Storm Chase

While doing some research on Hokkaido last night (yay, yay, going there in a jiffy!), I came across this freelance photographer whom I thought was quite interesting. The confluence of competing interests that he has (international politics, storm chasing and Japanese anime) makes for a fascinating portfolio with a fusion global feel. His Flickr Link here.

Hotel Room

One of my favorite Edward Hopper paintings - Hotel Room (1931)

Seven years ago on this date, I sat in a small hotel room in Wanchai Hong Kong with two suitcases, alone, going through the list of things I needed to do to set up a new life in a new country. Renting a flat, opening a bank account, getting a mobile phone line.

I had left Singapore at that time as newly qualified lawyer to chase a dream of most young lawyers at that age i.e. to work in an international firm, a "magic circle" law firm, in one of the financial capitals of the world. I took almost all my savings with me (just over S$10,000) converting them to Hong Kong dollars. More than half of that sum was used within the first week in Hong Kong to pay the deposit for a rental apartment there. I knew only one or two people, had no idea where to go find a church or a Christian community. I also did not know how long I was going to be there, since it was not a posting. Maybe two years, maybe a much much longer time.

It is hard to believe that 7 years have gone by. I have been back home in Singapore for more than a year now. Sometimes those years seemed like a dream and quite far away. But those years had a profound impact on who I am now - professionally, socially and spiritually.

In many ways, life there was not what I had expected it to be when I first went. Work-wise, I always though I thought I would build my career in a law firm, but I was instead led mid-way to a financial institution where I still am. I thought I would witness the giddy financial prowess of Hong Kong, but in fact I saw the city struggle through very difficult times (SARs and all). I thought I would become a China specialist, and travel frequently there on business, but instead my "work" in China took on an entirely different nature.

I thought I would meet many people like myself, and lead the quintessential expat life of Lan Kwai Fong parties and cross cultural networking. Instead, for the first time, I discovered I was an introvert, and did not mind hanging out with just a couple of good friends every weekend, and that I loved having my own living space (for the first time), and would spend many hours reading and thinking in my own flat.

Spiritually, it was a dry time at first. I kept comparing the church there to my home church in Singapore. I found the preaching at the international church too simple. The congregation was too American. I did not bother to join a cellgroup, because of my newfound love for solitude. It was only after the first year that God took away the sides of the box that I put myself into. Through a series of very deliberate (and often humbling) events, God made it clear that the purpose of putting me in Hong Kong was not for the promise of a high flying career or an exclusive expat life, it was to stretch my mind and heart in ways that I never did imagine.

There are so many memories from that era. So many important people that came into my life and made their impact. Best friends made for life. So many experiences that shaped the way I look at things now - work, money, relationships, family, church.

So to that first memory of a lonely Wanchai hotel room, many other images were added which now form my recollection of that period. My small rented apartment, and the many intimate dinner gatherings with dear friends held there. The Happy Valley caregroup meetings, a room filled with people from more than 10 different countries teaching and learning from one another. The weekend trips to Shenzhen bringing just the gospel and taking away the joy each time of a growing harvest. Learning a new language Cantonese which opened up the mystery of the local community for me. Working with the best brains in the industry but realizing once and for all that money, not matter how huge the amounts, would not make a place home for me.

I guess people go away to another place for different reasons. Many leave for work and a better future. Some to get away from the same-ness of home. Some leave to escape a bad relationship, or in search of a good one. Most would say, "just for the experience".

A young galfriend of mine in church shared with me about her thought processes in deciding whether to go to Beijing for a posting. She was concerned about what it would mean for her career and more importantly her spiritual life. She said she was not sure if she would be able to find the same spiritual community there. The same questions that I asked as a twenty-something. I could only tell her that whatever she is expecting or not expecting now, it is likely to be very different when she actually goes there and lives it out.

The important thing to remember, my friend, is that God's love is extra-territorial in every way and the only way to find out is not to be afraid to go when He calls. It could be a different country, a different job, a different station in life. The only purpose He has for changing our circumstances is to stretch us so that we can understand His love so much better.

Space

I like the tall windows and the kitchen.

BUTS on the Lawn

The Japanese picnic party group sitting in front of us were much more [colour] co-ordinated than AQ and I. Their tee-shirts matched their wine baskets and potato chips. We had a duck-green army poncho decorated with a 70's pink table cloth, a soggy hotdog and half a bottle of beer left over from the afternoon.




Ballet Under the Stars is about:

Checking out colour coordinated picnic groups, counting gay couples
Hearing but not seeing fireworks go off in the distance (NDP rehearsal),...

Having deep intense conversations with a friend in between dance items, Immersing in the second movement of Shostakavich's Piano Concerto Opus 102 (they couldn't dance that movement because one dancer was injured), ...

