All Dressed Up and Nowhere to Go

June, is a wedding month… every week, be it Saturday/Sunday, you’re bound to receive one/two invitations at weekends.

 

I have nothing against weddings… I think it’s great that two people who like each other enough is willing to go through the motions of announcing their short-lived lust of each other and invite everybody to join in their joy.

It’s just that, it really is an aggravation.

We have a thing down here about weddings.. Attending weddings is an obligation. Unless you are sick/poorly, have another important matter, urgent family demands,  custom dictates that it would be impolite not to attend the wedding, when you have clearly been invited.

The custom goes both ways,  because the wedding invitee also needs to issue out as many wedding invitations as posible, to the remotest of relatives as far away as the Darkest Peru.... as we now know, it is impolite to not invite people. Even ones they don’t really know.

Thereafter, in conclusion, you’re getting a lot of wedding invitations to people you barely know.  And most invitee will have somewhat big weddings, oh, around 2000 people or so…

And as is custom, weddings requires people to dress well..very well.. in fact, the easiest is a coat and tie… and as June is the Indian Summer months, so take note that while we may look formal and quite studly, inside we are silently sweating buckets and cursing whoever it is that invented coats.  

And so, the story goes, one dresses up nicely…diets for it, goes to the hairdresser for it. Spend hours pruning and preening for it…

So one can,  circle for hours looking for parking spaces,  wait in long queues to congratulate the benefactor, get limp, tired handshakes from the bride/groom,  get some buffet and sod off home, sweating.

I repeat. I have nothing against weddings. Just the grand pointlessness of it all.  But then again, what do I know. After all,  It is Custom.

 

I Suppose I Could Tell You.............

How it feels, to whistle down between the tree-lined tea plantations, wind brushing your face.

The speed as you wiggle around the singletrack, so periously close to the edge of the plantation valleys...

How your lungs bursts as you slowly grind up that never ending climb.

How slippery the ground is the morning after the rain, and how your heart pounds as you wrestle the bike down the steep slope, slipping and sliding...

But i'd rather let you picture, the end of the ride. dirty, tired, smiling, and all around you is a stunning vista of trees and that sweet mountain air.

Phew.

I love my new Hobby.

A Moment of Weakness

Inexplicably,

From time to time I’m struck with acute moments of aloneness..

It doesn’t last long…, a minute, at most…even a second…

But it sinks deep…and haunts you throughout the day…..

Funny this, coming from a closet introvert. Makes one wonder if Wilson has taken the right lifestyle choices.

Book "Inch" Worm

So, to note. I have bought another book. a novel, this time.
which makes my collection of books i have bought in the past 3 months, up to..ten..and counting

1. Bobby Flay's Burger book (burgers look fun)
2. Jamie Oliver's Dinner (loved Jamie's books)
3. Gentlemen of the Road (Michael Chabon)
4. the Mysteries of Pittsburgh (Michael Chabon)
5. Slam (Nick Hornby)
6. Twenties Girl (Sophie Kinsella)
7. The Art of War (Sun Tzu)
8. The To Do List (Mike Gayle)
9. Things Managements do which you have not done (some obscure witch writer)
10. Introverted Management (which was a wash, because it was written by an extrovert, bah)

Aside from the last book, which was, pretty much neglected. the only book that i managed to read was.... The Sophie Kinsella.. which was finished in one day flat...

The rest of the book, was flipped about, once or twice, deigned too complicated to read, and shoveled into the book rack, which and stays there collecting dust, waiting for the other new unread books.

I suppose I liked the concept of reading a book better than actually reading it. see.. buying it does make you sound more intellegent, somewhat. like when I decided to buy a Michael Chabon novel (or three) just because he was a Pullitzer winning novelist, and smart intelligent ball like Wilson should be reading a Pullitzer winning novel.

Well, not so fast, Wilson......this concept of getting "cultured" by book reading is wearing pretty thin pretty fast. But I digress. It is just a way for Wilson to understand people without meeting them.

Turns out, people are seemingly even more complicated in novels, than they are in real life (as per Pullitzer winning author's point of view).

Back to the drawing board Wilson, looks like you'll have to meet more people soon.

Perfect Day

Let me tell you what my perfect day is……

Its bound to be on a non-working day, for sure. So, a holiday….

