"I wish I had..."

As big as London is, its funny how small a world can be.

I randomly ran into an old colleague from Chicago over the weekend while traveling on the tube. Now its one thing to "randomly" run into someone you know once, but twice?

I ran into this same colleague walking in South Bank over the summer, but I was running late for a movie and I never had the chance to talk and have that short 2-3 minute exchange of "hey what's up, what have you been up to" routine...

As fate would have it, I run into her AGAIN this weekend!

Sure enough, we exchange numbers and finally meet up this evening.

She's one of those free spirits that doesn't get caught up on normalcy.

Her recent affair was working for the UN in Liberia and is just rolling off after 2.5 years. Before that, she took a year off and traveled. Now here she is again, taking a few months off traveling again to decompress. What a life. =)

We discussed her experiences in the past few years: taking a year off, working for the UN, her plans in the next couple of months.. and one thing she said stuck in my mind:

"I don't want to look back one day and think to myself: I wish I had..."

I find it intriguing to talk to people that have experiences in 3rd world countries and work for companies that are involved in humanitarianism.

I sometimes think about how lucky I am having the opportunity I have living and working here and the experiences I go through, but man, anyone working in less fortunate countries abroad and working for the common good, now that's amazing.

I find it admirable when people just decide to: "Take a year off to travel."

She was telling me how psychologically difficult it is to remove yourself from the thought of "not having a paycheck" and "not worrying about your bills." But eventually she said, you get over it.. after the first couple of months off. =)

Random stuff

My favourite blog posts are when I ramble on about broad range of topics.. so here it goes:

Trash TV
Okay, maybe its not "trash" TV, as much as it is addicting, but these are shows that I keep asking myself.. why am I watching this trash? I blame it all by chance. I turn on the "tele" after a long day of work to serve as background noise so I can surf the internet and veg out. What comes on? This "reality" TV show on MTV called "The Hills." Ironically, Tim mentioned this show to me during my visit back home. I get the unlucky chance of turning on the tele during a 3 hour marathon. great. Of course, in 3 hours they don't go through the whole "season". So I "obtain" the rest of the season on the web. Result: I stay up till 2am in the morning on Tuesday finishing up the season (8 episode marathon) because I love watching other people's drama, especially drama from rich beautiful women from Hollywood.

Hilarious commercial
I have to share this with everyone. Especially with the kind of humour I have. Right before the "previews" of "No Country for Old Men" this commercial came on. Absolutely loved it. Hope you like it too!


More Trips Planned!
Hamburg, Germany in two weeks and Istanbul, Turkey for Easter weekend!

And back to The Hills...
Awesome quote from the show:

"I take you for who you are.. and the person you are.. and the heart that you have.. and I don't let anybody interfere with that... and I think truth and time tells all."

I truly believe in this. My interpretation to this is that, time will only tell the "truths" of a relationship. Getting to know someone takes time and its something that you shouldn't rush at all!

TISGOMB Post #1

My mate and I were at a bar and we noticed a couple on the dance floor.

The woman was petite. Maybe a little less than 5 foot. The man was tall. I'd say 6'5''. So, with that much of a height difference, my mate goes and asks me:

"So how do they kiss while they're having sex?"

I didn't know the answer to this question because I've never dated a woman that was over 6 foot. (But I have dated someone taller than me, but that's another story!)

As ramblings go.. I then ask:

"Is there such thing as a really tall overweight person?"

He answers matter-of-factly:

"No there isn't."

I haven't seen one, have you?

I'm talking about close to 7 foot "tall!"

Of course I'd like to state that I have nothing against: overly tall or/and overweight people, or couples with huge height differentials. =)

--
In any case, I write this because I thought to myself..

"This is so going on my blog." - now known as TISGOMB posts. (inspired by the show - How I met your Mother.)

Which reminds me, I have a few of more "TISGOMB" posts still pending... consider it a way to inspire more blog posts this year..

And the year begins..

Fresh new year, fresh new start.

Time for new year's resolutions.

After a year goes by, I like to look back and reflect on what goals I've achieved. It gives me a sense of accomplishment and a bit of purpose. Unfortunately last year's post I forgot to list what I wanted to accomplish in London last year.

Well, this time, I'll go out on a limb and list some things and see where I fair at the end of the year!

• Play Golf. I brought my golf clubs back to London. Time to use them and work on my game. Where I'll play? How I will lug my golf clubs around without a car? Dunno. I'll figure it out.


• Ride my bike. I moved it to London with me, but after more than two years, I have yet to use it. I'll start with recreational riding. That is, if London gets a summer this year.


• Read more. I'll be bold and say I'll finish 7 novels before the new year. Some may say that's a small number, but that's averaging 6-7 weeks a book. I'm a slow reader. I bought all these books and they are just sitting on my bookshelf. If I cut down on my webs urfing time, this goal should be attainable.


• Pick up a new skill. Proper Cooking? Salsa? Haven't figured this out yet. I've been searching for classes to take, but to no avail.

I'll try and continue with the usual suspects: traveling, working out, and well, improv. Improv is a bit up in the air. I'm looking for another way to express my artistic side: perhaps creative writing or another form of theater.

In any case, at least I'll have this post to reflect on 12 months from now and see where I stand!

31 years and counting...

Hello.

Its been a good break. A very introspective one for that matter.

It always seems like I don't have enough time with everyone. Maybe that's telling me something!

Thanks for all the birthday wishes!

With all this buzz about "change" in the democratic elections.. I'm starting to think about "change" as well.

Every time I come back, I always like to think things never change, and things are the same as I last left it. But catching up with friends and family, its interesting to hear how things are different and evolving.

That said, 2007 was a small stepping stone for change. I think 2008 will be the year of "change" for myself. Some self imposed changes and some change probably out of my control. But I think overall, its time. Its time to re-prioritize what's important in my life. You gotta do that once it a while to shake things up a little. Once in a while you just have to ask yourself:

"What makes me happy?"

Because life's too short to be otherwise.