End of the year

Again it comes to the end of a year...

2010 has been an exciting and rewarding year to me. A lot had happened and I am very thankful for all the blessings from Heaven, my friends and family.

Year of 2011 would be a new challenge to me and I am eagerly taking it up.

May all have a blessed and happy 2011.

Very Ralph Lauren Look

Most people consider Ralph Lauren as a causal wear fashion brand but when you look closer into this brand, it seems it is not as causal as we used to think.

On the flip side, the style it presents is a bit strange. You will see models dressed in shorts with an oxford shirt, a blazer, a bow tie and a pair of boaty shoes with no socks.

This style is called 'preppy'. The word itself original mean "northeastern private university-preparatory schools and denotes a person seen as characteristic of an attendee of these schools". It also refers to the kind of style this group of people dressed in.

I tried myself some of the outfits as I work for the brand, but I still cannot take the shorts and bow tie look. As it is the look of my school uniform when I was a kid.

Anyhow, I found alot of my co-workers dressed in full suit but with no socks and you will see this is a trendy thing in the company, which we are selling to our customers. I tried to follow as it's cooler in the summer, but the shoes cuts my heels and it hurt. So, I move to invisible socks. It's much better now.

Marco Pierre White

Eating is one of the most important part of my life. Quality food, tasty wine and a cigar to follow are what I enjoy most. That's why my favourite TV shows would be cooking and foodies programme.

Anthony Bourdain is one of my favourite, so as Gordon Ramsey. But now, the one who taught Gordon Ramsey is hosting Hell's Kitchen, the youngest chef to be awarded three Michelin stars in his days. A retired Chef and a now a Restaurant owner, who could be better?

Marco Pierre White (born 11 December 1961) is an British chef and restaurateur. He is recognised by patrons and peers alike for having provided a highly creative and innovative impetus into contemporary international cuisine,and is known as much for his quick temper as for his exceptional skills as a chef.

White has been dubbed the first celebrity chef "enfant terrible" of the UK restaurant scene and the Godfather of modern cooking. White was, at the time, the youngest chef ever to have been awarded three Michelin stars.

"Eating is one of the most important aspects of living. I like indulging. I like to eat one food at a time, to savor each individual thing."
- Marco Pierre White

Kipling's Cigar Bar - The last Frontier

Smoking ban is becoming a trend all over the world. Smoker are like dinosaurs, which sooner or later will be extincted because of the laws that forced us to.

I like to introduce one of the last frontiers we have, especially for those enjoy good whisky and cigars.

Kipling's Cigar Bar
G/F MANDARIN ORIENTAL HOTEL
MAKATI AVENUE CORNER PASEO DE ROXAS AYALA CENTER
Makati Metro Manila 1200 Philippines

It is one of the very few places, where you could smoke indoors to escape the heat of Philippines and a good glass of single malt at the same time.

Fellow smokers, if you happen to be in Manila, please go there and help protect our last frontier.

Instant Karma

Instant karma’s gonna get you
Gonna knock you right on the head
You better get yourself together
Pretty soon you’re gonna be dead
What in the world you thinking of
Laughing in the face of love
What on earth you tryin’ to do
It’s up to you, yeah you
Instant karma’s gonna get you
Gonna look you right in the face
John Lennon Instant Karma Lyrics


I never had believed in Karma, to me it's a myth, it's not the truth, but years passed by and you learnt more about this world, you will know there is God and he runs the world with Karma.

Everyone have their own Karma, what you do, what you see and what you hear is almost a resilience of what you have done. I am not selling that people have various lives as Buddhism, but I meant what you have now is what you did. As a farmer, what you plant is what you harvest.

Life is a lot of consequences linked together, all we not see is the bonds between which make us ordinary people.

Lonesome

It is very difficult to face loneliness, but it is even more difficult to be surrounded by a lot of people and still feel lonely.

The loneliness made people feel so desperate and the bitterness is even more so then any other thing in this world.

How to overcome it, I have no clue and the bitterness is nearly unbearable.

Life Better With Company?

Just watched the new movie 'Up in the Air'. I could see a lot of common between myself and Ryan Bingham.

I used to fly a a lot, sometimes, by myself and sometimes with companies. I have a lot of mileage cards for airlines and hotels and I own the same one Alex used to open the window of the classroom (the yellow Hilton card).

Is life better with company?

We are always surrounded but felt lonely and alone being surrounded. Why is it? Is it only a mind game? What is loneiness?