...and thinking to myself that if I ever attempted abstract oil painting, I would paint dancers splashed in deep ochre, russet, teal and sienna on a speckled charcoal gray background.

Life according to Flickr

Time, space, travel, experience - the stuff of Dejavu and parallel universes. This link shows us that no one person has the perfect perspective, but when the pool of human knowledge and experience comes together, life is infinitely richer.

The best way to explain it is to see the demo for yourself. It is truly amazing.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/129

As I understand it, this Photosynth technology hyperlinks all the public images on the web automatically. You don't need to tag your photos. Imagine googling any given image, say, "New York", and have the whole city come to life on your computer, in real time and through the real eyes of the collective community.

Probably the most exciting techno thing I have seen this decade. And we can all contribute it just by putting our holiday photos on Flickr!

Book Club : Next Change

Did a quick SKS Book run during lunchtime today. The bookstore is nearby in Tan Choong Liat Building on Outram Road. Many a lunchhour (and a few in the late afternoon) have I found an oasis there. There's something comforting and exciting at the same time to be surrounded by a whole warehouse of books about God. They have brought in quite a lot of new books rcently, and things seem pretty well-organized now (not easy with the huge selection there)!

My main aim for today's sojourn was to get this book, which we have sorta decided would be the next book for book club (after our 5 month recess!).

Here's the blurb for the book, written by the same author of rather radical bible translation, The Message :

"Writing in the conversational style that he is well known for, Peterson boldly sweeps out the misunderstandings that clutter conversations on spiritual theology and refurnishes the subject only with what is essential. As Peterson shows, spiritual theology, in order to be at once biblical and meaningful, must remain sensitive to ordinary life, present the Christian gospel, follow the narrative of Scripture, and be rooted in the "fear of the Lord"—in short, spiritual theology must be about God and not about us. "

Peterson's books are always intriguing to read. I personally think he is on his way to becoming this century's C.S. Lewis. The fundamental scholarliness, erudition, married with a startlingly fresh and creative literary style (almost to the point of subversion), has strong echoes of the intellectual giant Lewis indeed. Together with "Christ Plays" above, I also bought two other books, "Long Obedience" and "Reversed Thunder". Looking forward to the two week vacation next month to read them! :)

It should be interesting to see what comes up during the book club discussion for this book. This would our fifth book (in our three years of existence) and quite different from the rest of the books. Actually, all our books are quite different from one another (the five of us take turns to choose), which I think reflects our different personalities. And of course our unstructured randomness. haha...

A Kiddy Weekend

There were many parties this weekend! And going to parties these days often means meeting lots of kids... :)

Saturday morning, Botanic Gardens, Halial, Elicia's 1-year old party

I didn't manage to take any pictures of little Elicia because she was surrounded by so many Aunties, Uncles, GoGos, and JieJies. But I did manage to catch this adorable pair on my camera phone....















Three year old Yuheng making a funny tiger face at one-year old Chloe, who looks on with cool regality.

Saturday afternoon, DG Social, My Humble House.

The City Ministry DG is officially split into two! My "new" DG met at my place to makan and talk about our plans for the group.

Eight month old Russian doll Vera happily crawled under the dining table waiting for us to feed her home made Ben & Jerry flavoured ice cream (very yummy) that co-leader Moderaytion made himself!


Sunday Night

Was called into the office urgently on Sunday night, grrr....missed the birthday gathering for old classmate D (sorry dude!), otherwise I would have the photos of little Leia, Sebastian and another Chloe here!

A First Paintbox

After three visits to Art Friend in the last week, I finally put together my very first oil paintbox.

Everything is bigger and heavier for oil painting than for watercolors, so a sturdy paintbox is a must. I like my new elmwood wooden box. :)

A whole new world to be discovered soon. Am excited.

A Walk in the Woods

What to paint, what to paint? ...

... Look no further than under the feet.

How Long Should It Take?

In this month's edition of .. erhmm .. essential think-tank magazine "Her World", there was an article called "Quickie Marriages" which confirmed a phenomenon that I have been noticing in the last few years: Women who date in their 30s (or early 40s for men) are much more likely to get married within a very short time of entering into a relationship.

Indeed, with busy work schedules, overseas postings and a jetsetting lifestyle, people are also "shortcutting" the dating process. One good guy friend of mine tells me that the only time he really meets women, are at friend's weddings, especially weddings held overseas, which he finds a fruitful ground for finding dates. "Many of these people who attend the weddings are also on a holiday, and relaxed, and are in the "right" frame of mind at these occasions".

