Another Brilliant Weekend

Another brilliant weekend.

At 1:30 PM this afternoon I decided to get off the couch and make the five minute trek across the street to the food court in United Square. On my way there I was filled with a feeling of profound joy and a sense that all was well in the world. Indeed, life has been kind, and things seem to be looking up for the better.

After lunch I went for a quick shop at the supermarket, so now I've stockpiled enough food to last me about 3 months, which I plan to spend hibernating at home or doing random semi-athletic activities.

Why Things Are Going Well:

1. Work is fun and fulfilling at the moment (knock on wood, so that it stays that way). I am working on interesting projects and my bosses are supportive and thoughtful. I quite like the idea of being able to leave while the sun is still up and have a life beyond work - that I'm not expected to live my job. People are quite satisfied with me doing it decently, and if I choose to stay longer, then it's my prerogative. I've also regained that feeling of having my bosses be aspirational, as opposed to feeling sorry for them. So a word of advice - as soon as you decide that you don't want to be your boss, QUIT, and go find something else to do!
2. My new bookcase arrived last week, and with it, my formerly messy study has received a new lease on life. It's nice to be able to arrange my books in an orderly fashion with everything in its place. I have arranged my books into the following order - Second Shelf: travel, poetry, fiction, biographies; Third Shelf: politics, philosophy, economics, science; Fourth Shelf: business, cooking, astrology, psychology; Fifth Shelf: textbooks; Sixth Shelf: magazines and bills. The only thing left to be done really is to wrap the remaining books that I haven't gotten around to fiddling with yet. I am quite compulsive about wrapping my books in plastic. Occasionally I try to convince myself that this is a worthwhile activity on its own, as it will make the books last longer. I think that in reality, I find it merely therapeutic - there's really very minimal utility to it.
3. I have new curtains. Yes, along with the bookcase, this has left a profound change in the overall "chi" running through the house. No longer do I need to cringe everytime I look out the window. The alien, poo-yellow glow has been eliminated for good! The new curtains are of beige linen, giving the house an altogether resorty-type feel. Also, they do a much better job of filtering the light, and making the house seem airier and cozier. I was just telling Len last Thursday that I couldn't believe it took me this long to get rid of them. Definitely the highlight of the month!
4. Anthony, my carpenter, finally got off his butt and fixed the hole in Len's bathroom ceiling and the leak from my toilet. After 6 months of waiting, he finally got around to finishing what he began. He really was the most unreliable carpenter, and would always want to come at odd hours. (e.g. Call you up Sunday night to make an appointment for Monday morning). Nasty. I'm just glad the whole mess is over. We'll see if he keeps his commitment to come by this Tuesday afternoon like he said he would to repaint Len's bathroom ceiling. We shall see. Perhaps I shall give him a ring tomorrow so that he can bring a drill with him, so that I can hang my pictures. I've got 3 prints from my trip to London in 2005, a couple of half-finished canvasses from 2004, and 2 carved wooden heads from my trip to Bali last 2006. Altogther they make a big enough pile to get underway, so it would be good to get all of them hanging properly. I bought a painting last November, a slightly risque Botero knockoff from Chinatown that was a total bargain. I mean, the framing actually cost more than the painting. I brought the thing to Manila to give to my parents, and I have no idea whether they actually hung it yet. I doubt it. If they haven't, I should probably ask for it back.

So really, on an overall general level, I feel a lot better than I have in a long time. Now that I've got a lot of time on my hands, I've been thinking a lot about what to do with it. Ideally, I would like to spend it on productive things THAT I CAN STICK WITH. Mostly, I tend to be good at planning, but never really on the follow-through side, as I tend to get bored quite easily, and mostly drop things when I lose interest. So broadly and speculatively, here are the things I would like to consider:

