Movie buff

 
I watched the really uncensored version of Bruno this afternoon. It was traumatising. It’s like Zoolander and Jackass combined into one.

Titanic, on the other hand, which I’m watching right now, is a timeless classic.

 

.

More reasons to stay at home

I was rather surprised when a few friends exclaimed about the new garden and pavilion. So, I thought I’ll show it in greater detail.

Pavilion to one side

 
Pavilion to the other side

Playing with slow shutter speed

 
This is where I was doing my work… before I got distracted

Parents’ green fingers showing through

 

Tadaa.
(=

 

.

I want to tell you three stories

One of the most inspirational, eloquent speeches I’ve heard. I’ve never uploaded videos on this blog before – this is the first, so that should have already said something. It’s 15 minutes long, but it’s an absolutely worthy 15-minutes.

“You can’t connect the dots looking forward. You can only connect them looking backwards, so you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever – because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you confidence to follow your heart, even when it leads you off the well-worn path, and that will make all the difference.”

“Having lived through it (pancreatic cancer), I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept. No one wants to die, even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there, and yet, death is the destination that we all share.”
- Steve Jobs, Commencement speech at Stanford

.

The cat, continued.

And I just realised, I love to take photos of Datou when he’s sleeping – especially when he covers his eyes with his paw.

There’s this child-like innocence that he has when he’s sleeping. When I tried to wake him to get a certain shot, he gave this gentle sleepy meow that totally melted me into a puddle. And then he continues sleeping. Hah. My dear old man.

I was very nervous the night before the open water swim. Before I fell asleep, Datou came to me and climbed onto my chest and laid there for awhile, as if to calm me. I’d like to believe that there is a sort of spiritual connection, as he was almost always around when I was feeling depressed, just quietly being there.

 

.

Garden pavilion and cat

I had a perfect morning.

Breakfast in our newly finished pavilion, with a cup of cappuccino and newspapers. Then, walked the dogs through the quiet neighbourhood, in the cool morning breeze and under the pale blue sky.

 
Newly constructed pavilion in our garden. We (Mischief-in-charge – My sister and I) even had a red ribbon to mark the official opening

Matron of the house forced to do the honours. Haha.

———–

And did I mention that I love to take photos of Datou? Hah.

He has risen to the level of sleeping soundly even when I stick the camera into his face

 

.

Training schedule

I just realised that the triathlon is in 3 weeks.

So I hastily drew up a training plan, which are in orange ink.

Bryant took a cursory look over and said, “I think it’s too little.”
Me, “WHAT?”
Bryant, “Let me help”

 
So, he grabbed the piece of paper from me, and contributed to my pain in pink ink. It’s an average of 3-4 trainings a week, if I keep to it, that is.

Then, he thoughtfully added instructions like “*eat a lot*” for my last 2 days before the race. Now.. that won’t be too difficult.

First open-water swim training up tomorrow. Cross my fingers and hope all goes well.

The world of academia

I’m not a natural academic. Not by far. The amount of accurate information that my peers can retain brings my brain storage capacity to shame. Let’s not even mention how they can let world issues and marketing concepts slip out of their glib tongues without batting an eye. I mean, I love to read, but I just cannot retain the information like they do.

Some examples – Ask me what’s ACCA and I can’t recall a single thing other than it being a marketing concept. Ask me about Porter’s five forces and I can just barely list it for you, even though Strategy was one of my absolute favourite topics by far. Ask me what biomes are, and I’ll probably err and ahh my way through – what an unknowledgeable environmentalist I am!

So, as I was enjoying my last two months as an intern, I was, naturally, reluctant for school to start. Plus, I only had a week of due summer break in between. I procrastinated preparation for school until the very last hour, literally. Seminar notes weren’t printed, and I didn’t even know (didn’t want to know) which class I was going to have! Very unlike me indeed.

Then, I attended my very first lesson after four long months. I surfed the internet all the way through because the prof was unabashedly boring for a class that could very easily be extremely interesting (I’m 70% decided on dropping the class).

Then came the second lesson – Current issues in Business, Culture and Society. Four thick stacks of readings to cover about the changing face in business, and I found out what I’ve been missing all these four months without even realising it.

Education. Education in its purest sense.

How stimulating, intriguing it is. How we are thrown into the thick mass of global issues, creative communication, the global mega-trends that are shifting the world as I speak. Readings that are becomeing increasingly interesting, increasingly fascinating.

I’ve forgotten how professors stimulate our young minds to constantly think, to constantly scour the internet and newspapers on current world issues and their consequences. To be in the know. I’ve forgotten the joys in being encouraged to be brave in our thinking, be brave in questioning, and be brave in making mistakes.

You’ve probably never seen any of such similar posts in this blog’s history, how I rave about education (haha.). I’ve always said that my relationship with the school is a love-hate one, and this now, I suppose, is the love part. Don’t worry, I don’t think I’ve gone crazy. Yet.

No, I’m not a natural academic, but I enjoy learning. Whether or not I’ll apply those concepts directly into future work doesn’t really matter (Gives more reason to embrace it now!). I probably won’t be able to regurgitate jargons, theories and concepts like the pros. But I remain attuned, like a child sitting at the edge of her seat, wanting more.

p.s. As an afterthought, maybe it’s just that my mods are pretty interesting this semester.

.

S1

Don’t my sister look just gorgeous here?

 

.