Bye paris.

Thanks for the smells of my primary school, the wonderful town of Provins, the rain that comes down every single day, oh and that one occasion of hail. Thank you for also the delectable but expensive pastries, the countless bauggettes that i never got sick of, the pain au chocolat that had been my favourite since young. Thank you also for the mass at st joseph's church, which make me remember how my dad used to scout for churches when we took a family holiday. Thank you for letting me remember the times that i secretly never wore the underwear that my mama used to wash in the sinks on our trips to malacca. Merci bouku

Inner Peace.

Train rides are peaceful. I'm only talking about long distance rides out of the city, not the metro. You sit by the window, with the sun shining onto your outstretched feet, and you watch the world whizz you by. Just like life, there are stretches of green fields that go on for miles, with an eagle soaring above it. But there are also areas where there is just bushes and shrubs, brown and boring, just like how life can sometimes be. You get to see small settlements along the way, sometimes an old run down town, sometimes an industrial village, sometimes a small chicken farm. This is how life should be. An adventure.

Its a Roulette

I've been thinking. What makes 2 people stay together? I think a month long backpacking trip will tell. I just saw a couple alighting from the rail in paris. The guy says left, the girl says right. The guy stood his ground, and the girl followed. It made me think for a moment. I guess rotational leadership is the key to a successful relationship. Both parties need to let the other take the lead, and even if it means walking the longer route or the wrong way, knowingly. If there are two leaders, there will be no followers and just two solo travelers. Followers must have leaders and leaders must have followers.

Paris.

The heart of france. In every city, the sights and sounds are what others distinguish the city by, but for me, i get a feel of the city by its smells. I'll tell you what paris smells like. In every corner you turn, you will be greeted by a myriad of smells. Pain au chocolat and fresh crossiants from the nearby bakery, followed by stale urine when you pass by an underpass in the metro, the familiar kind of smell that i remembered from my old primary school. A colourful experience is the word to describe my stay in paris. Sun, rain, hail, gust, cold. All within a day. Rude awakening by a fat asshole who chose to sleep on the shaky bed frame as me. Entertainment by a string quartet in the metro station. Accordion artiste playing wonderful tunes on the metro. Eating plain baguette to keep hunger away. Climbing across restricted access to get pictures of the gloomy effiel. The adventure continues. To versaillie now.

The Dream Adventure

I had a Adventure, while I was sleeping. It was an exciting but scary at the same time. In the dream, my heart was racing and my adrenaline was pumping, I was running, and killing and doing so many crazy things. The Asian Adventure begins.

It started out with a simple mail to my old house down at Marine Terrace. I had received a stack of letters that was mailed to me. But this stack of letters were different. They were bundled together and handed out by a guy at the corner where 2 lines of shops meet. And it was strange, because the guy who gave out the letters reached into an envelope with cash, and handed each one some when we received our bundle of mail. I soon came to realise that it was a money laundering syndicate. But anyhow I went on my way and opened my bundle, and to my surprise, there was a similar envelope with cash inside! I was scared and happy, running all the way to my flat. The first person I met was my maternal Grandma, and told her about it, she gave me a worried look and told me to throw away the money since the money is tainted and will bring problems to my doorstep. I thought otherwise and opened the envelope and destroyed the envelope. I was prepared to lie my way through if ever there was a knock on the door. I handed my mum the money, paying her back what I had owed her for my overseas exchange trip. I remembered massaging my Mama's knee as she complained that it was aching. I also remembered looking at old photos of her when she was much fatter.

Now comes the exciting part. Somehow or other, the people that received their bundle of letters had to be on a ferry that made a trip from Changi beach to Bedok jetty, and in it was the runner of the big money laundering syndicate. I was a wreck of nerves throughout the boat ride. What if they realised that they forgot to take out the envelope of cash from my bundle? What if my lie fell through? Any thing could happen on that ferry, and I would have nowhere to run. But thankfully, the boat docked and all the passengers got out. I was about to rush out and run but my cool headed side told me not to arouse any suspicion. Apparently there was a coffin on board, and it had to go back to the docks somewhere in Changi beach. Some guy handed me a slip of paper to pass to the boatman, as much as I wanted to reject it, but I swallowed my adrenaline and acted normal as I headed to the front. As I did so, the ferry started to move off!! I was trapped yet again! But I knew that it was heading to Changi Beach ,where I could alight and take a bus home.