On that day, I’m going to wake up pretty late…say, around 9……and have something to eat..a solid burger, or a sandwich, with all the trimmings….

And then I’ll sit by the couch…. TV off/on, some music. Or maybe I’ll just google/blog something up.

In the afternoon, after a bit of a nap, I’ll go off and have a light exercise at the gym

And then have a ridiculously huge late lunch, like a japanese chicken curry rice. With green tea.

maybe then a little cake with coffee, with a good book, at Starbucks.….

And then go home, and watch some movie on DVD

And go to bed, early…. Say, Nine, or Ten, tops

And doing all of this, without talking….to anybody…..……

One should try it…..infinitely refreshing to only start talking again by Monday.

There’s so many useless, unimportant things being talked about, your head fill up with so many useless talks, debates, useless jokes, that maybe, one doesn’t realise, that maybe, just maybe, your mouth could do with a break. Give time for the brain to restructure your sentences before you say something that you might regret..

Now that, would be the perfect day.

Humpitty humpitty boom boom "get on up to it"

There’s something truly subjective about creating music, either the right kind of music, or the wrong kind of music.  I have personally not understood the definitions of DJ’s as musicians..

Granted, they may have good taste in music (an entirely subjective matter)… but does that make them musicians ??? They don’t actually play a musical instrument. The definitions would be eclectic music players…and truly undeserving of the dosh they make selling albums containing bits and pieces of real songs mutilated and repeated over and over again and call them “ A Musical Masterpiece”…..Bah…. and us poor souls have to listen to those truly hideous songs in the only two places does play them, namely the Club and the Gym

Why am I ranting??? Well, in as many month as I have (reluctantly) went to the gym, I have never forgotten my iPod…..but, I didn’t bring it yesterday… And for two mind numbing hours I have had to listen to the some DJ albums, consisting of a guy repeating the phrase “ Get it on up to it”….over…and over…. For 17,000 times in a row……..

Hoping for some enlightment, I asked the guy in charge the reason why they played this “thing”…and the official answer, straight faced was… “People work out harder,  and enjoy working out more with these beats”….

Why on earth does anybody think that  creating repeating a beat over and over and repeating a phrase “get it on up to it” over and over 17,000 times in a row would make you work out any harder??  

It escapes my Very Little Brain… maybe one needs much bigger brains to comprehend these music…… for sure, that’s the last time I’ll forget my Pods….

Insensical

The problem with writing emails is… you expect a reply in return,

so, when it doesn’t come… you immediately think that something was wrong with your reply, and you’re left with palpitations of “what have I done”…whereas when you have received the mail… and you know that everything is all right.. you may no longer have the impulse to reply… which, may leave the other side wondering what THEY have done………

Human beings are so filled with things that don’t make sense..

A Sense of Dissatisfaction

There are few people whom I really love, and still fewer of whom I think well. The more I see of the world, the more am I dissatisfied with it; and every day confirms my belief of the inconsistency of all human characters, and of the little dependence that can be placed on the appearance of merit or sense – Pride & Prejudice

Kids, toddlers, and little furrry things...

a closet confession


as normal people go, they're scared of certain things. Dark rooms, monsters, cockroaches, frogs, lizards, bats etc. Perfectly, utterly understandable, they ARE horrible beastly creatures, your regular everyday "euww"...items....


Mine is a little unusual. I'm children phobic......I'm not one of those people who see children and get all googly eyed and misty, making unintelligible baby sounds to match. Nope... I'm the guy who stands wayyyy at the back, looking at this little so-called "bundle of joy" with an ingenously crafted unidentified expression, perfectly trained in many family outings....

thing is, I don't quite see the purpose of filling up the world with these little tykes... My Mom would say " it is the NORMAL thing to do, Wilson! to marry and procreate, and make noisy little people that cry, misbehave and breaks your favourite mug."....(the last part, naturally added)... seeing the crowded population of people in this world, it doesn't make all that much sense to make billions more to the ever more crowded world.

