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Reminders of mortality are spiritually nourishing

This was what my good friend Juan told me recently. 'What a beautiful sentence' was my immediate thought. Since then, I haven't stopped thinking about it. Is this really true? Are there any exceptions? What qualifies as reminders of mortality? How do different individuals experience it? What even is the human spirit, if there is such a thing? The 21st century urbanophile too often interprets spirtuality as religion. They are fundamentally different, although they can intersect. Religion prescribes rules and laws, and are usually dogmatic (albeit with varying degrees). Spirituality is about seeking out what it means to be human again (there are many different arguments, but this is what I see it as). And a spiritual individual is able to internalise their feelings. We can't necessarily control how our feelings arise, but we can try be in touch with them and choose how we react to these feelings.   Just earlier this morning, I went for a walk in Macritchie. It was...
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Nostalgia, a warm hug

How do I describe what this feel like? Bit of nostalgia, a tinge of sadness, some bittersweetness, some joy. And some physical fatigue. But I feel pretty good overall. It's been a while since I've felt something like this.   Two good friends of mine came over from the UK to visit Singapore for the past few days. Silly, funny, happy moments ensued. But amid all these laughter, the deep convos hit hard. It's made me realise how much I've missed having different persepectives on life, and learning about random things. There's no expectation of talking about anything specific, or having to necessarily be doing something.  They remind me that life can be simple sometimes. Good food, good weather, with the right company. Work seems so far away from it all. The meaning of life doesn't always have to be about achieving big things. At the end of the day, we're all just dependent on our social relationships to keep us sane and healthy in this age of division. You can...
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On rest

  AI-generated image of a bee chilling in the mountains with a pint. I was chatting with Ethan about silly things and we came up with this. The bee sure looks like they're resting. I'm envious.   It's elusive.  Thanks to my surgery, I had more than enough time to 'rest'. It was honestly a strange feeling: having no obligation to do anything, not even chores. Even when we're on leave or on the weekends, there are still things to do. I didn't have to go out to meet friends, cook, work or even do anything I didn't have to. The only thing I diligently did was my physio exercises.  So what did I end up doing most of the time? Definitely read a lot. Had the opportunity to pick up a lot of books I've wanted to read for a while, but could never motivate myself to pick them up. I won't go too deep into the details, but you can read my previous post about reading fiction. But reading is one of those activities which we don't perceive as resting, but th...
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Why we should all read more fiction

Do you remember the last fiction book you read?  This post isn't about bashing non-readers nor non-fiction books. We obviously should also read more non-fiction, if we're even reading at all. But fiction books are seriously under-read, especially in our achievement-focused hypercapitalistic nation that is Singapore. Even in recent years when our high-level ministers have been promoting reading, it has always been about non-fiction books. Seems like the only place where fiction is acceptable is by kids . Why aren't adults encouraged to read more fiction?  The human psyche itself is wired to live on stories. In fact, the fundamental essence of human society is based on stories. Yuval Noah Harari talked about this 'intersubjective reality' in his books Sapiens and Homo Deus (non-fiction, yes) as the basis for why humans outcompeted every other species, even our other  Homo  genus ancestors. The government obviously recognises this; that's why every national da...
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Howling gusts, torrential rain, and broken ankles: my first hiking-only trip

I've been wanting to write about my travels for a while. But I've never found the motivation to. In fact I've been trying to write this piece for a few months now, but have not been pleased with it (inner perfectonist oops). The times when I did actually try to set up a new travel blog using wordpress, I got pissed off at its user interface (cos I hadn't paid at that point, it refused to let me use the theme I wanted! annoying!). Anyway I finally figured out how to make the pages with multiple posts on Blogger (took me long enough lol), so I'll be recounting most of my travels during my 3 years adventure as a university student in London. I'll definitely cover London at some point, but for now I'm going to focusing on my trips (at least 1 night) outside London. I'll do it the most boring way possible - chronologically. Call me out for that, but it's convenient for me to relive my experiences through my gallery too. Anyway, here we go: first stop, the...
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The fragility of human existence - some adulting struggles

