its species is.

When you have pets, you tend to call an individual of that same certain species by the name you give your pet, even when that individual isn’t your pet.

I was looking out of my window when I saw this grey flying blob approaching. It was coloured like rock pigeon, but it didn’t fly like one. When it came nearer, I saw its bright red tail. When it flew past, my mind registered it: “A Banjo!”

I stood there for a full minute, replaying the sequence in my mind. I was sure it was an African Grey Parrot, on the loose… very likely an escapee. I told my sis, and she chided me for not yelling out for her earlier. She’d have scrambled over to look. We went to tell our parents, and they asked, “Why didn’t you save it?” -_-

If experiences with past alien escapees were anything to go by, there’s a probability that it might fall victim to the crows.

I went out into the living room and looked at Banjo. “There’s one of your cousins out there… why don’t you do your stuff and get him here?”

With his eyes glinting as if he understood, he flapped and nodded and did his dance. Silly Banjo.
March 19, 2008
12:10
Bad colours
» ‎ talfryn.net

The quality of the photo shops here is horrible. I think I’ll need to take my images to a professional photolab to get printed, or do it myself.

These are samples of photos printed by three different shops… using the same files. I took care to ensure that the white balance was accurate when I photographed (’scanned’) copies of the prints, so that WYSIWIG:
March 01, 2008
17:54
Spitting may be ok in 大陸, but…
» ‎ talfryn.net

“I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry,” the man kept repeating, his shirt slightly dirtied and wet from the watermelon juice which he… vomited (how gross) onto the floor right behind the chair on which my mom was seated. Some of what he belched found its way onto my mom’s hair, clothes and handbag.

Sitting opposite her, I watched it happen, but it came without prior warning. The man showed no signs of wanting to retch, although I noted his face was flushed from all the beer, just like any other companion of his at his table - a mob of people so uncouth I wish never to come across the likes of them in Singapore again, at least not places such as these where people are expected to behave with a certain degree of civility. Talking, laughing, snorting extremely LOUDLY in a motley jumble of dialect, Mandarin, Cantonese and English (the restaurant staff said they were from Guangzhou) throughout the course of their dinner, they totally ruined the atmosphere. My sis wanted to get the waiters to shush them - politely, of course - but was advised by my parents not to. We will do no such thing; we will bear with it.

I emitted a yelp when I saw what the man had done, just as my mom realised what had happened and the four of us sprang up and reached for towels and tissues. My mom was aghast, disgusted, no doubt, and the offending man stood to a side, looking at the puddle on the floor and at all the fuss, his eyes appearing glazed, but wide in amazement as if in disbelief of the commotion and mess he’d created. I ventured a glance towards the table of mainlanders. They were engaged in comradely laughter, either oblivious to the incident or making jest of what their friend had done.

Thank goodness there was a spare shirt in the car. I turned to accompany my mom to the car and then to the washroom to help her wash up, leaving my dad and sis behind at the table. We walked past the man. Again he bowed and his head low, “I’m so sorry. I’m really so sorry.” I think my mom replied to the effect of “It’s ok.” And there was me thinking in my mind that No, it’s not ok. You ought to be ashamed of yourself. But instead I walked on, barely giving that man a second look. Oh, how I wanted to glare him down! I was tempted to confront him and his companions, but that would’ve been unwise. If even I felt thus, I could only imagine my dad fuming yet attempting to control his anger, his sense of protective duty over my mom compelling him to take action - even if only verbal - against the man.

We returned from the ladies’ a good handful of minutes later, and I saw that the floors had already been mopped clean and my dad, still standing, was bent over signing the bill. He was silent, lips pursed. His eyes, set into a deep frown, conveyed deep indignation and infuriation, and I knew that had that not been a public place and had we not the apprehension that the mainlanders could react in ways uninvited and untoward, he would have strode across and chided them. Instead he - we - directed our displeasure at the restaurant manager, who even while sympathising with us and the rest of his patrons, was powerless to act in the face of such occurrences. All he could do was to assure us that they were not regulars, and that nothing of this sort had happened before. A discount would be nice? I thought, but then again we understood it’s not their fault.

