My first time in Europe

Inspired by how interesting and strangely prophetic it is to read old blog entries, I will write about this, regardless of facebook status updates and posting of albums.

So. My first trip to Europe.

I got to see Lausanne, Paris and Amsterdam.

I saw snow-capped mountains while flying over Geneva and renewed that same feeling of awe when approaching the brick-red mountains of California last year. I can’t believe I am here.

I thought it plain silly to require euro coins to operate the luggage trolleys in the Geneva airport. Which foreigner lands with local coins on hand?

I was and still am intrigued by Evian, where they produce Evian across from Lake Ouchy in Lausanne. I hope I’ll get to go the next time.

I think the KLM lounge in Amsterdam is brilliant, and in Geneva like a bus stop.

I landed in hailing Amsterdam, and sat in bed watching the pebbly ice knock on the high windows in the dead of the night.

We missed the Thalys to Paris, and I got to see snow for the first time. It was cold.

We had the coziest, most wonderful apartment in Paris and I will never forget it. It even came with food, like a close relative had thought of you and stocked up before leaving.

People huddled close in queue to go up the Eiffel Tower – it was so cold. Just being up there, there in Paris, on the Eiffel! was for me, so fulfilling. Walking down through it was even better. I felt I knew how Batman felt, hanging on to the structures in that blue Gotham City light.

Sacre Coeur, or the Sacred Heart Church. It was snowing lightly and there were unpleasant peddlars trying to make a quick buck outside. But inside, it was so beautiful – you feel like God is really there. And the etching of Jesus on the ceiling is so handsome. Funnily too, a long holy-sounding statement in French by the solemn-looking pastor turned out to be an invitation to lunch after the service.

I cannot write everything down, but what else?

The Pantheon was a very nice surprise. The Foucault pendulum which told time (reliably 11 degrees every hour) is something to watch. Those art students sketching enthusiastically on the ground floor, and the great French dead resting below was a very interesting mix.

The Lourve – hmm, the Lourve. It is closed on Tuesdays, my friends. Don’t ever forget that. But in Musee d’Orsay, I feasted on the Impressionists, not believing I was actually seeing these works in the flesh. Another big check off my wishlist.

Then Amsterdam. Beautiful Amsterdam. I felt so at home, maybe because Ren Horng’s there. I wouldn’t have done the trip with anyone else.

There was a magical foggy afternoon which melted into a magical night. Bicycles and canals which belonged so much to each other the picture would be incomplete without either.

Dutch houses the color of dark chocolate rimmed with peppermint leaned quaintly towards and against each other, telling whimsical secrets from wisdom accrued since the 16th century. Little fairy lights dot the streets and bridges with their warm amber glow.

The girls at the Red Light district, so beautiful and powerful. Working girls with a determination in their eyes I recognize in my own. I did not feel sorry for them; they had the upper hand. And swans in the water, the image of purity conjured was an incongruous one, but then again, maybe it was not.

More museums, where I got acquainted with Dutch artists and Van Gogh. What a prolific man! Almost as though behind the demons in his mind, there was practicality to produce, do better and leave his mark.

In all, Europe was a wonderful fortnight. Parisians are not unfriendly as people say, and the Dutch speak good English so it's easy to get around. Looking forward to the next trip!

Another page out of The Prophet's book

Your friend is your needs answered.
He is your field which you sow with love and reap with thanksgiving.
And he is your board and your fireside.
For you come to him with your hunger, and you seek him for peace.

When your friend speaks his mind you fear not the "nay" in your own mind, nor do you withhold the "ay."
And when he is silent your heart ceases not to listen to his heart;
For without words, in friendship, all thoughts, all desires, all expectations are born and shared, with joy that is unacclaimed.

When you part from your friend, you grieve not;
For that which you love most in him may be clearer in his absence, as the mountain to the climber is clearer from the plain.

And let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit.
For love that seeks aught but the disclosure of its own mystery is not love but a net cast forth: and only the unprofitable is caught.

And let your best be for your friend.
If he must know the ebb of your tide, let him know its flood also.
For what is your friend that you should seek him with hours to kill?
Seek him always with hours to live.
For it is his to fill your need, but not your emptiness.

And in the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures.
For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.

-Kahlil Gibran-


Dear friends, may your 2009 be a year of peace and fulfilment. Merry Xmas and Happy New Year!

Ok so I found one detestful thing about travelling.

