Great Saturday

I'm having two really lovely couchsurfers this weekend, Tom and Chloe from New Zealand, both vegans, and we're having so much fun =D They're really pampering me, buying me lunch this afternoon (Thai/Peranakan vegan food *drools*) and preparing breakfast tomorrow for me, and they're so curious about all the fruits that we have, and we're having vegan conversations again, something that I only have with Val, I can't believe he's coming in about a month's time, yay!!

Val I'm so gonna bring you to the places that we've discovered in Singapore that serves great vegan stuff =D

We had a great session dragonboating today, it was really difficult, long distance stuff, but it feels amazing. Because you're pushing yourself to your absolute limit, and finding out that you could do much more than that. The best moment is when the coach yells "Easy" (lingo for stop), you stop and your arms go limp and you feel an enormous wave of relief and euphoria rushing through your veins. It's the best feeling ever. The harder it was, the happier you feel.

And the funny thing is, I actually enjoy post-dragonboat aching. I really can't explain why. I lie in the bed and turn and my muscles hurt and I go, ahh, there it is. The familiar feeling of muscles marinated in lactic acid. That's how we do it yo.

Anyway, after the dragonboating session I stayed back for their barbecue, I was expecting to eat corn and maybe baked potatoes, but they had vegan sausages! YEAH! First the beautiful lunch, and then vegan sausages - I was so happy. The company was also great, I've paddled for so long and never really talked to most of the people that I paddled with, and tonight I felt like I'm finally part of the community, albeit a community whose members voluntarily stick coins up their butts (well more like using the butt cheeks), walk 2 metres and release them coins into a pail (and the crowd goes wild!!!). Oh yes they had the stupidest games ever. Now I can actually say that I've had a 50 cent coin up my butt. But that is of course no comparison to Ian, another researcher in the team, who managed to put 10 dollars' worth of change up his butt, and do the strut and release repertoire. It was awesome.

So today was great. I know that I'll have to work really hard tomorrow to make up for lost time, but I don't really care now with all the post endorphin and alcoholic high. Hope your Saturday was good too.

The Ditty Bops - Walk or Ride

With just one kiss you could change the world,
It might not be much better-- but it certainly couldn't hurt.
When you stomp your feet you aren't hurting me,
But you're always killing something just by living on the Earth...

So who you supposed to listen to when you're looking for something to do?
And all the voices shut you up
-Someone put a brick in your coffee cup.-
When you're trying to decide whether to walk or to ride;
Take the easy way you know that you want to

I saw an educated girl give her hair a twirl
And contemplate the meaning of a man with just one arm.
She's not a genius or a dunce, but it makes no difference;
For at any moment we might find ourselves a charm

But I'm feeling quite confused by the people who refuse to see
A simple way of life don't make you the loser.
They say we won't make it far if we don't drive there in a car,
But we'll be there with time to spare and find our own way home.

You might find the meaning of life in the barrel of a rifle
If it's pointed at a bird or if it's pointed at your head.
But me, I'd rather plant a tree that grows up tall for all to see..
Until I need a pencil, then I'll chop it to the ground

At night falling down, will it make a sound?
Should I even wonder what it'd say?
It's so hard to change yourself, easier to tell someone else
That everything is going to be okay..

Oooh

---

Sidenote: Jim who was the last person that inspired me to turn vegetarian, had one arm in a sling when I met him. His shoulder and arm bones were shattered in an accident two years back, so he has a metal structure where the bones were destroyed, and he met further complications when he got infected in the hospital while he was treated. When I met him on the train, he was on his way to see the doctor in Davis. Thought that it was interesting that the lyrics of this song, which is one of my favouritest songs right now, had a line in there that resonates with this experience.

Vegetarianism and a home at long last?

I am working on some posts on the Burning Man, but they're coming on really slowly. I hate the paradox where you resolve to blog your best, but that intention hampers your writing abilities instead because pressure kills inspiration. You then feel like you cannot write to save your ass and would be better off doing something else, such as learning the ukulele. By you, I mean me, of course. And I would really love to learn the ukulele.