What to do? I replayed the scene and tried to imagine what we could have down, or what people from different sorts of background would have done. What if this wasn’t Singapore, but, say, Beijing? Or what if this was London? What if the man was a Japanese, or a European? What if my dad wasn’t my dad, but some other equally guarding but less prudent husband? There could be so many varying responses, but knowing the cultures well, how people might react can be quite predictable to a certain degree.
February 28, 2008
12:13
Bearing with composure
» ‎ talfryn.net

I am alright with the innocent, the new and the fresh (the n00bility), the outlandish, and the bold. For matters and people to which the command to hurry up! would elicit no favourable response, I can suspend myself in a calm waiting, observing, state, so long as inaction or acceptance on my part would not prove to be too costly. Just wait. Why add to the discontent?

It is, ironically, the impatient I have no patience with, the intolerant I lack tolerance for, and I cannot stand egos masquerading as maturity when in fact the behaviour betrays the existence of an even greater immaturity than that originally perceived in the person who prompted the response.

Aahhh… if only the people who think themselves grown up could really grow up.

But who knows… I myself might be a victim of my own words, a hypocrite. I only hope not.
February 15, 2008
9:59
My new toy The Beast
» ‎ talfryn.net

Just came back from a shoot - OMG I LOVE MY NEW Nikon 17-55 f/2.8! Yes I love it so much that I feel like YELLING OUT WITH JOY!! It’s such a beeeeautiful piece of glass, built like a tank, so smooth that you hardly realise when it’s focusing, and the quality is just… aaaaahhhhhh… so sharp it hurts…
February 13, 2008
10:15
After the festivities…
» ‎ talfryn.net

Hong Kong is so full of mainlanders, full of Mandarin-speaking Chinese who behave as if they haven’t taken an elevator nor enjoyed such a thing as a buffet brunch in a hotel before. The average conduct of the locals, in contrast, appear almost saintly. One can’t help but lavish praise for the good service they receive in Hong Kong, as compared to that they get in Singapore. It is almost as good as the Japan’s, only less elaborate.

* * * * *

My interview was extremely long, one-on-one meetings with one manager after another. There is this thing about conversing with Asians (in English) that puts me at better ease than when I have to engage a gweilo. I have to switch modes. But so long as it’s in English, I’d be comfortable. I was asked to describe my extra-curricular activities and internship experiences in Cantonese, and it felt weird, the interviewer continuing her questions in English while I replied in Canto interspersed with English expressions. I code-switch a lot, and it is difficult to break this habit, even if only for a few seconds. All-in-all I enjoyed the interview immensely, but the question remains of whether to work in London, Singapore or Hong Kong. All three places have their pros and cons, and while my current approach via speculative applications isn’t returning much success, I am still able to explore which of the many varied paths to the future I’d like to embark on. Still honeymooning, still in a dreamlike state of transition, but this can’t go on for too long.

* * * * *

More than a year after I’ve changed my address in Singapore, Imperial is still sending posts to both the old and the new addresses. Two weeks ago when I wrote in to re-confirm my address, I received an auto-response: “… At present we have a large backlog of emails to get through which have come in over the Christmas break. Please bear with us as delays to our usual processing time will be inevitable as we clear the backlog.”

I’ve only just received my results slips which were sent in December. They were sent to the old address, and the tenant there had slipped it into our current mailbox. The invitation to postgraduate ceremonies arrived at the new address. I’m still waiting for my postgrad degree certificates to arrive - long overdue now, since I know my coursemates in London and HK have already received theirs.

* * * * *

Been spending most of my time these days working on 10 mini-essay answers to an assessment for Associateship of the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment. The AIEMA is a sought-after credential for many job postings, but I wonder how much this actually helps. Still, having yet another set of suffixes wouldn’t do any harm - that’ll make the sixth if I do get it.
February 04, 2008
20:07
Reunion
» ‎ talfryn.net

Going to Hong Kong again - this is my third trip there in six months? - to visit my folks for Chinese New Year. For too long has my face been missing from those family photos. It still wouldn’t be the entire extended family though… what with relatives away at the far-flung corners of the world… with some in Canada, and school beckoning my cousins back to the UK. And Japan, but that’s another story. We’re just all over the place.

Strangely enough, I’m setting out with the same goal as I did when I was in HK for CNY those many years ago. I wonder if my sis has been carrying on with the campaign… but I’ll know how far our influence has gone when we are witness to the absence (or presence) of sharks’ fin on the dining tables.
6:45
What I feel of the adults
» ‎ talfryn.net

I love it much more when grown-ups adults parents aunties and uncles talk about their jobs and their experiences to one another than when they talk about it directly to me. When they talk amongst themselves, it is done with doses of humour and the humility to laugh at themselves. I become a willing listener, a keen observer, being selective with whichever bits of wisdom I’ll take home, and able to witness the subtle dodging of sensitivities and the ego-flattering (plus counter-flattering) attempts. I learn more and take in more this way, than in face-to-face, oft-one-sided ‘conversations’.

