heritage vale cab sauv 2004, the whisky store

Thursday, September 21, 2006

IMF is over, life resumes normality, and soon I shall find time to do my grossly-piled-up laundry again.

Over the last few days I've had a bit of time - in between never-ending press briefings and chilled red wine (what is up with that?? why does everyone serve red wine cold??) - to think about things, to re-read my indulgently detailed blog entries from 2003, and to decide that heck cares who reads this blog - it should serve its original function (circa 1997! how many bloggers can say that?) of chronicling my life rather than recording fleeting cryptic moments that I'm not sure even my future self will be capable of recalling, given the alarmingly narrow capacity of my short-term memory.

So here goes, in the limited amount of time I have between coherence and exhaustion.

1. The three characteristics that all good journalists have: short attention spans and quickness to boredom, very high intense short-term productivity, and immense stamina and resilience in the face of suppression or obstruction. I look at my colleagues, and respect only those who refuse to flinch at fighting for each word and nuance, who relish working on weekends because it gives them an edge, and who stay in the office until past midnight to make sure that their finished products are worthy of their bylines.

2. The main drawback of studying overseas is finding that most of your friends end up halfway around the world. (Unless, of course, you're one of those Singaporeans who only set up camp with other Singaporeans, in which case you might as well have gone to NUS or NTU or, even better, SMU, for all the good your overseas experience did you.) And on the rare occasions that your foreign friends stop by the little red dot - something else I learned this week - that is Singapore, you get to blend nostalgia with rediscovery in a genuinely rejuvenating way.

3. You can be searching and dissatisfied and reluctant to settle into complacent content - and still be happy.

So, ultimately, here's to restlessness - because it is only when life is incomplete, sometimes deliberately, that we are driven to continue our quest for the very best of the missing pieces.

(So there, c7676.)

 posted by zyn :: 2:11 AM :: 4 Comments :: permalink


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