Rounding off 2014

2014 has been a pioneering sort of year. Now that I think about it, each year should be and indeed has been a year of firsts. For there's always something new we have done that we have not done before.

I took up running earnestly for the first time. And wearable tech apps like Runkeeper and Strava help me want to keep up a good record. So far I've managed to run on 4 continents: Africa, (North) America, Asia and Europe, or more precisely in Victoria Falls, Washington DC, Halong/KL/Singapore and Barcelona respectively. I've also climbed up Wayna Picchu but my Velocitech altimeter-endowed watch never worked :-(

 I should not give anyone the wrong impression that I've become an uber athlete all of sudden, like some mid life crisis armchair sportsmen turned marathoners. No, I do this partly for health (I still rue my broken hand; though screwed back on, it's not quite the same) and partly for vanity for I don't want to exceed the 80kg limit in weight.

J fulfilled one of life's dreams, something I had aspired towards but didn't accomplish: he was recognised as one of the nation's top Scouts and conferred the President Scout Award by the President no less! This coming off a year of achievements including the Gold Medal in the 11th Geography Olympiad in Krakow and a character building hike with budding leaders from his college.

M had a momentous year too, being selected into leadership position in her school's peer support board, and asked to participate in the Geography Academy. For some reason, both kids are preternaturally inclined towards this subject. No wonder we enjoy traveling so much! She has also been active in sports and has a fine bunch of friends: her softball teammates and her chatty classmates. Yet, despite all their antics, M (and her friends) are serious girls and going into upper secondary next year, she has voluntarily decided to give up some of the more trivial social media apps like snapchat ans askfm voluntarily. Now, that is a first! And an act that is sure to bring a smile to every 21st century parent.

The real first is the project D undertook. To be precise, the project started in 2012 but it's in 2014 that most of the progress took place and it fell on her shoulders to take care of every detail in the building, from tile selection to window placement to ceiling design and appliance procurement. It also necessitated monthly, then bimonthly drives to Malacca. She figured out the timings to beat the traffic, but sometimes we get caught including coming a few days ago where we spent over 2 hours between the JB and Woodlands checkpoints.

At work, I've found equilibrium: when we're loving what we do and doing what we love. This state is important for peace of mind and it's been said that it's hard to achieve peace in the world when one doesn't have inner peace to start with.

My peace is not just with work but with the most high: Gloria in Excelsis Deo. He's blessed us with much and with these we have a responsibility to give back and to pay it forward. In a very insular way, we've repaid our parents by bringing all 4 of them to a place they've never been to and on a trip they have never experienced including camping in Zimbabwe! We are all looking forward to 2015 with great faith, hope and love!

A special day

I don't usually do this... The hopeless romantic stuff, that is. Not in keeping with strong manly type.

But it's been 25 years since I've saw her standing there (as Lennon would say). And 21 years since we got engaged, so the relationship is formally reached maturity. 20 years since the wedding, and quite a milestone in this day and age.

So, given this is a special year, I decided I'd make this overtly extravagant gesture (in addition to the more 'expected' gift of a cute classic in Malaysia, and a precious pebble in Peru), of a bouquet of our favourite flowers.

Happy birthday, dear. 

LYMYNY 

Run for hope

.Today, we did something specially meaningful. I had picked up running earlier this year and with the ability to record each run with the help of a GOS-enabled smartphone app, this has become an activity worth sustaining as one aims to run more, in new places, faster pace and longer distances.

Today, spurred on by M who first signed up for this Charity Run with her softball mates, D and I joined her too, D in the 3.5km run and me for the 10-km. I think the last time I ran 10k was half my lifetime ago (at a company sports day), and we ran the length and back of the runway. This time, the 10k was around the beautiful Marina Bay. It's a new route, and ranks up there with my run from the Willard to Lincoln Memorial in Washington, along Halong Bay from Novotel to The Bridge, and between hotels W and Arts in Barcelona. 

The scenic route helped, for I felt 'the wall' around km7, but what really spurred me on was the reason for the run: we all ran for hope, for cancer patients and specifically for our friends A and S who are undergoing treatment presently. May they be cured and may a cure be found.

A Trio of Haikus

There is no give and take

Always done well and fulsome

Week in, week out, can-do!

Decisions to make

Opinions shared and thrown

Yet, so much still to do

Nearly two decades

Working away from home

What does it amount to?

Photo from fancy.com

Running

INo, not running away

More like that ABBA song, that when all is said and done, even when I am at the crossroads, there is no more need to run.

Instead, I now run for the joy of it. I wish I had liked it way back when living in Zurich with the woods behind our apartment in Wangen. Nonetheless, it's not too late and today I had one of the best runs of my life. It's slightly over 2 kms from the hotel to the Lincoln Memorial here in Washington DC. 