I have just heard that one of my gal friends has decided to tie the knot after 7 months of knowing her fiance, another one got married after two years of a long distance relationship, and only 4 months of being in the same country.

"It's basically a decision to enter into the next stage of life." these friends tell me. "After a certain age, you come to an awareness that there is no such thing as a perfect person, so you take a calculated risk. Of course, it must feel right as well and I must be attracted to that person."

I am genuinely happy for my friends who really do feel that they are ready to take that step (I know it is not something at all easy for some of us to do), and want nothing less than a life of true bliss for them and their partners. And it really is very wonderful to see two people grow to become closer and closer through marriage, especially so if they are Christians.

I thought what was interesting about the "Her World" article (a totally secular one of course), was how it traces the effect of emotions and hormones in the dating process and in marriage. It discusses, as some scientific journals have done, why the euphoria of romance and "attraction" tends to dissipate as quickly as within the first 6-12 months of a relationship, because of certain biological patterns that both men and women undergo.

The article also explains that it usually takes at least 6 to 12 months of consistent interaction, in a wide variety of everyday settings (home, work, etc) to discover the personality traits and habits of the other person. People are often on their best behaviour during those initial months of the relationship, but it often takes a stressful situation or just plain old "hanging out" time in order to discover how the other person handles pressure, what are his or her true values,and how two people are able (or unable) to handle conflict together.

Of course, none of the above is really new. These issues are discussed ad nauseum amongst friends, in books, in church etc. There is much wise and healthy advice from experienced folks out there, so I shan't have the need to write much about it at all.

Each of us individually need to get to that place in our lives to be able to honestly ask ourselves what is the purpose of marriage, why and how we might have made it a goal (or not), and how long it will take for us to be ready for it.

The "timeline" will be set either by ourselves, or by pressures outside ourselves.

So, to the question, "How long should one date date before one marries?" One might reply: "As soon as one is able to get to the place to be able say that I don't need to marry any person, and as long as it takes to be able to say I do want to marry this particular one."

Reticence

At one point during the negotiations last week, Chairman Nyuen signaled to his lawyer in Vietnamese and pointed to me. My counterpart across the table nodded, stood up and walked across the room towards us, and placed this on the table in front of me.

"Ms Y, this is the book containing our Laws. I give this as a present for you. Please read it, and understand our Laws." - the interpreter said.

Definitely saw a different side of Vietnam last week. A steely reticent side that is in contrast to the genteel, easy-going people I met as a tourist in Hanoi just two months ago. A people who very much want to have a better life for themselves, but who are deeply suspicious of the outside world. A very proud people, though not in the same arrogant way as the Chinese. Stubborn, definitely, but not quite like the Indians. They don't make big promises like the Chinese, or out-talk you like the Indians. Indeed, their sole purpose seems to be wanting to extract hard promises out of you, and they then make you repeat the promises to them again and again, ten times, twenty times, until that point when they think can trust you.

After being in a large smokey room of many people trying to understand one another for the whole morning on Thursday, I escaped for a burger lunch break and for some alone-time in an Italian cafe near our office. It was housed in one of those old style shophouses that I love so much in Hanoi.

I looked out of the tranquil courtyard with the green hanging trellis plants and thought about work and things, especially about how it seems really difficult for people in one part of the world to understand another. It is ironical indeed that places like Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia are so near to home, and yet we Singaporeans really know so little about how people in these places think and work.

This is one of the rare occasions that I actually needed to travel for negotiations (the vast majority of my work is done on paper and through the telephone these days), but it is definitely quite an eye-opening experience to have had the chance to be on the ground to understand first hand the cultural issues of doing business in these newly emerging economies.

Here are the real Little Tigers from the jungles of our region, in my opinion.

A First Portrait

Back to The Simple Life. Term has started again in art school. The first two lessons are a warm-up, so it is back to charcoal drawing again, before we start on oils next week.

A first old person portrait.

hmm... oil painting materials are kinda bulky, what with the easel and canvas and all. I think I have run out of space again at home. I so wish I had an extra room to use as a studio. Maybe convert the balcony? But where then to hang the laundry? ponder ponder...

24 Hours in Hong Kong

So in the race against time during the Vietnam negotiations last week, the MD banker made a snap decision that we would delay our departure by half a day. As he needed to be back in Singapore by Friday noon, we changed our flight plans and re-routed through Hong Kong instead, since the flights out of Hanoi to Hong Kong were more frequent.

So unexpectedly, I found myself in Hong Kong for the next 24 hours.

I sms-ed the good gang back in Singapore to say sorry for cancelling on them on a pre-planned Friday dinner, and got very understanding replies: "It's okay, we'll do dinner during the weekend", and "Do you have enough clothes (read:underwear) with you?"

