"If there were no God, it would have been necessary to invent him." - Voltaire

I've always had an on-off relationship with God.

OK when I say God, I don't mean a particular god like ... say maybe Jesus Christ or Buddha or Muhammad or Vishnu ... but like an all encompassing transcendent Divine Being overseeing everyone and everything that goes on in the universe and beyond.

I guess if you want to be pedantic about it, then agnostic theism would probably come to mind.

Bit of perspective here :

I went to a Catholic, a secular then a Methodist school. Mum goes to the temple to pray to Kuan Yin, the Goddess of Mercy every week while Dad is a bit of an agnostic as well. The rest of the people in our extended family on both sides are a motley mix of Christians, Buddhists, agnostics and couldn't-give-a-fucks. So I kinda grew up being friendly with Mary and flirting a tad with JC but never really committing anything beyond sporadic visits to a church or three.

In the last year or two though, I've been doing a bit of reading and thinking. And a book I really like is The Art of Happiness, a fascinating collaboration between the Dalai Lama and Howard C. Cutler. Buddhism seems to agree with my metaphysical palate more than the rest, if only because it's not so much a religion but more a way of life and thought. It also appears to advocate peace and harmony, to live and let live and basically just be a good person with compassion and kindness. It seeks to unite more than to divide and to find common ground more so than differences. Somehow too, it also gave me a sense of Zen when before, it had always eluded me.

All my life I'd been surrounded by so many Christians that expressing a preference for a different religion seemed almost treason, so I was gratified when two of my favourite people J and D were of a similar mindset.

Anyway J and I got to talking and in a nutshell, I was persuaded to offer a prayer and obtain a divination lot at the Kuan Yin temple for peace of mind. Now, I had done this divination lot thing before at Wong Tai Sin in Hong Kong, so imagine my boo boo moment when I realised I had been doing it wrong. Anyhow, I got one on Thursday and it was a 上千, i.e. a good lot. So yeah although some might say it's a bit silly to pin one's hopes on something as random as a stick falling out of an urn coupled with the probability of the runes falling on opposite sides, I guess one could say I was praying for peace of mind. :)

"L'enfer, c'est les autres." - Jean-Paul Sartre

Whoever said bookstores are a good place to meet decent men is a liar. J and I spent 45 minutes wandering around Borders pointing out books that would make good presents for each other and the only decent chap we found was Mr Darcy from Pride and Prejudice.

Anyway.

I should have said so earlier, but the reason for the title of this blog is such because yours truly is headed to HK to look for a job. Yes that's right, I'm sick and tired of Singapore with its passive aggressive policies and ridiculous campaigns and bloody immigrants and rude people with appalling social graces. I mean, Singaporeans are the only wankers I know who have the audacity to look appalled when they step on your foot as if it was your fault.

Also a lot of nosy types who poke their noses where it's not wanted. Case in point, I boarded the bus with a half eaten croissant, fully intending to discreetly finish it as quickly as I could. Granted, there was a no eating/drinking rule on public transport, but I was friggin' starving and it's not like a bowl of laksa or something that could potentially create some form of nuclear nasal assault now, is it? Anyhow, some moronic middle aged woman tapped me on the shoulder and informed me in a supremely bossy manner that I was not supposed to be eating on the bus. I mean, seriously, WTF? And it wasn't even the first time this has happened, and it's always some bloody kaypoh middle aged woman without authority doing the policing. I almost wanted to tell her being nosy is considered an offense too but decided not to sink to her level.

Anyway that pretty much set the mood for the day so I was really getting the GTFO of Singapore vibes.

Well not too long to wait I suppose. One more day and I'll be off. Woo! :)

Hanging out with my good friend D always guarantees we both have an absolute blast. We first met in 2009 during S's birthday at House but he was way too inebriated (as usual) to remember a darn thing. Then we met again in Butter sometime last year during some random party and he was drunk (again) so he clearly didn't remember what he said to me the night before when I reminded him the next morning.

A typical conversation between us would go like this:

Me : You know, you said XYZ last night ... hahaha hilarious
D : No waaaaaaay, I said no such thing!
Me : You did too! You said XYZ etc
D : Ohhhhh yes now that you mention it, that does sound like something I would say ...

Anyway we were at Din Tai Fung and talking about love over xiao long baos. Not just any random many splendoured rose tinted soppy kind of love, but more specifically the five languages of love. We both agreed gifts were a terrible idea. D and I are both horrible people to buy gifts for, because we're both so darn picky and specific in the stuff we like, and would have no qualms throwing/giving them away instead of leaving them to take up space or collect dust. The only exception we have towards gifts is if they are books or holidays, because they are kinda like experiences in their own ways. One would have to know the other pretty damn well to give a book that the other person would like, or if they even liked reading in the first place.

I gave V Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist for her birthday and she loved it. I gave M Essays in Love by Alain de Botton and he loved it so much he gave me two books he loved in return (which I unfortunately found terribly pedantic and dry). Exchanging books is like timidly sharing a piece of one's heart, mind and soul, hoping for reciprocation in kind. But like in love, one does get terribly disappointed when one doesn't get a book / gift one had hoped to receive, often resulting in doubt in the giver (how well does he/she know me??) and ourselves (is this how we come across??).


I say stick to the other four : quality time, physical touch, acts of service and words of affirmation.

"Etiquette means behaving yourself a little better than is absolutely essential." - Will Cuppy

Good Lord.

Some people really haven't got the etiquette tango bit right.

I had brunch with this chap J (cute-ish, bit short, somewhat colloquial, quiet) who insisted on buying even though I offered to pay my share. So I thought OK, I'll buy coffee later then right? Anyhoo, we ended up at Starbucks and I was waiting for him to take out his wallet so I could say "no it's OK, I'll get it" ... but instead he stared blankly at me with both his hands in his pockets and blurted, "You have money right? You have money to pay for my coffee right?"

Obviously, this made me NOT at all willing to pay for his coffee even though I totally intended to do in the first place.

And then he followed this up much later with some rather annoying intrusive questions about my personal life coupled with a really long and convoluted story about his family, which I honestly think he could make into one of those long running TVB dramas.

Anyway it got me thinking : I don't want to spend time with and on people who bring more cons than pros to the friendship. I mean, OK fine we all have our issues and baggage and we all whine to one another now and then, but I think the people who are entitled to that with me, i.e. the inner circle is pretty damn full already. So unless someone is pretty bloody amazingly awesome, sorry I ain't giving a shit.

Let's face it, some people are late night intense conversations-laughs over dinner-invite to stay-travel together types and some are just shut-up-and-watch-the-damn-movie types.

You are the weakest link J.

Goodbye.