Tell me anything, anytime
One of the most important skills in life: making people you care about know that they can tell you anything, anytime, and won’t be judged, scolded, or ignored #competentadult #emotionalintelligence
Thoughts & Ideas
Dies Slowly
Lee Kuan Yew once said that poetry is a luxury that Singaporeans cannot afford. I never truly understood what he means until recently. If left on my own devices, I would choose to read literature (dying to read Educating Rita, War & Peace and Animal Farm). Now that I’m an adult and there’s so many …
This movie snob recent favourite films
I don’t watch TV or go to the cinema much. I find it absolutely frustrating to spend a few hours of my precious time on substandard films I don’t enjoy or be addicted to Korean dramas (some can be mindlessly fun to watch). So unless the film is vouched by people whose taste I trust …
Pain
“I am not justified in causing myself pain, for I have never deliberately caused pain to another” – Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
proper conversation, not mindless chatter
I love all forms of communication – written, spoken, digital or physical – especially those where there are exchange of thoughts, ideas, and jokes. However, as the means of communication becomes cheaper, faster, and easier, its quality dissipates. Proper conversation is few and far between – most people just send short and abbreviated text. What …
Culture also teaches us how to eat
“As wonderful as science is, culture also teaches us how to eat”, Michael Pollan explaining the French Paradox. Perhaps the secret to the the French slim figures -despite eating rich food – is dining slowly. I miss dining in brasseries by the pavements in Paris, strolling by the Seine river with a Berthillon ice-cream in …
How I plan to write recipes
“A tenet of journalism is that “the reader knows nothing”. As tenets go, it’s not flattering, but a technical writer can never forget it. You can’t assume that your readers know what you assume everybody knows, or that they still remember what was once explained to them. The principle of scientific and technical writing applies …
travel should generate a whole constellation of ideas about people
“If travel is broadening, it should broaden more than just our knowledge of how a Gothic cathedral looks or how the French make wine. It should generate a whole constellation of ideas about how men and women work and play, raise their children, worship their gods, live and die” – William Zinsser How true. …
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Food or flowers will do, thank you
It’s so liberating to know that you don’t need or want many things…or at least less than what you think. I am still trying to reduce my belongings by half. I just packed a box full of things I no longer need or want. I aim to only keep things that serves a purpose and/or …
Cheap but nutritious?
“Set aside a certain number of days, during which you shall be content with the scantiest and cheapest fare, with course and rough dress, saying to yourself the while: ‘Is this the condition that I feared?’” – Seneca I’ve always wanted to try this: eat the cheapest food for a month, and ask myself if …