And another observation: sometimes I feel that parents are expecting their kids - older toddlers and younger teens - to behave, speak, and think like adults. Of course, that’s the ideal parental vision… to guide their children along into maturity into civilised, noble, accomplished adults… but why the hurry? Let children be children, while they still are. Let them have their fun. Parents are too quick to forget that their children are children, after all.
February 02, 2008
7:04
And a rock came tumbling down
» ‎ talfryn.net

I mentioned last week that our neighbouring condo was being demolished.

I’ve had peaceful lie-ins in the past few mornings, and I could hear the songs of the birds once more through the relative quiet of the area, but it came at a heavy price.

Apparently, a 30kg concrete slab fell onto a construction supervisor, and killed him on the spot. Now the site’s been cordoned off while investigations take place.

The way they’ve been doing the demolishing work, it’s an accident waiting to happen. Before they started bringing in the backhoes, they were emptying the building of its interior assets and I recall seeing last holidays the workers were heavy pieces of furniture right out of its windows and corridors, letting them fall from the upper storeys to crash in a thundering clap upon impact with the ground.

Looks to me they have serious HSE issues.
January 28, 2008
7:53
CNY night markets
» ‎ talfryn.net

Chinatown, Singapore. Needless to say, it was sardine-packed full of people. But I don’t believe I’ve gone down to S’pore’s Chinatown during CNY before, so it’s an experience. They sell the traditional Chinese New Year goodies, cultural arts and crafts, and many random things like special anti-bacterial socks (the stall attracted quite a crowd), Power Showers (showerheads), and some imports, mostly candies and sweets, from Japan, Taiwan and Europe.

Stalls line the streets. I don’t think the shophouses’ windows were specially painted for this occasion though, matching as they are.

Everything’s red - this stall must be oozing with good luck

It never does harm to bargain.

Safekeep your pennies in these blue-eyed red-nosed golden-year-of-the-rat piggy banks!
January 24, 2008
17:54
First greets in a fortnight
» ‎ talfryn.net

I thought it goes that the less active a blog is, the less readers it’ll have. So I wonder why it is that visitorship has rocketed despite there not having been a single new post in almost two weeks. Are readers that curious about what’s been happening in my life? Voyeurs, the whole lot of you! Move along now, nothing to see here.

* * * * *

I made a couple of mental notes of a few memorable bloggable encounters throughout the week but sitting here now, I can’t recall what they were about exactly. Turns out they aren’t *that* memorable after all.

* * * * *

The condo block next to ours is now being demolished. Bit by painstaking and thundering bit. The entire facade has been enveloped by a mesh netting, and backhoes have found their way to the rubble on top - some 20 storeys high. Early every morning, I’d be rudely awakened by these machines doing their work, the concrete slabs and glass pieces they’ve dredged tumbling all the way to the ground, hitting against the steel scaffolding that surrounds the building, just under the mesh. They create a disharmonious melody of booming, banging, screeching and tinkling sounds, joined in by the bass death-drumming of a nearby thumper.

It is both unfortunate and inconvenient that that building is less than a hundred metres away. Too much dust forces me to keep my windows closed at all times. Once when I opened a tiny slit just to let some stale air out and fresh air in, the breeze brought in some dust particles and I was sent diving into a box of tissues for the entire day and night.

What a most useful invention, tissue is. My allergies have been assaulting my nose and my sinus is having the hardest time of it. I don’t know what I’ll do without tissue. Thank goodness for tissue.

* * * * *

I saw an ad on a cab - it was a picture of a rainforest and a painting of a hornbill that caught my eye. I read the caption - Visit Malaysia, it screamed, followed by a smaller Tourism Malaysia. And the website? ineedabreak.com.sg

* * * * *

Oh, bribery of briberies. More blisters and callouses on toes, and tense calves. Dare I admit that I have had my brows shaped too? Just very, very slightly mind you, but still, the horror of my face being molested, powered, blushed, pinked-up! On not one but two occasions, too. Playing mommy’s doll.

