Equatorial Musings

I know I'm showing my age when I talk about Indiana Jones (or Indy as his friends call him) but believe me you that he's one of the most successful celluloid heroes to come out of tinsel town . I watched his movies while growing up and he has never failed to deliver the right mix of action, fun, humour and even a dash of romance. What is interesting about Indy is that he's both a romantic and a cynic, which I suspect most of us are too. Its okay if we hover between the 2 extremes. The risk is that we may become so cynical that we no longer dare to take the plunge. In a way, we should try to be like Indy. Despite being betrayed and shot at by so-called friends, he has never failed to trust again. In fact, I sometimes wonder if he's a tad naive. How can anyone be in his position, i.e., stranded in some strange land or caught up in some heinous conspiracy, trust anyone so easily. And we're not talking about beautiful ladies only, which I suppose you could excuse him s

When I was younger, I was extreme in my likes and dislikes. For example, I absolutely eschewed korean dramas and I thought followers of such dramas downright pathetic. Not that I had the moral high ground to feel this way because I used to and still watch the occasional hong kong serials. Some months back, I chanced upon KBS World on cable channel 173. It was 11 plus at night and I had trouble sleeping, so I was channel surfing. A pretty korean lady caught my attention and I continued watching the show as the plot unfolded. It turned out to be a romantic comedy called 'The Little Bride". It has an interesting premise - the grand patriarchs of 2 traditional families arranged a marriage between their grandson and granddaughter. The grandson was a good 10 years older, but the 2 families soon lost touch because the girl's father had to flee his debtors. Anyway, almost 2 decades later, the boy is a grown man of 28 years and he is now a public prosecutor. And the girl is

Like most people, I've had my share of good friends from school and from work. When I was younger, they tended to be more guys than gals. In fact, my best friends in secondary school were 2 guys; one was my fellow classmate Chee Peng while the other was his friend in another class. We spent a fair bit of time, including getting our monthly hair cut, together. After secondary school, we parted ways and headed off to different paths. The guy from the other class attended the same JC as I and we touched base intermittently, but I lost touch with Chee Peng . The fact that he was the bridge between the other guy and I meant that we also didn't talk much thereafter. I saw him once in a while in uni but nothing more than the obligatory "hi" transpired between us. In JC , my good guy friends were Adrian and David. Adrian was your typical ACS boy and we all know what mischief these boys can get up to. Of course, they are also charming and suave, as Cheryl my friend from w

Early last month, I shifted out of my 3-bedroom condo in the east to stay in my brother's jumbo flat in the north for a couple of months. [I had sold my place and am now waiting to buy another apartment when the property market's softer next year.] Although its a jumbo flat, I only have a room as compared to having the whole apartment to myself in the past. This aside, I've to get used to living with my parents, my brother and sister-in-law and my niece and nephew. To say its a big change is an understatement. While I wasn't quite the hermit before the shift, I had gotten used to having a lot of time and space on my own. And the funny thing is being alone doesn't always mean you're lonely. But you can be lonely even if you're surrounded by people, which is how I feel sometimes. In addition, I've to get used to living in the north, which is not glamourous by any stretch. But it has its charms, such as the neighbourhood centre with all sorts of knick kna