Below is the original quotes from Bingham:-

How much does your life weigh?
Imagine for a second that you're carrying a backpack.
I want you to feel the straps on your shoulders. Feel them?

I want you to pack it with all the stuff that you have in your life.
You start with the little things.
Things on shelves, in the drawers, the knickknacks, collectibles.
Feel the weight it all adds up.

Then you start adding larger stuff.
Clothes, tabletop appliances, lamps, linens, your TV.
The backpack should be getting pretty heavy now.

You go bigger.
Your couch, your bed, your kitchen table, stuff it all in there.
Your car, get it in there.
Your home, whether it's a studio apartment or a two-bedroom house.
I want you to stuff it all into that backpack.

Now try to walk. It's kinda hard, isn't it?
This is what we do to ourselves on a daily basis:
we weigh ourselves down til we can't even move
and make no mistake; moving is living

Now, I'm gonna set that backpack on fire.
What do you wanna take out of it?
Photos? Photos are for people who can't remember.
Drink some ginkgo and let the photos burn.

In fact let everything burn and imagine waking up tomorrow with nothing.
It's kinda exhilarating, isn't it?

...

This is how I start everyday of my life.
Now this is gonna be a little difficult, so stay with me.

You have a new backpack.
Now this time, I want you to fill it with people
Start with casual acquaintances, friends of friends, folks around the office.

And then you move into the people you trust with your most intimate secrets.
Your cousins, your aunts, your uncles. Your brothers, your sisters, your parents.
And finally your husband, your wife, your boyfriend, your girlfriend.

Get them into that backpack.
Don't worry I'm gonna ask you to light it on fire.
Feel the weight of that bag.
Make no mistake your relationships are the heaviest components in your life.

Feel the straps cutting into your shoulders.
All those negotiations and arguments and secrets, the compromises.
You need to carry all that weight.
Then you set that bag down.

Some animals were meant to carry each other to live symbiotically for a lifetime.
Star-crossed lovers, monogamous swans.
We are not those animals.

The slower we move, the faster we die.
We are not swans, We're sharks.

I don't know if you are swans or sharks, but I am neither both. I enjoy freedom but I also enjoy company. It is obviously that life is full of contradictions and hence we are human being.

A lot of time, we are tied up by relationships, family, friends, companies, qualifications, backgrounds, you name it...If we can just leave our 'back pack' can we be a happier person?

Christopher Johnson McCandless (February 12, 1968 – mid-August, 1992)

Have you ever think of leave your home, your comfort and live on land on your own?

Christopher Johnson McCandless (February 12, 1968 – mid-August, 1992), better know as Alexander Supertramp, was an American wanderer equip with minimal food and equipment conquered Arizona, California and South Dakota on his bear feet for two whole years before he sadly died in an empty bus out of hunger.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_McCandless

I just finished watch a movie about him, directed by Sean Pean. I admire the holiness of him, being able to have the gut to travel on his own, save except the wild, the danger and any unforeseen event. I admire his will towards loneliness, being able to stand on his own, live on his own, months without human contact, I admire his determination.

I admire this fellow, a guy with real guts!

Resurrection

After 15 months of overhaul do I become a better person? I don't really know, but there are a lot of transformation in myself. I rethink about my life, what is it for? Why I am here? Should I do think or not doing this? Is this what I wanted? What relationship suits me? What kind of work suits me? Who am I?

In these 15 months, I have danced with the devil in a pale moon light, shivering in the cold, against a lot of odds, pressed under extreme pressure and repeatedly asked myself why am I in this shit, yet, there is no change.

Lord answered my prayers in the dark days and when the time that He thought I have sufficient tests, I moved on. Thank God!

I have under went trainings to become a better man, but am I a better man after all these? This is a question that I would like to find an answer for myself in 2010. At present, the answer is obviously, NO, but I would like to make myself say YES by the end of 2010.

Looking forward to explore Asia and myself more in 2010.

Trespassing and Intruding

Trespass, legally means an unlawful intrusion that interferes with one's person or property.

Intrude, legally means to put or force in inappropriately, especially without invitation, fitness, or permission: intruded opinion into a factual report.

Over the years, I myself or many people have bypassed some one some how in their life, some comes with harmony, with joy with love but some like myself may come with anger, unhappiness, intrusion. Trespassing ones life, causing damages, unhappiness, disturbances, etc.

Now, the very first working day of 2010, I would say I am sorry! I would endeavour to come for other purpose rather then intruding or trespassing ones life anymore.