I have been in Washington DC two, three times before but never got here. So, it's a real pleasure to meet this giant statue, befitting the legend of the man. The memorial fittingly resemble a Greek temple. Lincoln freed a people and then united the country.

So it made a lot of sense that 2 Asians and 6 Caucasians of 4 nationalities ran together. Setting off at 6;30am with a bunch of colleagues (2 women, who led the way, and 6 men) we took just a little over 10 minutes to the memorial and another 10 minutes back. In fact, I set a record of doing 6mins/km this run.

More running to come, of the joyous kind! :-)

World traveller

I think there are a number of airlines; British Airways come to mind foremost, that describes their customers in this vein. Increasingly, I am feeling this label describes me more than ever. At most first time introductions to business acquaintances, the conversation naturally drifts to how much I travel.

Here's a typical year of air travel

- once a year to the US (worst of all, east coast cities mostly: New York, Boston, Washington)

- twice a year to Europe (this being a favored global meeting location)

- quarterly to an major Asian capital (Mumbai, Delhi, Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Sydney, Tokyo, etc)

- monthly to Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam each

- weekly to Malaysia

That's nearly 200 flights.

Growing up, I wanted to fly around the world. Heck, my first job was even in the aviation industry to get closer to this dream. Even then, I did not dare dream of taking a flight every other day!!!

I am presently on another trip to the US, Washington DC to be precise via London. It's a relatively long layover of more than 3 hours. The Virgin lounge, cooly dubbed The Clubhouse however makes up for this. It's funky and sassy. I even planned for and got a nice haircut here, and my bushy hair is now looking stylishly 'Oxford Street' chic.

The flight back is even longer, but after all that traveling one sure hopes I have figured out how to make this painless.

Goodbye, "time to to plant flowers"

I peek outside our overflowing apartment and eyeball the delivery men bearing a truckload of cling-wrapped, mid-century modern chairs, dressers and lamps. "I can't believe you bought so much, where are we going to put all of it?!" My husband brushes aside my shrieking like he would a fly, and throws the door open to his latest acquisitions. Welcome to life with a collector. The scene repeats itself with dazzling frequency - if the delivery men are not bearing design-conscious furniture, then it is contemporary paintings. Sometimes it is my husband himself outside the door, heaving a box of newly purchased vintage vinyl records. Every wall and nearly every sq m ... is packed with testaments to my husband's love of good design and art.  He is also an audiophile - think gizmos from a second-hand Rega turntable to huge honking Vandersteen speakers - and his books, CDs and LPs number several thousand, nestled on shelves and racks or stacked in vertical piles that rise dangerously towards the ceiling. The house also contains miscellany such as back copies of one-time style bible Wallpaper, including its first issue in 1996, and two antique typewriters that previously belonged to my father-in-law. Did I mention that we also have two young kids? ... So far, the only accident has been one broken faux Louis Poulsen table lamp - the originals are placed well out of reach of mischievous little hands. On the upside, my daughter must be the only four-year-old to know the word "typewriter". For my husband, collecting is not about deep pockets ... but seeing the value in what others might miss. His heroes are not the Charles Saatchis of this world, but Herbert and Dorothy Vogel, the postal clerk and librarian who amassed a staggering 5,000 pieces of modern art in a one-bedroom New York apartment, then donated all of it to museums and galleries in the United States. Sure, I take pride in my husband and his various collections, assembled through many hours of research and bonding with equally passionate dealers. The mid-century furniture, for example, tells the story of the streamlined aesthetic, new materials and themes ranging from molecular chemistry to science fiction that gripped post World War II utopian imaginations. But I also have this nagging worry that we are living in one of those scary hoarder homes. The above is an extract from Clarissa Oon's article in The Straits Times. I reproduced it here because it might as well have been written by D, who has often accused me of being a hoarder. I can't help it. I fall passionately into things and when I like one, I like more and I want to collect them all. Be it music, books, cars (big ones and miniature models), art (painted, sculpted, printed), cameras, watches, hifi equipment.  At the same time this article appeared, I did something remarkable. I sold my first piece of art (admittedly in exchange for a bigger better piece). Anna Berezovskaya, whose work addresses many of life's most important questions and quandaries in an exuberant and probing manner (according to Ian Findlay Brown the founder of Asian Art News) first caught my eye 2 years ago, courtesy of Chris Churcher of Red Sea Gallery. Her works speak to me in a way no other art has done. It is layered in a complex manner yet her message is often a simple one. Like freedom, like love, like dreaming.  As the first significant part of my collection I have decided to part ways with, I thought I'd pay it homage by honoring it with its own image in this blog. Goodbye, "time to plant flowers" It's also proof that I am a collector, not a hoarder :-)