Soon after, the ferry morphed into a small sampan, and there was just me, the boatman, the runner and yan jie. Don't ask me why, but there was yan jie, sleeping like a log like he usually does. The sampan took a turn into a very strange and desolate calm stream. There were junkyards on either bank, with tonnes of scrap aluminumon either side. And the boatman, being a scrooge that he was, drove his sampan into the tyre w alls so that a little scrap aluminum will fall into his sampan so that he could re-sell it. All was going well until I saw a figure in the distance, moving. It was no human, and moved it jerky motions. As the sampan drew closer, it was a junk robot who was moving on its own, it was a scene straight out of transformers. My logical mind told me it was something plausible, junk cpu's still storing their past memory, and with their inbuilt AI, they start to think like humans, and build their body together. They start building other robots and programming with AI too, this species grow and evolve, and soon have a society of their own, living entirely on scrap material and fuel.


The robot had a childish appearance, something you would find in a child's play pen. But this one was yielding a toy missile, with a red and white cap which made it look rubberish. "Zoosh!" Suddenly that same missile was fired and it missed the boat by a narrow inch. I was still thinking it was made of rubber when it exploded upon contact with the stream. I turned my head to see 3 more similar missiles zipping past my head, it was then that I realised we needed to run. The boatman tried his best to avoid these missiles, but we were hit by one! I wanted to get out and run but he held my arm and told me it wasn't a wise thing to do. I pointed him to the herd of ill fitted war machines that were walking in the stream towards our location and he jumped out. Yan Jie was sleeping as usual, even the explosion and the sinking sampan didn't wake him. I gave him a jolt as the sampan drifted to the bank. He sprang up and we ran.


There were more scrap machines on the bank. These ones had lesser AI built in, but they were also programmed to kill. They held the 3 pronged spear and came charging at us. The spears, although made of plastic, could be potentially harmful. We snatched the spears and thrust them into the bots, short circuiting them instantly. As we ran, the robots got further and further away. We eventually caught sight of Bedok Camp II, and there were trainees outside the camp.


I felt good to be back home. But turning back, I could still see the bots lingering in the distance, waiting to pounce on anyone who had a brain, a brain that created their species.

I Feel Lost

Its kinda unexplainable cuz lost isn't a feeling that an Adventurer should feel. He can be lost, but he shouldn't feel lost at all. There is always something planned, somewhere to go. Not that I have nowhere to go, or nothing to look forward to, but I just feel lost in all the stuff that I have on going. There are hostels to book, places to read up on, money to save, money to earn, letters to reply, exams to check out on, toilet bowl to fix, flights to book, room to clean, clothes to wash, new dishes to experiment. There is just so much interesting and exciting stuff to do!

But receiving an expected mail in my letter box today made me happy. I was happy to know that I still had friends who bother to sit down for 5 mins and write a letter to me. It was more than I can ask for. So, I've decided to take some time off planning all the trips to sit down for 10 minutes and write a post card or a letter to everyone that I owe letters to.

Oh, forgot to mention, I cooked beef steak yesterday and beef with leak today. 2 of my friends said that it was the best oriental beef they have ever tasted. I wonder if it is better than my mum's beef. Oh but it was almost as tender as my mums. And definitely of a different taste, cuz my secret is in the kiwi that I put in.

Just restored my fridge to life. Its sad to open a fridge where you can't just pick off something and just munch on it. Went to buy some cheap cakes and chocolates to revive it. Then I realise that I'll be leaving for Berlin soon. I think it the food will finish in time.

The Adventure continues with a morning run at 0930 tomorrow. Jag ska springer i morgon.

Light My Fire

So we went. With 2 boxes of matches and some charcoal, we walked to a campfire pit just next to the forest. With the hope of a big bon fire and warming our hands to the fire, we built a fire from firewood. It was a concerted effort between me, yoseph and si hui. We started from one match with some kindling and lots of fanning and blowing, and viola! We had our fire going strong. Yoseph's huge huff and puff and si hui's vicious fanning turned embers into crackling flames. Was surprised that we could start a fire with matches and leftover charcoal and firewood. I guess there has to be a scout in my somewhere.

Here we made hotdogs and corn and marshmallows. It was a simple meal, with simple close friends. There was much to talk about or rather gossip, and soon it was sunset and the stars came out. Its just like a clip from a show. It was really an Adventure to be behold.

Learnt something from yoseph today. Love speaks 5 different languages. Gifts, Touch, Acts of service, Words & Quality time. It made some stuff clearer to me. Enlightened.

