31 August 2006: Keeping in touch with friends

I woke up late in the morning, so instead of the initial plan of having breakfast with my fellow SEP pals Jasmine and Mu'en, we settled on brunch at a nearby pasta restaurant. The servings in Taiwan are generally larger than what we get in Singapore, so I always experience something known as "food-drunk" after the heavy meals. By "food-drunk", I refer to the process of blood concentrating near the stomach region of the body after ingestion and as a result of this mad flow into the abdomen a person kinda feels drowsy in the brains. I feel it good to take a nap after lunch, but I never did. Instead, I went back to the laptop to complete my essays and stay in touch with my friends via msn, and many of these friends are from Hong Kong, a wonderful place that I went to for the recent 2006 Lee Shiu Summer Programme.

It doesn't take Thomas Friedman's The World Is Flat to convince me into liking globalization. Well, at least some aspects of it. To spare ourselves the rhetoric I would just say that it keeps friends from all over the world connected to one another. I feel happy that I can chat with my friends from Hong Kong online. It's delightful to know that they have been getting on well with their lives, and I sincerely wish them all the best in the coming semester ahead.

The above photo shows me and my dear friend Paul Chan from Hong Kong, in one of the ceremonies held in the Lee Shiu Summer Programme mentioned earlier. I hosted the Opening Ceremony then and I made a blooper out of it, thanks to my edgy nerves at that point of time. Being an Emcee in the presence of a Minister of State has never been my cup of tea. I hope that as time progresses, my skills at public speaking and presentation will gradually improve.

Anyway, I went out with Francoise and Jasmine for dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant in the neighbourhood. Delectable beef noodles! Oh, Francoise is a nice lady from Belgium, and she always wants us to communicate with her in Mandarin. We will keep that in mind!

And before I end, do allow me to say a very happy birthday to Mr. Wang Dingguo! Thanks for the call of well wishes before I leave for Taiwan! And a Happy Teachers' Day to all educators in Singapore, though I will be saying that to myself in a few years' time!