In a more than equal return, I was allowed to acquire a Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 prime lens, the Nikon R1 close-up speedlight system, and I’m still contemplating that juicy Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 which sits so rightfully at home in a professional’s kitbag (frightfully, too, considering its pricey tag). *smacks lips* Sigh sigh sigh, what to do, what to do? To get or not to get?

I love the sharpness and speed of that 50mm. My first time toying experimenting around with an AF f/1.8, I fell in love with it. For low-light photography and portraits, it does wonders. People might have thought me weird though, when I had to stand meeetres away when taking full-body shots of them. Kept swapping that for the 18-200mm VR and vice versa every few minutes. I think I blinded a lot of people with the flashgun that day.

January 15, 2008
16:15
Thoughts from today
» ‎ The Summit Trail

London’s weather can be seen in patches. Sometimes there are blue skies in a vast area of greyness. **** I think I like Autumn in London the most, the wind blowing the leaves on the ground creating little swirls of leaf tornado. **** I am amazed by how differently people belonging to the TJ sector thinks. Reading the curious [...]

January 10, 2008
15:26
Another mystery
» ‎ talfryn.net

Two summers ago in Singapore, I wondered aloud at the extra layers of clothing that people were wearing on the streets. These days, I see people walking about with scarves around their necks. I thought I spotted a youth with a red wool-knitted scarf, no less! When people talk about individuals ‘living in their own worlds’, I never did realise that it could refer to them having their own climes as well.

January 07, 2008
2:37
Too much caffine
» ‎ The Summit Trail

I realised that I should not drink tea because it makes me unable to sleep. Instead, I should drink some lemon water or some drinks which assists with sleeping.

December 11, 2007
0:12
Eh, m’lady?
» ‎ talfryn.net

“While wearing high heeled shoes, a woman’s curves are more pronounced because of the positions of her derriere and chest. She also walks differently, with her hips moving gracefully. High heeled shoes not only make a women look better. She feels sexier wearing them as well. This can be seen in the confidence that is seen in women who wear high heeled shoes. They move with a smooth sexuality that women in flat soled shoes rarely show.”

… so says a website I found. (I was curious. Seriously. Wearing heels make no - physiological and anatomical - sense.)

Far from donning a dainty, elegant gait when heels are worn, I feel more like a baby elephant trying to imitate how penguins walk. (Or should it be trying hard to not imitate how penguins walk?) Occasions that call for a certain attire demand a certain sacrifice. Oh vanity! Thy price is sore calves, strained tendons, and blisters on all four corners of the feet - the two big toes and the two little toes. Womanhood is a tall order, and ‘dressing to impress’ is such a flawed trait of a twisted societal expectation that borders on self-abuse. London’s uneven cobbled streets, fallen leaves that pose a slippery business, puddles of rainwater, the stairs, crowds and occasionally out-of-order escalators, and the mazes of the Tube all make for an advanced endurance course.

Aye, this is the first post dedicated to my job-seeking experience thus far - my first assessment centre at an environmental consultancy - my first job application. It’s been a fun day, meeting all sorts of people (a quarter of the candidates were, coincidentally, from my MSc course!) and thrown into all sorts of stimulating situations, with individual and team-based exercises. Having one too many mugs of tea or coffee over breaktimes, sipping politely while engaging in talks of sustainable development, or general, harmless conversations of a more personal nature. I really wouldn’t have minded more of these assessment centres, if it were not for the anxious waiting-for-the-outcomes that follow (okay, and if it were not for the dressing up bits as well).

Right now I’m deciding between bursting my uber-large blister with a semi-sterile needle, or letting it get squished and pop on its own on Wednesday. It’s inevitable - a degree of ignorance for my personal welfare will be required again. Wednesday might just make or break my prospects of a career with this firm.

December 03, 2007
23:17
Death of a Reflection
» ‎ The Summit Trail

I finished finally, all the episodes of Death Note. I don’t know why everyone didn’t like it because of the ending, but perhaps they only stopped half way through to find that it was the good guy who died instead of the bad one. In the life all empires, there are those which rise up high [...]

December 01, 2007
18:43
The importance of not being earnest
» ‎ talfryn.net

Went with Xi to the National Portrait Gallery where they were showing the Photographic Portrait Prize and Pop Art Portraits exhibitions. For many of the prints, although first impressions were of an occasion of solemnity, if you were to read the captions and the story beneath it, you’d be hard-pressed to suppress a chuckle when you look at the picture again. Somehow, there’s something intellectually funny about it.

