Dublin

The faces of Dublin.
I think the character of Dublin is manifested through its buildings.
The varying facades and contrasting proportions are indeed representative of the Irish mentality; the overall feel or quaintness is the common undertone that they share, that unites them as Irish. My only gripe about Dublin is that the traffic is really appalling. Congestions galore.
Oh well, as you can see, I've finally managed to upload the photos from Ireland. I really wonder what took me so long. Tomorrow I sneak off for a short getaway. A getaway from my life on holiday.
Life on holiday.
Sometimes it really does seem as though life has come to a standstill.
More photos from Dublin here

Spoilt for Choice

Will it be a manicure or a pedicure for you?
Happy Birthday Winston.
More photos from Winston's birthday party here

Writing on the wall

Making cents of it all.
Money and politics.
Just a notch lower than the deadly mix of religion and politics.

Bubbling Red

Guess this post best describes my current physical state.
Although the sun this afternoon was not the hottest by far, it was hot enough.
Now, I am able to truly empathise with the strawberries that I boiled and bubbled away on Monday whilst making dessert. I have concluded, without a doubt, that the best season for playing football is late spring.
Anyhow, since this is a blog and I should do bloggy stuff like update you folks on whats up and whats down with my life, here goes... cue drumroll.... nothing much. Surprise surprise. I seem to waste my days running errands or trying to get some sleep. Sometimes I just can't wish for school to start so that I can get some kind of routine back into my life. Weird... aren't we humans a weird lot.

Peace Out

What the world needs now is peace.
That's the one thing that will keep pump prices down.

"And still I see no changes. Can't a brother get a little peace?
There's war on the streets and war in the middle east."
~Tupac Shakur, Changes

Drive By

Gold in the Air of Summer.
You'll shine like gold in the air of summer.

Snapshot

Far away, So close.
Another sleepless night, this time without a big square window to stand in front of.
I guess its time to look inwards instead of outwards.
Its funny how when I'm feeling down, my thoughts seem to gravitate back to my time in Aarhus. My time. A period of time that has now passed. A notch on my belt of life's experiences. An experience, no longer ongoing. Or maybe not. Time stands still inside the nebulous web called the mind. In fact time does not appear to exist. Deprive yourself of sleep long enough and the lines between what is real and what isn't blurs. This limbo unleashes the imagination; allowing it to rampage through the brain, manipulating memories and in a perversed sense, providing a high unlike any other narcotic.
Snapshots. Mental snapshots. That's the dope of the future.
A million times cheaper, a million times more addictive.

Green

Green is the Maker's favourite colour
County Wicklow, Ireland

Bobby Sands

Our revenge will be the laughter of our children...

The cliche "one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter" could not be more true.
In this crazy world that we live in, we have somehow managed to rationalise the use of force. We have become so good at doing so that we even have two justifications for it, terror and freedom. It seems ironic that both are achieved through the same means.
As I walked down the Falls road in Belfast, soaking up the murals, I really wondered what could drive a man to kill his neighbour. Religion? Politics? Sex, Drugs, Rock and Roll? And here's another cliche. As I walked, I was glad that there exists racial harmony in Singapore and that if we do not work hard to maintain this, we could quite easily become another Belfast, Sarajevo, Mazar i Sharif.

"A creative writing teacher at San Jose used to say about cliches 'avoid them like the plague' ... but I always thought cliches got a bum rap. Because, often, they're dead-on. But the aptness of the cliched saying is overshadowed by the nature of the saying as a cliche."
~ Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runners

Running

My brother in Dublin, keeping his nose from runnin.
The portraiture theme is probably carried over from the Law 4 photo shoot on Saturday.
Now that things are more settled and I seem to have more spare time, I'm starting to Raw process the photos that I took in Ireland and the UK. Judging from Mom's reaction to news of yesterday's Tsunami, I think it is unlikely that I'll be leaving the country anytime soon. Prehaps it is now time to indulge in some domestic tourism.

Shadows

Taken with matt's Ixus 50 that I hijacked a couple of days ago.
Long Live snapshot photography
I love the shadows that the 5pm sun casts.
Shadows; even with bright light there is dark space.
Space; the search for space not without but within.
Within; within the mind hides memories
Memories; harsh words spoken are not easily forgotten
Forgotten; every wound leaves a scar.

Blue Skies

Where are my blue skies?
The past few days have been really trying and tiring. Even though my pupillage ordeal ended on the 2nd day, I didn't really get to celebrate till the weekend and by then it was already a hollow celebration; largely drained and whatever left poisoned. Can anyone really be guilty of stealing a joyful moment? What would the compensation be then? I don't think anyone can really be guilty of such a crime. One only loses a moment if one chooses to surrender it. Most of the time we believe that surrendering such moments are worth it but hindsight usually proves us wrong.
The weekend was spent putting together the cool Ferrari Lego that my parents and Matt gave me as a cheer-up cum congratulations present for securing some form of income in the near future; alas, they are now one step closer to kicking me out of the household. Lego might sound kiddy but this really cool Ferrari Enzo even allows you to build the V12 engine block together with its crankshaft and it "fires" alternate cylinders when the wheels are turned.
The weekend was also spent thinking about relationships and what that R word entails. I really didn't distill any great truth or solved any mystery. In fact, I think my time would have been better spent doing something productive like digging my nose or cleaning my ears. I simply concluded that sometimes being a puke bag for someone that you love isn't enough. I also realised that apart from allowing the user to puke into you, you also need to be labelled the "evil one" and the sole reason why the user is puking. Comforting words, behind the scene efforts, flowers and good intentions are always inadequate. Which after this weekend's brooding doesn't come as a surprise. Silly me. How can they ever make up for a wrong that you didn't even commit? It is strange how 4 letter words seem to be interchangable; Love, Fear, Home, Fuck, Life, Shit.
I have been home for just one month come tomorrow and I have made every effort to please the ones who are near and dear. My family has been so understanding, up to the point where I feel bad. It is hard to juggle everything and I suppose I could do with some support. What use is the support if it is only there when I'm on my act. I thought love was a two way thing and I guess I thought wrong. Now now now, I don't want to get on the slippery slope that social accounting leads to. We all know that we love unconditionally, without expecting anything in return. But does that mean forgoing appreciation and the slightest show of gratitutde. Maybe I've lost the meaning of the word "Love".Or maybe it simply is just another 4 letter word.
Now, where did I put my blue skies?

The Path

The past few days have been chaotic. The tropical weather most definately does not accomodate shirt and tie wearers. So, I've chosen my path and like most paths I can't really see the end of it. All that I have is a mental notion of the final destination, which I'm sure will change as I progress along the path or as time passes. Who knows what the future holds. Everything could be nice and green now but with the passing of time, the changing of the seasons, some greens do turn brown and decay.
To all those who have already gotten a place, Congrats. To those who are still waiting, hang in there. I think we should all remember that this whole exercise is not a determination of self worth. I like to think that Man's existence stems beyond a few letters of the alphabet. Maybe I'm wrong. But at least it is a thought worthy of being entertained, just for a moment. Because sometimes a moment is all we have and all we need.

Urban Sunset

Instead of lamenting about the lack of natural scenary back home, I decided to seek out alternative scenary
Blasting down a deserted road at 3am on a weekday is really therapeutic. But then it leads to the logically subsquent question, therapy for what?
The sudden urge to blog today is most certainly attributed to the need to do my CV and cover letters. In a warped sense, procrastination can be the catalyst for greater good such as this blog entry. I guess it all depends on what you deem as good.