As things always are in Hong Kong, it was an action-packed 24 hours, consisting of...

9 pm (Thurs).... Wondering why the Landmark was full of people sitting on the floor in queues, with security guards putting barricades and attempting crowd control. What was happening? Was it a post July 1 demonstration? Did another celebrity commit suicide? It turned out that people were queueing for a limited edition designer bag to be launched the next morning by Anteprima (an Italian brand name known for it's cool "plastiq" clothes and accessories):

10 pm.... Checking out the much talked about new Landmark Mandarin Oriental hotel. It was probably the most amazing hotel I have stayed in to date. I really didn't need three LCD TVs and a full sized jacuzzi in my suite, but I guess this is how business people travel. Pity I only had less than 10 hours to spend in that room.






















9 am (Fri).... Decided to prolong my stay in the nice hotel room for an hour more by taking a morning conference call in the hotel room rather than the office. heh.

10 am..... Arrived in the HK office, it feels a little strange to be back in Chater House. My old office happened to be free, so I set up shop there for the day. I went upstairs to our own Pacific Coffee cafeteria to get my usual morning coffee, and said hi to a few familiar people on the way. But, gosh, there are soooo many new faces too.

12.30 pm.... By a stroke of luck, we both managed to divert some urgent work, and Best Friend and I were able to meet for lunch. We first did a quick run to see the apartment that she had just bought. The renovations had just begun, looking forward to seeing it all done up when I go back to HK again in October. Had a nice crepe lunch at a new place along Peel Street, and spent an hour catching up. There's nothing better in life than being able to sit down with an old old friend who just understands.



3 pm.... A series of unanticipated and somewhat serious conversations with colleagues in the Hong Kong office. Another conversation with my boss in the same afternoon that made me realize I could be embarking on a different stage of my career soon.

7 pm..... No time to check out the summer sale at all, the afternoon was so busy. Finding myself on the Airport Express again, with even more wide-eyed and bushy tailed business people flying in and out of this gateway to China.

9 pm (Fri)... On a very full flight, but slept through most of it (except for the Bollywood movie that I watched but did not get to finish because the plane landed in Changi 10 minutes ahead of schedule, so now must go look for the DVD at Mustafa).


So there it was - a little surprise trip to Hong Kong - a reminder of a past life that's familiar and distant at the same time.

How the Toast Lands

In Hanoi these few days, going through some of the most bizarre negotiations in my life. The only thing keeping me laughing and sane is this science book I picked up at the airport before I flew off. Pretty interesting stuff about how the mind works, why human beings are creatures of habit and why we will always make the same wrong turns when driving.

Let's see how the toast lands for this one. I thought negotiating with China was bad, India a close second, but this one in Indochine takes the prize.

Love for Beggars and for Kings (Sting)

Such a very beautiful song on a simple instrument and with such few and simple words.

The lowest trees have tops, the ant her gall

The fly her spleen, the little spark his heat;

The slender hairs cast shadows, through but small,

And bees have stings, although they be not great;

Seas have their source, and so have shallow springs;

And love is love, in beggars and in kings.

Where waters smoothest run, there deepest are the fjords,

The dial stirs, yet none perceives it move;

The firmest faith is found in fewest words,

The turtles cannot sing, and yet they love;

True hearts have ears, and eyes, no tongues to speak;

They hear, and see, and sigh, and then they break.

(Songs from the Labyrinth, Sting, 2005)

Surprised by a Harmony in Solitude

Generally don't like showoffs, prima donnas and egomaniacs.

(Had a low quality weekend spent mostly negotiating contractual provisions with a couple of the worst ones I have seen in 8 years of practice).


Was therefore surprised to find myself moved by the quiet tender, non-bombastic nature of the Liszt pieces played at this year's Piano Festival. These are the rarer Liszt pieces which I am glad French pianist Cyprien Katsaris chose to play.

Am curious now to learn more about Liszt's symphonic poems. He apparently was always having a great urge to set music to poetry. (Funny, I always feel like I have the urge to do the opposite). Liszt wrote a hauntingly beautiful piano piece based on the poem by French poet Lamartine, my favorite piece during the Friday night concert.

(a paraphrase of the French poem, Bénédiction de Dieu dans la solitude, A Benediction of God in Solitude)

What is our life but a succession of preludes to that unknown song
whose first solemn note is sounded by death?
Love is the enchanted dawn of every heart,but what mortal is there,
over whose first joys and happiness does not break some storm,
dispelling with its icy breath his fanciful illusions, and shattering his altar?
What soul thus cruelly wounded does not at times try
to dream away the recollection of such storms in the solitude of country life?

It was almost as if Liszt made the piano kneel down and sing those words.