So, as you can imagine, a company family outing was not exactly my dream vacation.
Stuck in a bus packed with multiple screaming babies that rises and falls to the RPM of the bus
was stressful, to say the least. All the while the father was seemingly trying to console the unconsolable tyrants, standing in the bus for the better part of 4 hours, with various toys on hand, the mother on hand with ready multiple milk bottles, largely untouched. by the end of the trip, they looked tired and beat...

but here's the thing.... it was on the trip that I GET it.....Looking from any angle of any side of any equation, there is no logical sense of having kids. But it's not about logic. Its the joy of crafting something, from your own blood, that is entirely your own. with all your characters, your spouse's and something extra, and putting the responsibility solely on your hand to guide him to be whatever he/she wants to be... So, to these parents...it's like opening a ramen shop and cooking only ramen for 20 years in a row, without stopping. It's no problem. they love it....
and doing something that you love, is never a burden.

so, does that make Wilson a children lover? No..... no, very far to go from that... but understanding , is the first step to acceptance. ... i understand and accept the purpose of those tykes in this world.

So, for this time, let's just call Wilson, a slowly recovering children phobic....

Resolutions, 2009

In all fairness, it is now July 2009, and there isn't that much time until the end of 2009. Nonetheless, after my self induced stupor, there really is a need to wake up and start planning all the way through 2009, if I want to still make it past this year, alive

this is still a draft, which will be fixed by the end of 2009 :-)

1. update my blog at least once a month, and the current blog should be expanded to meet my new hobbies, namely, cooking and biking... :-)

2. discipline, cutting the fat from all my previous life.. and make a more consistent wilson...
on the area that needs discipline, namely, exercise and goal setting.....

....that's all i can think of right now.....

btw, if you ask me, why the sudden surge of blogposts, wilson? well, the main reason is this spiffy netbook, which allows me to blog at most convenient places for inspiration, coffee shops, spiffy lounges, and mainly, in the office.. :-)

so there it is, my resolutions for 2009, may I have the audacity to do this, one baby steps at the time.....

Everything in Moderation

I've been back on my couch potato mode for the past...eh....year. it's my new "old" thing to do... Oh, well, one can say that biking is NOT couch potato, but I digress.. it's a wee little exercise in the mountain sof hours spent zonked out on the couch, watching House reruns and chomping down on potato chips, or whatever happened to be around on that particular time.

The thing is, one gets tired of couch potatoing. There is always latent need to feel useful to something, or somebody that is built in to each person, and that particular need isn't covered by chugging down high fructose drinks in front of the sofa.

The last straw of that phase, was, with nothing great on the TV, I ended up watching the "i'm a celebrity, get me out here".... :-( watching all these cheesy people doing cheesy things (especially the reality TV star, doing a different reality TV show from his own reality TV) ended my love affair with the couch permanently.....

it's been a while since I blogged, so, some stuff may not make sense, but wilson is up and about,
and making his (admittedly) late 2009 resolutions, ha ha....

P.S. Thank you BC.... u're my blog rock...

Movie Time

I’ve never understood why you MUST go to the movies as a pair, or with friends. The act of watching a movie has always been your engagement to the big screen in front of you.For the duration of the movie you do nothing, you do not communicate with your pair, except share a bag of popcorns(or except the smooch session, but then, it’s a different thing entirely, u don’t actually watch the movie anyway). If the movie sucks, neither of you want to talk about it. Actually, even when the movie itself is good, you don’t talk about it either, the maximum would’ve been “hey, it’s a good movie”… he’s a good actor, etc…

Hence, movie watching is, in itself a solitary act. So, why do people consider it blasphemy to watch movies alone?

I don’t mind watching movies with friends..I do like it, its fun, and the best part is the going to get dinner after the movie part.
But from time to time I would like to watch movies alone sometimes…its meditative, somewhat..
so all I’m asking is not to look at us as “weird” or “strange”.

Don’t give us the “sigh, poor guy, no date” look....

We’re there simply for the love of the movies, it's not unusual, and its not strange...it's just different.

so, i'll watching..Fast and Furious, in all its loud obnoxious glory, the cheesy acting of that blonde guy (whats his name again? forgot), Jordana's high IQ'ed waxed, em......shoes.... with my unshared popcorn and supersized fizzy drinks....... don't you dare tell me to do otherwise...

