Jogging, once again
How shall I tell the story? Hmmm, let’s start with a little bit about myself – I don’t like to jog, period. In the 40 years that I have lived, I dread the day when I had to run, you know, PE lessons in school, Basic Military Training, jogging dates. You see, I just don’t get it, you put on some gear, put one foot in front of the other and repeat 50,000 times. It doesn’t sound like the kind of activity I would put what could be productive time into.
I would, for instance, put my time into playing mahjong. With mahjong, one is entertained, fires up a couple of million brain synapses in a game of guessing which of the 144 tiles will be drawn next, and potentially even get paid for it in the end!
It started yesterday when a dear old friend called to organize one such ‘productive’ session. I hadn’t done it for a while and obliged. It was a good group of four and I was looking forward to an evening of good laughs and strategic tinkering of the bakelite tiles.
Two rounds into the game, I realize this was going to be one of those special nights which I enjoyed the most. It doesn’t matter what random set of 13 tiles I would start with, as the game progresses, I would draw perfectly complementary tiles before laying the final winning call to the rest. This is what mahjong players would call “wind”. At the end of my “wind”, I was called many names, and had raked in over $400 worth of winnings. A rare occurrence given the low bet value of our game.
I knew something was up.
The following day, I bought my colleagues lunch – it is my custom to ‘share’ winnings with friends in this manner. We decided to go to Samy’s, an Indian bryani restaurant just minutes from the office. After a hearty serving of yellow-spiced rice, papadum, mutton curry and an after-meal Dunhill frost-stick, I settled down with a cup of teh-tarik and listened to the conversation.
As usual, it revolved around Samson’s bunked weight-loss attempts, HK’s upcoming wedding and Jogger Tan’s still-born blog. It was pretty much what we talked about every lunch, and I had to steer it away. So, I blurted out how Bowser (my 6-month-old golden retriever) started dashing during his walks and I could perhaps start running along. I am sure I was just trying to change the topic – and asked Jogger about the Nike-ipod (you see, we’re a bunch of techies so gadget-chat always works). Handsome (but quiet) Jay leaped in and showed us RunKeeper, a free iPhone app that essentially does what the $100+ branded alternative does. That piqued my interest, as anything that’s free and runs on the iPhone always do.
What made this register was that Handsome Jay was due to go on leave the very next day. And I just happen to have a couple of extra $50-notes in my pocket. I said to myself “why not” and continued to Queensway Shopping Center after dropping them off. Now, this is the place to get all your sports supplies in Singapore, and it’s also minutes from the office. I parked, browsed and got everything I need under 20 minutes: a pair of New Balance running shoes, a quick-dry micro-fiber top and an iLuv iPhone arm band.
Now I’m ready to jog.
But, probably not tonight. It’s beer night with Jogger and HK. We do this once a month – down some beer, chill and talk. Tonight’s topic meandered into Intention and Ego, heavy stuff which I enjoyed. The part about the Ego revolved around how this inner nemesis fights for its ‘life’ by making its host fail in life. I thought about it and saw how my Ego tried to pull a fast one over my eyes. Who said that you cannot run after beer? Jogger then concurs that one can easily overcome the diuretic effects of beer by drinking a couple liters of water.
Now I’m ready to jog, again.
On the walk back home, I came across a woman in jogging attire, this was somewhat out of the ordinary given Holland Village’s night scene. It was a gentle reminder to cheer me on to my earlier conclusion.
When I got back, Bowser went into a frenzy of short sprints, something he hasn’t done before. Looking at him, I concluded this was yet another reminder.
At this point, I knew that my jogging is not going to start any other day, but tonight.
The mahjong session, the lunch, Handsome Jay’s just-in-time RunKeeper recommendation, the beer-chat about Ego, the out-of-place jogger and Bowser, has all been orchestrated into a seamless play-by-play to get me to start running.
So I did it. With Bowser. And it was an evening jog that is nothing short of a miracle.
Read MoreOden
I hosted a Japanese oden steamboat dinner tonight. There was music, food, great company and some smack-your-forehead conversations. I live alone now and do everything on my own now. It’s puzzling. I thought I would be very bored. But I found out tonight that there are profound benefits being on your own totally. For one, I learn a lot about myself in one night than possibly a year’s worth of therapy.
I was preparing the oden cutting up the daikon, cabbage and fishcakes and I observed that I did it with meticulous accuracy. It wasn’t done up in a rush and I took the time to do one thing at a time. I was also mindful about how I wanted it to look. It was a particularly soulful time for me – I just cut, pondered and created a beautiful dinner.
