some nice things to mull over ...

so you're good for something, Michelle Phan

Online jigsaw puzzles from JigsawSite.com

Organic froyo! You don't have to play but it's FUN. So I strongly suggest you do :)

twenty twelve

We are woken up every morning to a banquet of goodness, a table overflowing with platters of opportunities and stacks of ideas, there is too much to choose from and we only have two hands. There are no limits, there is only encouragement, choose me, no choose me, it’s okay you can have them both. In fact, take as much as you like.

This year will be about opening my eyes. Not only because I’m Asian and need to cross the road safely, but because I owe it to myself and what I’ve been fortunate enough to have been offered. I will dedicate my time to opening my mind, to thinking not just outside of the box, but outside of the factory that society has had us believe the world can only be. I will open my heart, allow it to feel and love and bleed and rejoice and cry, I will embrace what it chooses for me. I will search within myself for the courage to dream, to take risks, to not let pre-conceived limitations get the better of me.

I will go to Europe. I will consume more calcium. I will stop hating UNSW as much as I hate T*$#^%&t.  And I will begin to believe again.

water

There are no guarantees in life. Apart from the obvious, that which is inevitably death. But we live our lives with such certainty that a future exists, that we know where we'll be tomorrow and what we'll be doing. And 99% of the time, tomorrow becomes today and today becomes yesterday, without even so much as a glitch. But we get so bogged down in the mundane tasks of everyday life that we so selfishly make light of anything horrific or traumatising happening to others, simply because they aren't affecting us. But our time will come, for each and every one of us, where we are beyond hope and we're not even sure we want to see tomorrow arrive. Being left in the lurch is a terrifying experience - not knowing how far you have to fall and how long it will take to even gather yourself and think about the possibility of starting over. Trust is given so easily at times, and yet withheld from the most trustworthy of sources. We trust that our barista won't spit in our coffee, that the plans we make will run like clockwork. And yet we fail to place our trust in the one being who has the ability to give life and to take life away. We have this innate fear in handing over what isn't ours and allowing somebody else to guide us back to where we belong. But in theory, it should be the simplest and most willing choice we make in this lifetime.

4 0 5

I've learned that we constantly give ourselves excuses to limit our potential, that achievements have to be validated by accolades and awards, and everything we do or want to do has to be justified down to the smallest detail. This may be the case if you're doing it for someone else - so don't. Make it your own. Because at the end of the day, your accomplishments mean more to you than to anyone else.

They say that nothing worth having comes easily. In life, some things fall into our laps without requiring us to lift so much as a finger. Other times, we throw ourselves in front of oncoming traffic for a mere chance at an opportunity, only to be met with disappointment (and possibly serious injury). So when something potentially beautiful is dangling within reach, don't ignore that sparkling possibility that's lingering in the corner of your vision. Take it, before someone else does - because they will.

"Once upon a helicopter ..."

BEING SNEAKY

Life jacket bum bags!

: )

ick schmick

When you wrestle your way onto public transport and plonk yourself between a heavyset middle-aged European widow and a bearded man with a questionable smell lingering on the remains of his clothing, you forfeit all rights to personal space and any possible level of comfort. There's little that can be done to avoid the wispy cobweb-esque hair of the foreigner seated next to you brushing your forearm, rocking back and forth racked by silent giggles as you glare at their backpack covered in cupcakes and frogs and wonder what could possibly be funnier than throwing them into quicksand. We are (or at least I am) set an Everest on a daily basis, to push thoughts of contracting skin diseases or gastro out of our minds. I am by no means Emma Pillsbury - I live by the 5 second rule - but CityRail is known as ShittyRail for a very valid reason.

toddler talk

You represent the bungee cord which brings everything back to comfort, familiarity, all that you needed to delve deep to even recall once more. A memory, a state of being, a time which you both despise and hold dear to your heart. But there is always more than meets the eye, peering through those first impressions - the fear is that it isn't adequate in meeting your expectations, those both feasible and completely irrational. It is all good and well to have hopes, fantasies, dreams both inconceivable and within grasp. And the best is only experienced when you have absolutely everything to lose. You are given the opportunity to appreciate, not the superficiality, but the soul, the inner workings of what causes movement, emotion, inspiration, satisfaction. Consciously or not, we are striving for an equilibrium in our lives, and those intent on searching for life's meaning are realising all too late that they are missing out on the journey life itself is. Where does one find the lever to stop analysing, calculating consequences, preparing and predicting for what we believe is ahead? The best we can do is search within ourselves to define all that we are able to. Are we even remotely close to understanding ourselves, through self-appointed descriptions and analogies and comparisons? Perception is unique for everyone, and it teeters on the brink of humorous how we constantly misinterpret one another and, as a result, cause conflict neither party wants to resolve.