1. Some 'artistic' thing that involves performing. Some random possibilities I've been playing around with include: singing, ballet, theater. Ballet has always been a fantasy, especially because I generally have two left feet, and have never been considered "graceful". But I quite like the idea of doing a pirouette in toe-shoes and wearing a long flowy skirt. In the meantime, I've been doing lots of piano-playing, mostly old favorites. But am practicing a new piece: Moonlight Sonata, by Beethoven. I can't seem to get past the third page of Pachelbel's Canon in D, so am still doing a bit of that, but it's mostly Beethoven right now. I definitely miss singing - which I used to do quite a bit of, but haven't got any real outlets for it here. There is a serious dearth of artistically-related activity in Singapore. Like, I could probably go join a class or something, but the quality is all very dubious - Singaporeans in general aren't very artistic. And when they try to be - it's exactly that, it feels too much of a put-on. There's not much heart into it? It's not like in the Philippines where people have soul. And everyone can sort of sing. It's weird because if you're an ''adult", and doing a hobby seriously, it's got to take a lot of your time. Hopefully something comes up. Theater-wise, there haven't been any amateur productions on the radar since the 2+ years I've been here. They always seem a bit shady, or very lame (not that I'm a professional or anything), but in general I've always had the feeling that if I'd joined something here on a semi-serious basis, I wouldn't be able to forgive myself.
2. Re-learning a language I already know - either German or Mandarin. While I know snippets of both (I did German 1 and 2 when I was in high school, and also studied Mandarin for 13 years), I am fluent in neither, mainly because I don't practice my German, never really took Mandarin seriously in school (my parents speak Hokkien, and all the lessons were memorization-based, not conversational). So maybe I will expore doing something about this. From an ROI perspective, I suppose Mandarin would be much more useful. But German is much more fun, and seems to have a lot more utility from the perspective of personal enrichment. I remember just going through the library at the Goethe Institut in Aurora Boulevard in Manila - Oh, to be able to read in German, now that would be pretty cool. Chinese is nice, but quite difficult, in terms of the vocabulary, and the sheer number of characters you need to learn to be able to carry on a decent conversation or write something simple. At the same time, I think about how all the Chinese I had learned in the past would probably be pretty archaic by now, considering the major "short-cut" changes that have happened over the past ten years with 'ping in'', etc.
3. Taking the LSATs again. The thing is, although I got decent marks the last time I did it, I felt like I didn't really put my heart into it. I was working on the side, yes, but that really wasn't an excuse. I kept on finding reasons NOT to study for it, and did a lot of cutting corners. It's funny because law has always been a fantasy of mine, given that a lot of old friends have either done it (and are now practicing) or are studying Law, and I have always thought that it would be someting I would be stellar at. However, I seem to have lost interest just when I was about to really go for it. Maybe it's not for me. I've been considering other stuff though, such as getting another degree - lit maybe. Or economics? It would be nice to be able to do econometrics. I don't know. Don't want to put too much pressure on myself, but I have decided to give this a bit more thought. I definitely want to be able to do it part-time though - work AND study on the side. That would be most ideal. I think it's just a matter of doing the ground work and finding the appropriate course. So - time limit is April. Through work, I'm already enrolled in a short course on the side though, which is due to happen late-April, early May, but will probably need to do a bit of ground work so that I have something to keep me occupied come June.
4. Executing my 30-year financial plan. This is a big goal that I am really taking seriously this year - I've got the basics of the plan put together, it's just a matter of maintaining habit and discipline. I'm on a good roll though. =)
5. Travel more often. I've put a list of 6 key countries I would like to be able to visit within the next 5 years: Morocco, Russia, Sweden, South Africa, New Zealand and Egypt. Would be great to be able to do that. While doing that (ultimate goal), I would also like to be able to visit some "back-up" places through business, or via short holiday trips, i.e. ones that aren't as glamorous, but which I probably "need" to visit just because they're pretty common destinations: Vietnam, Cambodia (Siem Reap), Krabi/Phi Phi in Thailand. In just the past two years, I've been to the U.K., Spain, Japan, Korea, Australia, Malaysia, China, Indonesia, and Thailand. Want to add to this list, as it's always fun to look through your passport and go through the stamps/visas. Maybe also visit Canada again - I don't know. I do know that if I actively put a country on my mental list, I will eventually go there. It's just a matter of time.

So there. In general, things are looking up and am quite happy. =)