Some days I feel like I've not been a great person. I forget to check in with friends, raise my voice when speaking with the parents, and just can't empathise with the stories of tragedy that people document on social media. Doing nice things for others feel harder. Or that I've just begun to do it less and less. It's like I don't have any emotional bandwith to deal with all these things anymore. Is this just a natural part of being an adult? It really isn't fun. Don't worry, I'm not depressed. Just feeling more frustration at loads of things. Work, obviously. Do people really have nothing else to do in their lives but work? Sending an email at 2.30am? Why would you do that to yourself? As I type this I feel a surge of anger rising from my belly. Or is it just confusion? I don't know. What a strange place we're all living in.  The world itself is spinning out of control. Wars breaking out, news about the latest new 'law' Trump has mad...
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2 months of being a highly immobile individual

I've never really thought that I would be having to use the disabled toilet or be pushed around in a wheelchair. It was a really strange experience; at least I'm much better now. Anyway, so I tore my ACL during a judo trial class. A really dumb reason to be honest. Especially since it's my first time doing judo. But that's for another day. This post is just some random thoughts about my 2 months being an injured person...   Spot the swollen knee. 5 days post injury. Let's first make some things clear: I still don't know my full diagnosis. The doctor's appointment is next week (really slow, I know). I've done my MRI, and the physiotherapist has looked at the results, and said I apparently still have a few (puny) strands of ligament left in where's supposed to be thousands of ACL fibre. Not sure if that's really good news. But the silver lining is that I didn't actually tear my meniscus. So there's a possibility that I wouldn't need su...
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How's 2025 going?

It's more than half of January in, how are you doing? Have you remembered to stop and look around at the things around you? Or are you already overwhelmed with the workload, be it in school or at work? The start of the year is often chaotic: everyone is picking up on incomplete tasks left before the Christmas break.  This is the first January I've started with work on 2 Jan. It was a weird feeling, I have to admit. Not that I really mind it, it has still been a surprisingly chill first few weeks. What's different is that this January, I feel like I'm in a 'going through motion' phase of my life. There's a sort of routine, and life is getting more stable - or rather, I'm choosing not to think about things that are out of my control. This has made it a really unusual: I had absolutely no motivation to write new year resolutions (anyway I don't particularly do them anymore, you can read why here), and I did not have the resolve to make any significant c...
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I love going to the movies alone. You should too!

While I was in the UK, I met so many film-loving friends, got to watch so many movies that I never knew existed, and even became an extra in a friend's directorial debut (I'm keeping bragging rights Pedro for the day you make it big!). But one thing I never got to do in the UK was to watch a film alone. Why not? I was a broke student lol. Anyway so when I got the chance to in Singapore, I've been watching loads of films, many of them alone. Partially because my taste in movies have evolved, often to more niche, arthouse films that many of my Singaporean friends haven't acquired the taste for. But there is still a great selection of films on show in Singaporean cinemas, especially The Projector (love it). So, what's the best thing to do? Just watch films alone. A movie is in itself already a highly personal experience. You won't be yapping away to your friends (if you do, please shut up the next time you are in a cinema, thanks). The auditory and visual experienc...
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Returning home...

Hello everyone! It's been a while, and I apologise for the lack of updates. You know what they say, writer's block. I guess I've just been too busy with other things in life and didn't have the inspiration to write. I hate to break the news to you, but this might be my last post in this blog for a while (more on this later). Now that I've got the hardest part out of the way, let me give you a little update of my life.  I've finished my three years of studies in the UK, and I'm now back in Singapore indefinitely. Applying for jobs in both the UK and SG, but it's looking more and more likely that I'll be staying in SG. It's quite a strange combination of feelings: bittersweet that I'm leaving all the friends I made in the UK behind, but also happy that I get to spend more time with friends and family in SG.  What's next? I'm hoping to start a travel blog, where I document my travels (mainly in Europe for now), but I will also dedicate a...
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