And I also realised that it pays to be kind to others. Cuz I'll be studying for an exam tomorrow, and Si hui volunteered to cook for me! How zai is that.

I can still smell the smoke from the camp fire in the woods. Think its stuck in my hair. Or the hair in my nostrils. Whatever. It was fun.

The Adventure continues while I study the whole of the next 2 days.

My Atlas, My World

I just realised that Europe is big and vast. I don't think I will be able to set foot in every country, but there will be many many firsts. My trips are somewhat planned, but my budget is not. This is how I like to spend my money, or how I usually spend. I save a whole lot by scrimping and saving, then splurge it all on something that I really think is worth it. The last spree was my camera of 3k plus. This trip is the next. I will return to home penniless, with not a penny on my back, but with smiles and memories that money can't buy.

Been cooking alot recently, from belgium chocolate mousse to banana cake, from chicken cordon bleu to garlic fried kuskus. Been hanging out alot with friends over dinner, its like a bonding sessions where we htht and pour things out and gossip. Sat down for tea at a cafe. Been to Flamman to have burgers and beer. Been at Si Hui's place for dinner and learning swedish with her swedish neighbour until like 2am in the morning. Been slope sliding and snowman building. So many firsts, and yet more to come.

The Adventure continues tomorrow where yoseph, sihui and me will have a bbq in the snow. I will go to the recycling room to take some junk wood for firewood. This is fun. This is Life. I will live it well. No more shadows of pasts, no more "what if's". Its "what next". Jude is back.

New faces, interesting people

In the course of a week, I've met a few interesting people, it made me reflect on where I am in life. Starting with the latest first, a person I met just an hour ago.

His name is Gregor, and he is the MD of a branch in a company called IonBond. Its a company that does deals with coatings on metals used for manufacturing. He said something very striking: "Everytime you come to point where u have to make a decision to whether to try or not to try something, pause and think, 'Will you regret not having done it?' If you do, then just go ahead with it, despite the odds. If its something that you wouldn't regret not doing, then don't." So far in my life, I've only regretted not doing one thing, and it was in SJI some many years ago. After which, I've been living with no regrets. I think thats how life should be. His company has also a very peculiar biz model. They practically get by from day to day without any plan for the next month or next year. I was expecting a company of that size to have some plan for the "future", but no. They have a truck that goes around to their clients to see if they have any parts to coat, and if they have, IonBond will have work to do for a few days, if not, they wouldn't have anything to do. Its quite stressful Gregor says, but this is what makes his job interesting. I was thinking about my photography. He said he didn't think of becoming a MD when he first started, he just loved his job as a technician and the titles and position just came along. Maybe I have to just love photography and not think about making profit everytime.

The previous person I met was actually a person on a Flickr page that I've been viewing for quite some time! I met him at the library when I was asking the librarian if they knew where is the nearest photo studio is. I sat down and he helped me search out some photo studios that he knew. I was intending to go look for some work there, and the good thing is, the Swedes only get married on saturdays!

Before that, I met Claire, someone who has 'been there, done that'. Everything that you've think its cool and interesting, she would have already done that, maybe not windsurfing thats all. But from her, I realised that there are so many things I've yet to do, so many things that I've yet to accomplish. I'm still a jack of all trades, but never a master of one. I would like to be a master of some, someday.

Just came back from chasing the sunset, something I like to do every once in a while. But today, it was more than the Adventure I had asked for. I fell on hard ice twice whilst cycling to catch a nice sunset. And I got stopped by 3 police cars because I was taking a sunset over the military airfield. Too my surprise, they were so nice and understanding, they just deleted my pictures and copied down my particulars. At the end, I still asked them if they knew a better place to take a sunset.

Oh well. The Adventure continues on saturday at Kisa. Prob my last snowboarding trip.

The Hang of Things

I've begin to love living alone, love doing things all by myself and having only myself to answer to. Love planning trips and itineraries to Paris, talking to people at the weekly church  potluck, going for mass and getting inspired by the sermon, seeing snow, going up a hill to snowboard down.

Snowboarding is easy. Falling down on the snow is even easier. Its like windsurfing to me, I can do it week after week and not get sick of it. Yesterday at Kisa, I finally got the hag of snowboarding, the trick is to be brave(as claire said) and put your weight on the front foot and steer.

Its a kind of experience that only windsurfing can equal. I'm happy and contented. Thanks to Claire and Eugene for all the tips and to Olof(my swedish friend who drove us there) for showing me how a jump should look like.

I guess I'll be back to Kisa at least once before the snow melts.