Compared to airports and airline lounges, there aren't many more mind-numbing places that I can think of.

Perhaps because it is filled with people on their way to someplace else, the vibe is often restless, and busy in a million directions but here. Add on the queues, luggage waiting and hauling and weird displaced hours that don't belong in a day, and the novelty of duty-free shopping quickly runs out.

But then again, how do you make more hospitable a place that is built for the sole purpose of getting out of?

Wild, Potent and Beautiful

• The Juanda airport, against the setting Surabaya sun and freshwater farms. Did you know that here, airports are called cities in the sky?
• Where the language is an upped ante, caffeinated version of Bahasa Melayu
• In Jakarta, where the local music scene is so alive, I realised what it means to have a local music scene that is alive
• Where the little bookstore in Soekarno-Hatta yielded Into The Wild by Jon Krakauer, which I had been looking for
• Avocado juice, with deep brown streaks and pools of chocolate sauce

Indonesia - aku gembira kita bisa berkenalan.

The Sartorial Interview

Tagged by Afti Rusli.

*Job?
Corporate Auditor.

*Best sartorial advice from your parents?
Mum: "Don't dress like an aunty"
Dad: Bunyi cengkerik comes to mind....but probably "Why wear until like that?"

*Style icons
Kate Hudson

*Describe your personal style
Boho-chic

*I build my daily look around...
What I feel like in the morning

*Personal Style quirk
Accessories with sentimental value

*Favorite designers
Let's see - designers that strike a chord...Elie Saab, Zac Posen, Missoni, Monique Lhuillier, Christian and Jeffrey from Project Runway...

*Most cherished item
My grandmother's 5 gold bangles

*I feel best wearing?
Anything that makes me feel like I can walk straight into a photo shoot. Annie Leibovitz's, preferably.

*The first thing I look at in another Sartorialist’s outfit...
Shoes

*I always break this fashion rule...
Wear suits for work

*I never break this fashion rule...
Don't wear brown shoes with black bottoms

*Never caught wearing?
Earrings. Don't have holes!

*Most underrated item in menswear/womenswear?
Have to agree with Afti - undergarments is a good one

*Dress to impress who?
Myself

*Shine your own shoes?
Never bothered

*Favorite stores?
I ALWAYS walk into MNG at the airport, Naf Naf at the Curve, Dorothy Perkins at One U, Jaspal at Pavilion. Come hell or high weather.

*Your next “must have” purchase?
Bought them already. Black pointy patent leather shoes.

*I only buy __________ in Europe.
Don't know man. Haven't been there yet.

*I skimp when buying …
Branded goods.

*I splurge on…..
Shirts (whenever I find a nice one)

*Favorite item of clothing
Depends on the mood of the day

*Guilty pleasure
Probably shoes.

*Cologne, skincare
Cologne gives me a headache. Loccitane and Body Shop for skincare.

*Most stylish city (Milan, Paris, London, New York, other)
Define stylish. I think any city can be stylish.

*When I was in high school I wore?
Too many bad outfits.

*Sports?
Does Yoga count?

*Favorite fashion magazine?
InStyle.

*Favorite vacation spot?
Haven't got a particular one yet.

*Favorite neighborhood restaurant?
Dragon-I, Centrepoint.


Tag: Doubleaye, Faza, Jo-Ann.

Teeth

It has come to my attention today, that there are friends I did not know about who read this blog. Well, welcome, and hope you have come to stay.

Today, I will blog about a topic not particularly juicy, but interesting to me nonetheless.

If you make yourself really really small, like maybe half a cm tall, and stand on an adult human's lip, I guess teeth may seem something like the Stonehenge to you. Huge, old and immovable.

Imagine my surprise to find out that just like everything else, they rely on each other to stand, with balance pivoted on that point of leaning against the other. So when you take one away, like sleeping ogre children in a cot the adjacent ones wake up surprised, and rumble and grumble their way to making themselves heard.

Now imagine wiring them together and trying to pull them straight in a row.

Yes I just got braces put in. Not quite as traumatizing as I had imagined all these years, but not the most pleasant sensation either. Suffice to say that I am glad I waited for the right dentist, orthodontic options and ability to laugh at my own little scrapes to come along.

One day, I will tell you all about dentists’ nurses. Those ladies, who I usually find to be reserved with quiet compassion – they really have a good reason for that stoic expression. God bless their little souls for some of the literally twisted things they have had to see.