I’ve been meeting quite a lot of people (relative to my usual weeks) in the past week - all quintessentially very English sort of people.

From pre-teenage kids to retired seniors, from the BBC to tabloid papers, from the highly-rated TV programmes to YouTube homemade clips, from those classic Orange ads in the cinemas to the posters they have on buses (I saw one they other day which went: “I’d do anything for you… including your wife” but couldn’t see what it was trying to sell) - they all have it: humour. And it’s not just any humour. It’s English humour:

The English do not have any sort of global monopoly on humour, but what is distinctive is the sheer pervasiveness and supreme importance of humour in English everyday life and culture. In other cultures, there is ‘a time and place’ for humour: among the English it is a constant, a given - there is always an undercurrent of humour. Virtually all English conversations and social interactions involve at least some degree of banter, teasing, irony, wit, mockery, wordplay, satire, understatement, humorous self-deprecation, sarcasm, pomposity-pricking or just silliness. Humour is not a special, separate kind of talk: it is our ‘default mode’; it is like breathing; we cannot function without it. English humour is a reflex, a knee-jerk response, particularly when we are feeling uncomfortable or awkward: when in doubt, joke. The taboo on earnestness is deeply embedded in the English psyche. Our response to earnestness is a distinctively English blend of armchair cynicism, ironic detachment, a squeamish distast for sentimentality, a stubborn refusal to be duped or taken in by fine rhetoric, and a mischievous delight in pricking the balloons of pomposity and self-importance. (English humour is not to be confused with ‘good humour’ or cheerfulness - it is quite often the opposite; we have satire instead of revolutions and uprisings.)

~ Kate Fox (2004), Watching the English

And I’m lovin’ it!

* * * * *

The Aussie election outcomes were announced yesterday. On the streets, we saw a group of people, dressed up to an Aussie theme. What was odd was not so much of how they looked; even odder was the response (or lack of) that they got from others. We tagged along, observing them for a while. Other pedestrians, although they were aware of the comic group of characters proceeding their way, would hardly give them a second glance as they walked past. As if it was a most normal affair - to have people costumed as the Tassie devil, girls in pink fluffy dresses as though they came straight from Dreamworld, and Steve Irwin impersonators (cargo shorts in winter complete with ‘Akubra’ hats and dangling corks). “This is London!” - where everyone minds their own business. I came to the same deductions when doing street photography here too - compare shooting on the streets and markets in London, and in China, for example (where people’s reactions are simply hostile), or in Japan (where they’d pose and give the ‘V-sign’), or in other parts of South-east Asia (where people would look down, face away, or walk off).

November 28, 2007
21:14
Not the End of the World
» ‎ The Summit Trail

Things are never as bad as they seem, and it is rarely the end of the world, maybe its better that its earlier than later. Just try your best and if your best is not good enough, well, its not your problem. I need to be more enthusiastic and smile more….=D Sometimes going out there and [...]
November 26, 2007
1:04
The Catalyst Effect
» ‎ The Summit Trail

How to stay unchanged in a burning furnace, and yet still enable a forward reaction? You can either add pressure, temperature or a catalyst. A catalyst does not see itself as that important because that is the way for it to function better. A catalyst assist change in a burning situation whilst remaining unchanged at the [...]
November 23, 2007
13:16
Kiasu
» ‎ The Summit Trail

Its a name of the restuarant a couple of blocks away from me. In Hokkien (Wendy’s dialect), it means “afraid to loose“. Does this word in a way describe me? I think so. Many people don’t like loosing, for me, I think I am afraid of loosing. The night before my competition last week, I [...]
November 19, 2007
3:15
Dreaming Japan
» ‎ The Summit Trail

Thinking more and more about the time when I was back in Japan. I’m hearing stories of people progressing in Japanese outside Japan. Matthieu F is going to do his JLPT 4, Matthieu LG is learning Japanese every week, so is Martin - although he is complaining that the level is way too low for [...]

November 17, 2007
7:29
A beautifully crude form of liberation
» ‎ talfryn.net

When nothing else works for the moment, when there isn’t the time and the mental capacity to allow for that framing of the mind, for the the working out of the rationale of staying a hand or holding a tongue, and when you can’t do nought, it helps. As I’ve realised from time to time. [...]
November 08, 2007
14:28
Right vs left brain
» ‎ talfryn.net

I got the link through Vincy’s blog. I’m both - at times I’d open it up and find that she’s going clockwise, at others she’d be going anti-clockwise. It might depend on what I have been doing prior to visiting that page. Either way, when I blink and reopen my eyes, or when I concentrate, [...]