How to pick a book

Imagine a bookshop. Imagine yourself there, imagine yourself looking for a novel, something nice and entertaining. But you don’t really know what to buy.
Or maybe u’re just looking for something a little….different…. How do you pick one?
Myself, I go for the attractive cover with a catchy title

Sacrilege! You say. Most would advise not to judge a book by its cover or its title. But, most of the time, one of the main reason that you pick a book is FOR it’s cover/catchy title…
If a book is dusty, gray, has an unattractive cover, with an equally drab title, no matter how fantastic the inside is, only brave souls will have the privilege to discover it…..
or only by these scenarios:

• There is no other book in the area
• You have read their previous books (which, in this case, does not count)
• Rave reviews on that book (by trusted source/s)
• a birthday gift (even then, u still may not read it)

In the end of the day, it is still what’s inside that matters.

But is it so wrong to ask for books to have an attractive cover???

BTW, if you haven’t figured it out by now.

I am NOT talking about books.

Quote of the Month

" It's simple.......

It's not easy,

but it is simple......"


House, M.D.

Japan out

I'm still in Nagoya,

I know most people will love it here......

me, on the other hand..hate it.... alot...in multitudes of way you just can't imagine...

I'm never coming back here......the vibe just don't cut it with me... the food's expensive, the travel's expensive. the life, monotonous..... for the first time, ever...I missed home country....yup...back to Indonesia...of all places.....or, even better, singapore...

maybe it's just the job...or maybe just my frame of mind at the moment...nothing seems to be working... nothing... job, life, etc...wish this would just......end....

blue eyes... when're you leaving for NL? it's an idea to meet...

wilson out....

Japanese Sun

It is now 3 AM in Nagoya, Japan,

and I can't sleep...for whatever reason.... so, yeah, finally I get to go to Japan. Wish my bosses were here though, at least the heat would be a little lower, along with the report, that is... :-(
Well anyway, can't complain.. I'm in Japan!!!....yey!!!!...

and we will be documenting ( if possible ) any culinary adventure that might happen along the way ( if i'm lucky enough to go out of this dorm, that is...)...

but I don't care...hey, its Japan, rite?? hope I can go through the meeting tomorrow without conking out...hehehe...

End Game

There room was dimly lit. darker, and bleaker than usual.
The piano was silent, black, foreboding
The garden, featureless, shapeless, covered in shadows of darkness
You were all in black, long black hair cascading, your face, set in stone, eyebrows firmly joined together in the centre.
Rivers of tears cascaded down your face. Through all your tears, I still can’t help but notice how magnificently beautiful you are
There, ended the dream. There, everything stopped moving.

My throat, dry as sandpaper, My tongue, bitter as the coffee in my hand.
My brain, unable to make sense of it all, My senses, numb. My heart, packed up, left and hasn’t returned since.

I don’t understand.
You owe me, some kind of love.

Reality Bites

Saying Yes is the easy part... Now comes the fight to stay relevant and alive...

What is it about, you will just have to guess... What I can tell you, is that it involves a certain kind of commitment, and a lifelong bond which cannot be broken, and it also involves a lot of compromises, sharing and communication, of which the enormity has just struck home...

Maybe, for the first time in my life, I'm moving forward blindly, without a clear direction, going with the flow and wondering where all this may lead to..cautiously optimistic, but very, very worried about where it is taking me...Can i manage, can i handle it, can I be the person that I need to be?

Wilson's growing up really fast, real soon.... you never know...it could just well be, the ride of a lifetime... :-P...

Rollercoaster....The Beginning

I'm Rollercoasting.....arms spread wide..plunging down.... going faster and faster...and I'm taking you with me, Ms. Cherry Blossom...

It's going to be a wild ride, prepare yourself darling....

Bangkok Bluesome

I'm back in Bangkok...

that's right..the land where massage parlours never sleep, and japanese tourists line the streets looking for their next bar...
Do I like bangkok? perhaps my friend was right.. it IS pretty boring...

well.. might as well stay at the hotel and while away the night with Arnie's Terminator 1

"I'll bee Baaaak".....

Teez, in reading... i'm unable to connect to a decent phone line... please send me dad's phone number and/or e-mail through..... I have e-mail... my yahoo...

stories to continue... including my first ever experience in shopping for a women's handbag for E........ a nerve wracking experience if there was one... really hope she likes it...