I know you were looking, but what were you looking for?

Maybe I am on the path to love, and maybe I will learn many things along the way. So here are some thoughts (though they are not my own) -

"The capacity to be alone is the capacity to love. It may look paradoxical to you, but it is not. It is an existential truth: only those persons who are capable of being alone are capable of love, of sharing, of going into the deepest core of the other person - without possessing the other, without becoming dependent on the other, without reducing the other to a thing, and without becoming addicted to the other. They allow the other absolute freedom, because they know that if the other leaves, they will be as happy as they are now. Their happiness cannot be taken by the other, because it is not given by the other.

Then why do they want to be together? It is no longer a need; it is a luxury. Try to understand it. Real persons love each other as a luxury; it is not a need. They enjoy sharing: they have so much joy; they would like to pour it into somebody. And they know how to play their life as a solo instrument. The solo flute player knows how to enjoy his flute alone. And if he comes and finds a tabla player, a solo tabla player, they will enjoy being together and creating a harmony between the flute and the tabla. Both will enjoy it: they will both pour their richness into each other."

From Being in Love

by Osho

Pyrenees Mountains, South France
Not jealous at all ...

Happy one month, Simons!

By the one and only Marie Ramos x

"You miss 100% of the shots you never take."

- Wayne Gretzky

total serendipity

Leaving something behind gives you something to return to.

Airports are the most magnificent of places because they allow you to escape as far off into the distance as you can imagine, yet the beauty of travel is that it should never be constrained. Every flight is a journey, every step away from familiarity is a new beginning, a glimpse into the millions of potential pathways which disappear from existence the moment we choose to walk down a particular one. Never leave with a heavy heart, don't take another step until you are fully aware of the wonders that the world has to offer. Because it is in the letting go with no regret that we gain everything and more; and embarking on a journey, especially a spontaneous one, is one of the most rewarding and exhilarating leaps of faith we can take.

I Shift+F7ed 'perfect' and got "just what the doctor ordered". Um, Microsoft Word needs to consult an actual thesaurus sometime in the near future.

add-me

 

The envelopes that the Red Cross supplies taste like pears, definitely the best tasting envelopes I've tried so far. I want to file and budget and organise and promote and be a fairy! It's raining phlegm (hallelujah!)

Emma says no more questions

Date with one Jess Chu!

.

We write about our thoughts and we think about our feelings and we feel the things that we do and love and believe and share and I want words, I want words to encompass the essence of the present, the lingering scent of the past and the anticipation of what's to come that you surrender every fibre of your being to focusing on keeping your hands in fists so as to not spoil what is or what isn't. I want to overcompensate for the wasted, the empty, the neglected, the deprived, the forgotten, I want to overindulge until I am seeing but I am not, I want them all to coincide and blend, amalgamate, marry into one beautiful splendid moment of everything and nothing. I want to hold on but I know the beauty is buried in the letting go, something so precious that you suffocate its whimsical image by bolting it down with bricks, bricks of steel and heavy hearts. I want sentences, and I crawl under the table, picking at crumbs and scraps of fallen greatness, begging for more, more to sustain and nourish, but most of all to reassure.

sunday funday

Nostril flare contest

Little rats!

She's even got the fists going

Peek a boo

Best kid evahhh

Fries a la pho

kobe jones

Too lazy to form sentences. We had fun, it rained. Here are some pictures:

photographic diarrhoea

Anger at whoever took me to a MUSHROOM FARM for lunch

Look how close I got to the ducks in Perth!

One of the rare occasions where every member of my paternal family showed up

Lake of Dreams at Sentosa

Marina Bay Sands

Asian moment

Azn hair in my eye

Bread = Happiness

Some of my favourite things - oh, and Jess!

watching marstahsheff

The Chocolate Room with Miss Chu

"You look like a little rat"
: (

LOOK AT THESE SHOES by far the funniest things I've seen this week

This coming week I will embrace mud crab and pandan cakes!