Super Size Me

"His attitude to foreign travel, at least since he had had the means at his disposal to enjoy its advantages as often as he pleased, had always been that it was nothing more than a necessary health precaution, to be taken from time to time however disinclined to it one might be. Too preoccupied with the tasks imposed upon him by his own sensibility and by the collective European psyche, too heavily burdened with the compulsion to produce, too shy of distraction to have learned how to take leisure and pleasure in the colourful external world, he had been perfectly well satisfied to have no more detailed a view of the earth's surface than anyone can acquire without stirring far from home, and he had never ever been tempted to venture outside Europe"

Death In Venice, Thomas Mann

Stay Alive

On Setting Goals

Let me quote another interesting snippet from Paul Arden's 'Whatever You Think, Think the Opposite'. It has become my personal favourite toilet book of the month. While I won't be in the creative industry in my lifetime, I think his perspectives are worth pondering. It's a pretty encouraging and quirky book for unSingaporean Singaporeans (what is a Singaporean anyway???) who are in the midst of fashioning out alternative/non-mainstream/aesthetic lifestyles or careers but are stumbling around at this point in time.

A young man worked as a runner in an advertising firm.
One day he said to his manager, "I'm leaving. I'm going to be a drummer."
The manager said, "I didn't know you played the drums."
He replied, "I don't, but I'm going to."

A few years later that young man played in a band with Eric Clapton and Jack Bruce, and it was called Cream, and the young man's name was Ginger Baker. He became what he wanted to become before he knew he could do it. He had a goal.

***
Anyway, I think if there is ever such as a thing as the 'downfall of jimmy lim', I think it is due to the fact that I have a couple of unreconcilable goals that I want to achieve at the end of this life. While I was in Europe, I was reflecting what are the things that I'm really good at, what invigorates me as a person. I like travelling and talking to strangers in general, but I'm not sure what kind of careers fits that bill. I'm thankful for the incredulous amount of free time during my Masters to explore different internships, jobs, conferences and hopefully more travelling to see where it all leads to. First stop is my alma mater next week. I'm going to be a GP teacher. I don't think I'm genetically coded for that kind of stuff though...

Teacher: "What was your GP grade?"
Me: "B3"
Teacher: "Hmmm..."
Me:"But times have changed... I've improved"
Teacher: "What was your major"
Me:"Political Science"

I think my 'political science' and 'student council' identity sort of clinched that deal. My stomach churned a bit when I used the word 'student council'. While those were fun times, on hindsight 8 years later, I felt that the so called 'student council spirit' is simply fascist nationalism at microscopic tella tubby college levels. Well, job interviews are perhaps about branding at the end of the day. Still, I want to thank God for financial openings in decent working environments.

On Passion

Most people are other people.
Their thoughts are someone else's opinions,
their lives a mimicry,
their passions a quotation.

Oscar Wilde

Italy: rage and ruins

Italy was memorable for our experience with the shady side of life; the gypsies/pickpockets, the policecar which did an initial-D at 4th gear and drifted into MY direction, the thieves in the R2 bus, and my agonizing wait at the police station. Apparently, people pay the mafia protection money so that their cars would not be jacked in the carparks. I would later learn from sar that the mafia in Naples control the garbage trucks too. Pretty Godfather stuff eh? I thought maybe if I'm born in Naples, I'll might grow up to be a priest by day, and a mafia leader by night. 'To those outside the law I became as one outside the law that I might win those outside the law'?? Just kidding...

Giving Space

Belgium: Food, Friends and Beer

Okie, I think I shall post some euro photos up by starting with the first destination of my trip - Belgium! Sorry folks, there aren't too many sightseeing photos because it was my second time there and I told Leen, my ASEF belgian pal, that i want to do non-touristy stuff this time. So voila! We basically drank lotsa beer, ate mussels (a belgian thing to do), and cycled around farmlands and cemetaries to burn off those calories. Met up with Filipe from Portugal as well. He is now working as a journalist with the European Union. In between, we also travelled with Eunice and Lavinia, my two friends from NUS. I know Eunice since year 1 when we did the stupid module call 'Why Calculus'. If you scroll down, you'll see this weird photo... Yeap, Leen and I caught Ulysses in Brussel's opera house. Awesome stuff! She won a pair of tickets from her company, and it so happened that the performance was held during the weekend that I was there. Although Ulysses was done in Italian, and the subtitles in French and Dutch, I really appreciated the whole production. Okie, both of us fell asleep for 5 minutes.. but try reading James Joyce without falling asleep! Anyway, Leffe Blond is the new hoegarrden for me now. And if you are searching for a morning beer, try Kriek. It taste like cherrycoke, a bit pansy to drink that in pubs, but you'll be forgiven when you replace Peel Fresh with Kriek for breakfast. I can't find Leffe in Singapore yet. Maybe I'll ask Leen to send me some, in exchange for some Tiger.

Okie doks, Paris will be up next! Sorry for the jumbled up photos. Will do a better job for Paris.

Out of Focus

It has been a good trip in Europe. Did a lot of thinking, and rested well. Was following Mr Birdy in this Gaudi park for a while, and then it flew away before I got my lense in shape. Life is like that most of the time eh? Easy come, easy go, and everything else is a blur. But I like it that way. Shall leave you guys with the last line of Kiran Desai's Inheritance of Loss. Many thanks to my specimen friend for lending me the novel, kept me occupied for half the trip :)

"The five peaks of Kanchenjunga turned golden with the kind of luminous light that made you feel, if briefly, that truth was apparent. All you needed to do was to reach out and pluck it".

Will post more photos in the coming weeks.