November 02, 2007
13:54
Feel
» ‎ The Summit Trail

I have been relating to people in terms of MBTI personality types instead of genders lately. As you meet more and more people, you start to understand who are those who you could relate better to, and who are those who you cannot understand at all. I am an ENFP, as I have written a while [...]

November 01, 2007
2:51
Steady…
» ‎ talfryn.net

Things are going well. Well, alrightish, I’d say. Been back for a weekish and it feels like so much has already happened… Things are moving on. As they should be. Except my life. I’m still stuck in transition. Willingly stuck, though. It ain’t that bad. Contrary to popular belief that post-college pre-working life is usually [...]

October 24, 2007
2:50
Random thoughts…
» ‎ The Summit Trail

When times like these come, I feel like a hypocrite. Anyway, I did not expect myself to feel so strong about it. Seriously, I apologise if I have in anyway misled you to believe the reality to be otherwise. I keep thinking about his writings on A home, a hypocrite and some hopeless persons in the [...]

October 23, 2007
3:27
Falling leaves
» ‎ talfryn.net

So. I’m here. Back. ish. While I was away, my room was being used as a guestroom of sorts. I knew most of those to whom my room and housemates played host, but what I wasn’t aware of was how they were playing some form of round robin with my room and its assets. Used [...]
October 22, 2007
8:48
Countercurrents
» ‎ talfryn.net

When my only immediate reason for returning to London is so that I won’t miss my friends’ graduation… When I don’t have to go to school, or work (yet), or attend any important events there… When the only thing I can look forward to is to see my friends and QuGee who have been waiting [...]
October 21, 2007
9:40
The 16th flight…
» ‎ talfryn.net

… for this year. Away from the comforts and shelter that is my family, learning how to live can be a difficult thing. I am preparing, bracing myself for whatever awaits me over the other side. There is too much to absorb, to take in, to feel, to agonise over. Too much to face, both [...]
October 17, 2007
20:22
No language barriers here
» ‎ talfryn.net

I’m watching the telly, and I’m trying to get used to how the show presenter is interviewing this Taiwanese celebrity, speaking in 100% Cantonese, and the celebrity would respond in complete Mandarin, and from time to time there would appear cartoonish English thought bubbles above both of them…
October 09, 2007
16:53
Golden dusk
» ‎ talfryn.net

These days, I can feel the sun’s heat on my back, even as I sit in my chair, at my usual workdesk in my room. When the clouds part, the sunlight that shines through my window is strong enough to make me squint, and I would need to draw the curtains to continue about my [...]
October 07, 2007
17:42
Excitement in the storm
» ‎ talfryn.net

Initially, today, we had planned on a family outing (or at least, for my sis and I) to East Coast Park to take a look at the World Animal Day carnival. In the early afternoon, while we were still lunching at home, the drizzle escalated into a foggy rainstorm, the sky turned twisteresque dark grey [...]
October 04, 2007
10:40
Much good may it do us
» ‎ talfryn.net

I received a letter in the post today, from the Member of Parliament (MP) of the Tanjong Pagar Group Representation Constituency (GRC), writing on behalf of the Citizens’ Consultative Committee (CCC) welcoming my family and I to the Tanglin-Cairnhill Division, encouraging me to join the grassroots organisations (GROs), such as my Residents’ Committee (RC) or [...]
September 30, 2007
19:43
*Still* in S’pore
» ‎ talfryn.net

Sigh, with so much happening and so much to do here, how can I bear to leave?
September 29, 2007
17:40
Nature tells stories
» ‎ talfryn.net

I saw a number of Burmese Lascars at SBWR today. Not the Mangrove Sunbeams, which are sometimes mistaken for the lascar, but the real Burmese Lascars. I was tailing one of them, trying to get a good, clean shot. It landed near a Peaceful Dove (and an extremely tame one at that) before fluttering off [...]
September 21, 2007
13:50
Exploring Chinatown
» ‎ talfryn.net

We trotted about, donning the tourist look, cameras in hand, with a permanent expression of amusement of our faces… as we laughed at ‘Singapore is a Fine City’ T-shirts and browsed the stands for scenic postcards. It was my first time just walking about Chinatown, or anywhere in Singapore, for that matter, for the sole [...]
September 17, 2007
8:55
Energy loss
» ‎ talfryn.net