No matter how far your mind wanders, teeth decay if you don't brush them

Nick Hornby quotes Oscar Wilde in “A Long Way Down”, saying one’s real life is often the life one does not lead, and the one you do lead does not let you be who you thought you were.

I commiserate. When I was eight, I was convinced that I would have my own condo and car by 24. It was only recently that I acknowledged I would probably never sing live at a concert in front of a thousand fans, and more recently than should have been that I would never be an accomplished ice-skater.

One body, 24 hours in a day, and only 100% to give.

I used to think of these as limitations but really, they are the default tools everyone gets to shape their life with, then fill it.

Ironically, knowing your boundaries is the only way to stretch them, the same way having a cup with finite capacity is the only way it can runneth over. And if you do it right, you might just be that kind of person for whom ex-ex colleagues still band together for a hearty send-off when you leave the country.

Child, sibling, friend, traveler, worker. That is all I am. And that is plenty.

The Occasional Detour

I believe we all have our own paths to follow, and lessons to learn. For this reason, there is no point in envying or coveting, and in the same way showing up the next person.

I’m good with this concept, and most days live peacefully by it. But sometimes, there is just a need to step on over to that offensive someone's path and give him a tight slap in the face, before carrying on.

The Urgency of Transformation

"When faced with a radical crisis, when the old way of being in the world, of interacting with each other and with the realm of nature doesn't work anymore, when survival is threatened by seemingly insurmountable problems, an individual life-form or a species - will either die or become extinct or rise above the limitations of its condition through an evolutionary leap."

by Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth.


What a great paragraph. I have always been one for the leaping.

Hey it's a little late to make resolutions but...

This year - I will

1. Do something about things that make me unhappy.
2. Not sweat the small stuff.

The thing about moving forward is to never to look back, and I have figured out that it is because if you did, you'd be terrified to see the things you're leaving behind.

Feel your cells.

I am apprehensive, excited, in my zone, out of my league, all at the same time.

What If

Two totally unrelated topics, but what if:

1. For one day, all of us knew how we really felt about each other. The complete realisation of what you are as perceived by the other person. Parents and children, husbands and wives, boyfriends and girlfriends, bosses and subordinates, friends and enemies and everything in between. Do you reckon we'd be better people for it?

2. The peace we have now in this country is at a stage where it is coincidental, that every day where nothing happens to you is because someone has not decided to commit a crime where you are? That really, the safety support system is no longer much more than the impression that there is one?

Getting off the EY interstate

SM – who got off the table and wrote over every permanent-inked word on that whiteboard
DS – who said “learn, learn, learn” and “manage, manage, manage”
CO – who taught me to laugh at myself
DJS – who has an impact like no other, relating the theory of the four faces
GL – who closed the door and let me cry when I was not much but a girl hurt
RR – whose first response to bad news is often laughter
My teams and co-workers – with whom I cracked coconuts, jumped puddles, watched strung poultry, walked minefields, sang songs of high hopes and love after death, shopped, sunned, fished, wined and boozed, reheated and ate out with. Travelled and grew with.

There will never be another time like this.

Click and Snap

Sitting on your sister’s bed in a new red knit dress, eating refried fish with soy sauce on a rainy Sunday evening.

Click.

The streetlamp light through the tree outside the house where you’re having your first barbeque party.

Lying on your stomach on the roof a car, talking hopes and dreams with a buddy like only two 18 year olds can.

The amazing number of stars you can see from an oil palm plantation at night.

Being spun around in a shopping cart on New Year’s Eve by your best mates.

I have a thing about taking mental snapshots for moments significant in a way that you know but sometimes can’t describe. Absorb the scene, let it sink through your eyes, hold it in your breath for a moment…and snap.

I like to believe that at the end of things, the road, whatever, apart from that bit where you finally find out how it all works out, there will also be a re-run of these pictures. Should be a good show.

Btw, can you believe it's March already?

Happy Chinese New Year!

It's 2008 - it tastes of promise. And like every Chinese New Year in Malaysia it's sweltering as well, something to do with the soltices and equinoxes which I will go figure out at some point.

This year we get 4 restful days to eat, drink, be merry and try to lose weight after. And for those of you like me who get back to the grind tomorrow already, there was a nice Gibran passage on work which I meant to quote but no longer seems to make sense on a lazy Sunday afternoon like this.

Suffice to say good luck, good health and every happiness this Chinese New Year.

Gong Hei Fatt Choy!