Anyway, pressured writing has never done anyone any good (I tend to leave them as drafts, and you tend to never get to read them), so here I am on a break, to give you an update on the exciting life that is mine!

Firstly. I have turned vegetarian. I even bought a t-shirt to seal the deal on the day that I made the decision to commit, that's how serious I am about the whole thing. I only buy t-shirts with messages that I mean.


This picture is taken by Yuen, my officemate (to new readers of my blog). We are supposed to do a writeup about ourselves and send in a professional-looking picture, to put in the university website. This is the picture that I am putting up in the site, taken by Yuen with her cell phone. This picture is also a statement that the university does not pay us enough to take studio pictures. Yuen's is also taken with her cell phone, with a thinker pose, with a chin-propping arm in the picture.

But I digress. I've told my mum my decision, and being the cool mum that she always is, she gave me no beef (pun intended) and respected my choice. Right now she's on a mission to get more information for me on how to eat properly without denying my body of necessary nutrients. I love my mum.

Why I'm doing it? My primary motivation to change my diet is to lessen my footprint on the environment. It might be apparent for some of you who have followed my blog for a bit, that I am quite passionate about global warming. There are times when I feel that we are headed towards a brick wall, or off a cliff, or any mode of inevitable death that occurs to me at that moment.


It is deeply unsettling. I want to do something. I'm aware that just by living, I consume energy, whether I like it or not. It does not help that I have an insatiable thirst to travel, and flights contribute a lot to carbon emissions.

I've been thinking about vegetarianism on and off through about two years, from when I was travelling with Val and Robert. Along the way I met many others, who have inspired me incrementally - until the fateful last day that I spent in San Francisco, where I met this guy Jim on the train to Davis. Jim is a soft-spoken guy who used his credit card to help me buy a train ticket because I only had cash. We started talking about a variety of topics, until we touched the subject of vegetarianism. I don't know how or why, but I found myself telling Jim that I would do it. I would commit to never eating meat again.

The last time I promised some random person that I would stop eating something was at Motueka, New Zealand, where some people were rallying for a petition to stop McDonalds from being introduced into the small town. I signed the petition and promised never to eat McDonalds or KFC ever again. I have kept this promise for two years to date.

Most people I've met do it for animal rights. To be brutally honest, animal rights would not push me over the brink. I mean I do sympathize with all the animal suffering, but I've never been passionate enough about it to stop my meat consumption. But when I became aware that probably the most effective way to stop global warming and environmental pollution is to stop eating meat - each bite became increasingly laced with guilt. Maybe I will blog at length about it someday, I'm feeling rather sleepy now and am in no form to lay down cogent and extensive arguments. Read this and this instead.

I also realized today that a vegetarian meal has a pleasant side bonus of being at least 50 cents cheaper than the normal meal with meat. The narrowing down of my options mean that I spend less time wondering about what to eat, and just be thankful that there is something on the menu for me. Often there are not. Other issues that I am thinking about is my continuation of dairy and egg consumption, although they too come from the farms that cause the damage, but I don't think I can drop eggs and cheese for the time being. I am also wondering about whether to cut myself some slack when it comes to fish - although that would make me a pescetarian instead. Decisions decisions.

*topic change*

Today I viewed a room. True to my tradition of taking the first room that I view, I have decided to take it. So I am going over on Monday to shake (hands) on it. It is marginally cheaper than my previous room but much smaller. However the living environment seems to be much cleaner and I do appreciate not having to cringe at the body hair on the bathroom floor every time I enter the bathroom. So, does it mean that I am going to have a home soon? I certainly hope so, if there are no creepy landlords or crazy housemates out to get me. I will be staying with a Chinese family (pregnant mum, six year old kid, granny - three generations, oh gosh) and a Mexican guy.

I am going to Malacca tomorrow morning to meet my parents. I haven't packed. I haven't done my laundry. I haven't tidied up Jia Ling's room so she won't have a fit when she gets back from Shanghai on Sunday. It is 2:43am now. Woe is me.

Right, I better get going. I think I am actually inducing jet lag upon myself. I think I deserve it.