When the night ended, I had to, naturally, look at the kitchen sink full of dishes. I wouldn’t let my guests do any washing, it’s not befitting a host. I have a maid coming tomorrow but then I realized I don’t like to leave the kitchen uncouth through the night. A meal is done and the kitchen shouldn’t have to sleep with the debris for the night. I don’t used to like washing, it gives me a backache. But tonight was different. There’s a cool draft blowing though the apartment and I thought, what the heck. So, I played the same Japanese jazz and started washing.
It was different. I used to want to get over with the washing even before I start. But tonight was different. I simply washed. Not because I had to, but that I wanted to. And when I did that, the washing came to an end all too soon. The kitchen was totally clean, no pans uncleaned, trash taken out, table clothes rinsed, leftovers stored. There was no stone unturned. It was good to leave a cleaned kitchen.
As I pondered about the night, I thought about a couple of friends who have been wanting to leave their folks and live on their own. Somehow, they just couldn’t convinced their parents to let go.
I’m thinking, isn’t important for parents to allow that freedom for their children to discover their own life. Even if it’s learning about how they liked their kitchens cleaned, it’s really different when you live with someone else and had to adhere to their house rules. Even if it is the same rules, it’s different if you discover that it is what you like. You have to make your own rules. You owe it to yourself to discover your own true self.
Read MoreA Note on Piracy
I recently shipped two cartons of books into the office to seed a new venture selling books. A colleague got interested and I asked if he’d buy them from me. “Let me see if I can get them online,” he replied and another colleague followed “Shoop, almost all books are online now.”
I’m really shocked – I thought people only download music, movies and tv shows. Not books!
Friends who know me cannot figure out why I always buy original. A friend gasped at my collection when he visited for a X’mas party, “Shoop, I’m amazed at your collection, how much did you spent?” Come to think of it, was he amazed why I spent so much on a collection that would have easily cost anyone else a-tenth to nothing?
Amongst my circle of acquaintainces, piracy is already socially accepted. Tips on how to different the better copies are freely exchanged. When you visited, bring along an external hard-disk in case you see sometime you want.
Now, I understand where everyone is coming from – copies are a lot cheaper (or free), they’re digitally identical, eveyone’s doing it and times are bad so I have to save. Those are very valid reasons.
I think the problem is that we, as consumers, no longer create anything anymore. If there’s two bakers, would one take another’s recipe and starts selling the same cakes? No he won’t. Because he knows the value of creating the recipe as a baker himself. There is the matter of pride involved, too.
But as consumers, everything to us is valued at its price. It’s the only sensible way to live a good life, stretch the dollar, so to speak. The offer with the best price always wins.
So, the ball is out of bounds now. Creators cannot create for nothing. And consumers cannot become creators. The way I see it, less of us will want to be creators. Hence, more bad movies, crap tv shows and shallow books. It’s inevitable.
Read MoreHow To Give
Photo by Martin Kingsley
Something happened in Singapore a couple of weeks back and it affected me greatly.
What I knew I read vaguely almost a week later from the evening papers and a discussion on a local forum:
A 15 year old boy was begging in a neighbourhood food centre when a patron called the police on him. Allegedly, he was asking for $2 to buy lunch for his ill mother. The police came and probably took him back to the police post and filed the incident. After that, they escorted him back to the void deck of his HDB (public housing in Singapore). From there, he went up another building and jumped. The boy died.
The story stuck with me for days, and nights. It wasn’t publicized much in the local papers and most of my friends hadn’t even heard about it.
I had been wondering why the story of the ‘begger boy’ (coined by the local paper) had affected me so much.
I came up with many responses to it: I talked to my friends about it, complained about the state of charity organizations in Singapore, and even thought about a startup for it.
In final analysis, I believe the story of the ‘boy’ is really trying to teach me something, something personal, something about how to give.
Read MoreLook for the Simple Pleasures in Life
Photo by Sarah Jane
Every so often you’d find yourself dishearten with the state of the world around you.
If you’ve been reading this blog, I believe I’ve brought to your attention a few more dreads such as inflation and the growing weakness of our financial institutions.
My only intention in writing ‘dreadful’ posts is for them to serve as a ‘watch out!’ sign so you might take the necessary precautions. My intention is that you understand what’s going on and take relevant action. I do not want you to be dishearten and throw in the towel.
So, there will always be tough issues. You know them and you know how to go about dealing with them. Day in, day out, you go about your game plan. Then one fine morning while sipping coffee, you say to yourself, “life’s too tough.”
This is where simple pleasures come in.
Read More