I don’t usually talk about these things much. Not so openly, at least. But even after having written in my private journal, I am still finding the need to express it more openly and hence this post. I’m not sure what it is usually that lets others think I have nil experience with guys, as [...]
September 14, 2007
0:04
Exuvia
» ‎ talfryn.net

It’s odd… 5.30am, and I’m still fully awake. I’m not sure if it’s those cups of Chinese tea I had, or if it was that latte in the late afternoon. In any case, it’s one of the rarer cases of “I really couldn’t sleep”. Usually plugging into my iPod helps, but not this time. It’s [...]
September 03, 2007
11:09
Opps, I did it again
» ‎ talfryn.net

No turning back on this one - am continually getting re-stuck in Singapore!
September 02, 2007
16:14
Restless
» ‎ talfryn.net

I don’t know what to say. Not in a bad way, though.
August 26, 2007
14:22
All for the want of a pizza
» ‎ talfryn.net

It took me 40 minutes to place an order for home delivery from Pizza Hut. I called twice. Thrice, actually. The third time only because my sis insisted. By then I was already filling in a feedback form on their website, and was looking into alternatives for dinner. The first time I called, I was [...]
8:34
Cross-cultural encounters
» ‎ talfryn.net

While at Borders the bookshop - Elderly Caucasian woman: Excuse me, sorry, could you tell me how much this book costs? And she hands a book over to a young man, who takes it, looks it over, amused, and points to the price label. Politeness getting the better of him, he reads it out. Man: It’s [...]
August 23, 2007
18:55
MBTI type
» ‎ talfryn.net

Recently I had the chance to do one of these tests. I thought I recalled doing them (or something similar) when I was younger, but since I was still young and innocent then, I hadn’t a clue if I was what the type description said I was. I did a search online to find out [...]
17:54
Watch this space
» ‎ talfryn.net

Things are happening so quickly, I can’t keep up with ‘em on my blog!
August 19, 2007
20:42
Outdone again
» ‎ talfryn.net

This time… for returning home even later than the previous night…
August 18, 2007
20:43
Outdoing myself
» ‎ talfryn.net

I believe I’ve broken a number of records these few days: Most number of consecutive hours spent outside the house (while I’m in Singapore) And thus most number of consecutive hours spent off-line (while I’m in Singapore) Most number of hands shaken and people met and new friends made Most number of words I’ve said and [...]
August 09, 2007
17:43
The nation’s birthday
» ‎ talfryn.net

I thought I could feel the excitement in the atmosphere this National Day, more so than I did for Christmas in Singapore. At least, people don’t go about wearing green and red on that special day in December, but today the streets were full of proud Singaporeans dressed in red and white. Even my sis [...]
June 28, 2007
15:48
Always on the move
» ‎ talfryn.net

I fly in a couple of hours. Again. Flights are alright… it’s the mere thought of having to go through the lines at Heathrow that makes me tired.

June 25, 2007
13:29
Nut and Bolt
» ‎ The Summit Trail

There comes a time when things are turbulent and whatever you thought you had strongly fastened become loose. Maybe you take down everything and rebuild it again using the bolts and nuts you have, but sometimes you thought that you had enough, but at the end you need to borrow some. Maybe what it needs is [...]
June 21, 2007
17:04
A random question
» ‎ The Summit Trail

Do you ever tell your friend something he wants to hear in order to cover something they do not want to hear? Dwell on that question - I’m sure there are a lot of memories floating around in the air now. Praying that it won’t rain on Saturday.

June 14, 2007
17:38
Music on the Thames
» ‎ talfryn.net

Went with a group of friends (current QG, future QG, ex-bio, family friends who were visiting London) to the Royal Festival Hall last night for one of its signature performances. The London Philharmonic Orchestra was so good! They’re the ones who did the soundtrack for the Lord of the Rings, among other films and pieces. [...]
May 29, 2007
1:56
Old stuff uploaded on Zoto
» ‎ talfryn.net

Since getting my old photos back from the dead drive (the data recovery people reported electrical failures on the printed circuit board), I’ve uploaded a few dozen pics from a few assorted places and times: Abbotsleigh (2001/2002) Heron Island field trip (2002) Shropshire field trip (2003) Brownsea-Bath-Stonehenge road trip (2004) Guernsey/Channel Islands marine ecology field trip (2004) [...]