I am Peter. I
am a forty something Australian expat living and working in Singapore. I have
been here for more than four years. How time has flied. Or is it flown? Either
way it seems to have passed very quickly. I live here alone. Living in
Singapore sometimes delights me but it often bores me and mostly it baffles me.
I travel a lot for my work and I spend a ridiculous amount of time on planes
and in airports. I like to read a lot. I devour books and sometimes I
write.
Just for
me.
Words do it
for me.
T
H
E
Y
R
E
A
L
L
Y
D
O
I like to swim
and surf and the ocean is my friend. I recently discovered a love for mountains
too. Big ones. Really big ones actually. I often talk to strangers. This
sometimes alarms people - especially on trains and buses but less so on planes.
I don't know why.
I mean no
harm.
It is a
cautious world we live in.
I talk a lot
and I often pat stray dogs. I have yet to be bitten. I had a golden retriever
for 14 years and his name was Bob. He was much travelled. At the end he wobbled
when he walked and he groaned when he stood and he was as deaf as a door post.
He still thumped his tail and grinned at me even when he couldn’t stand up
anymore.
He was my best
friend and I miss his unconditional love.
Every day.
The term ‘deaf
as a post’ originated in 1540 by the writer John Palsgrave in his work “Acolastus”.
John wrote:
“How deaf an
ear I intended to give him …. He were as good to tell tale to post”
I do not
really know what he was saying and I have not read the book but at some point
in time the word ‘door’ was slipped in before the word ‘post’ and we all know
that deaf is being unable to hear.
I stand up for
old men and women when I catch trains and it annoys me when others don't. Stand
up that is. I mostly speak my mind and occasionally it is to my detriment. Age
and experience has however taught me that it is wise sometimes not too and silence
can indeed be golden. Biting my tongue hurts though and sometimes a fucker just
needs to be called a fucker.
We should all
of us challenge everything.
I admire and
respect kindness and I value morals. Please and thank you are easy words
to say and they carry weight and so too does a smile. Mother Teresa said "Peace
begins with a smile" and who could or would argue with a
Saint?
I believe that
we are formed by what we desire and we are shaped by what we experience.
I'd like to
say I never lie but that would be a lie but I try to be honest most of the
time though. Or is that a lie? I do not like spiders or snakes or bats. My
favorite animal is the wombat. Wombats mate for life and there is no divorce in
the wombat world.
I also like
whales and dolphins. I have swam with them before.
Guns frighten
me and I don't get wars. Violence appalls me. I don't think of myself as a
coward but some things scare me. I am fearful of clowns and cornfields and being
buried alive. If I ever saw a clown emerging from a cornfield with a shovel in
his hand I would probably have a heart attack. I fear losing people who are
close to me although I know that this is inevitable.
Tempus
anima rei.
Time is the
soul of things.
I am sometimes
terrified about tomorrow.
I can make a
killer curry and I also make a mean pesto sauce. The recipe for the pesto sauce
was handed down to me from my Hungarian great grandmother. It has a secret
ingredient that would surprise you. I like anchovies they are not however the
secret ingredient. I ring my mum on Tuesday every week. If I don't ring her she
worries and it worries me when she worries - which only worries her more.
And so it
goes.
I wish I could
speak French, Italian or Spanish as they are musical languages. I also like
listening to Welsh and Irish people because to me they also sound like they are
singing. Much of the time though I can't understand a word that they are
saying.
I think that
giving is generally better than receiving and I truly believe that those who
have - have a responsibility to those who have not. Sometimes I feel that I am
living to work but now I am forcing myself to work to live.
I am employed
by an Investment Bank and it is a BIG one. Mostly it satisfies me although
occasionally it baffles me. Irrespective, I am happy to take their money as it
keeps the wolves from my door.
What I do is
not who I am though. I once thought it was but then I grew up.
Now I value
contentment more than success - but that is easy to say.
I like to go
to places that are difficult to get to and where my Blackberry has no
reception. Such places are getting harder to find. I waiver between being an
agnostic and an atheist but I believe in myself - most of the time. I am my own
faith.
I am a
cautious optimist and I believe that most people are inherently good - until
proven otherwise. I try and learn something new every day. It is not that hard
and it doesn't take that much effort.
Winning is not
everything and I have learnt much more from losing. I am more experienced
in losing as well.
It has made me
stronger and perhaps wiser.
I am worried
about what we are doing to our planet and to ourselves. We are choking our air
and we are poisoning our oceans and it must stop. Species are being made
extinct, wars rage and the Rich get richer and the Poor get poorer.
The unfairness
of inequity often infuriates me and I worry too what legacy we will leave
to our children's children. I am a bit of a worrier sometimes.
I seek wisdom
but I understand that it is difficult to find. I know that we cannot find it in
books or on the Internet and we will never stumble upon it. We accumulate
it.
Through our
experiences.
I think that goodness
is the key to everything.
"Bonitas
non est pessimism ease meliorem"
"It is not goodness to be
better than the worst".
However that is
just my opinion and this is just a bit of me.
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