June 20, 2012
travel by smell
Last night, I went cycling - something that I haven't done for a long awhile, and didn't realise I could miss.
The bike is new and easy to ride; it picks up speed fast and was even a little difficult to control possibly because I was rusty in riding and the condition of the bike was really mint-new. So, I did not have to pedal too hard before I found myself cutting through the wind.
The smell of the trees, grass, shrubs... the smell one gets when being around greenery at night... perhaps, the smell of competition for oxygen as the trees respire... I like it, very much. It always brings to mind my last two years in NUS, a period of time that I now know is one of my happiest and to which I like to revisit even if only in the nostalgic mind.
Being a FASS student, I didn't really have to stay back late in campus much, save for occasional faculty events. I did stay late a few times to mug for exams with friends or engage in communal whining in the Honours Room about not being able to write on thesis topics anymore, but again, those were episodic arrangements.
Nevertheless, the smell lingers and is so identifiable that every time it brushes up my nostrils, it takes my non-physical being back to those uni days. In that way, quite unwittingly, it manages to bring an upward curve to my mouth.
Cycling is relaxing, much more than jogging. Especially given the humid weather these days, even in the night time, it is so much more enjoyable to have some breeze while you pedal away some calories (albeit less than jogging) than to sweat profusely.
I also found out that there are actually plenty of climbing opportunities in the new Bishan Park; somehow, the playground has been done up in such a way that there are plenty of climb-related facilities. For the 'monkey/spider/lizard syndrome' in me, that is good.
Posted by 杏 cy （Jancy） at 10:44
June 10, 2012
one of those conversations...
me: You are getting more pampered eh.
em: Not pampered, just practical.
me: That (wanting to have a car) is not practical. If there is no car, can't we take taxi, bus. . . train? Or even walk? Why do you think God gave us two legs for?
em: One for the accelerator, one for the brake. Two.
me: . . .
posted from Bloggeroid
Posted by 杏 cy （Jancy） at 19:26
June 07, 2012
Word quota
Perhaps it's the still and stale weather, or the mundaneness of the work I do in office the past week, or an aching lower back, or the restraint that has to be exerted on the pocket this month or just an unknown misalignment of the stars... I have been feeling splendidly lethargic for the whole of this week (today being Day 4 of this week).
On day 1, I thought I was rather alright, just not too excitable - which is really a normal trait that one observes of me. I knew that I was downright tired on day 2, after an existential wait to collect my tablet from Samsung at the Customer Service Centre followed by an hour of body toning workout (and I just had 2hour rock-climbing session 2 days before that), and greeted by never-finishing laundry task. Maybe the physical fatigue spilled over to day 3 and sort of influenced a mental and emotional fatigue too. I was, simply, not keen to engage in anything that requires more effort than necessary to stay alive, clean and un-hungry.
Day 4 is today and I'm feeling the pit of boredom. Maybe that's even too optimistic - the bottom could be lower than I imagine.
At a spur of uninspired living, I went to check out price of air tickets to Myanmar - the most recent country that has seen a new wave of democratic and political inspiration. A mistake, as it now costs more than when I checked in February, to fly SIN-RGN-SIN. Hence, adding to my hopelessness that I would have to endure this uninspired and lethargic phase of my life for a little while more, in uninspiring environment, under lethargic weather.
I have gone so bored and wit-less that I can't even come up with alternative words to describe my... well, lethargy.
The good thing - as all dark clouds have some silver lining (though sometimes, it's kind of hard to distinguish silver from light grey) - is that I have an interesting book in the stash now. The difference is so stark that I actually feel my brain firing away when I read the book, vis-a-vis when I'm not.
I thought of the word quota theory that Bblics and I conveniently use to explain our bouts of silence and incapability to show enthusiasm in life and other human beings. It goes that, we each have a fixed number of words that we utter in a given period of time (word quota) and when we exceeded the quota, we just can't work ourselves up enough to talk unless absolutely necessary (though as you can well see, I still can write). Question is, when will we receive the next batch of quota? Answer is, absolutely no idea.
Someone or something needs to give it a spark, I guess. Till then, the solitude is between the written word and me.
Posted by 杏 cy （Jancy） at 16:00