Random Musings (really)

Personal blog post

"I'm sorry, I can't make it back for lesson. I'm still stuck at school..."

And with those words my afternoon's teaching appointment was cancelled. It would have been nice if the student actually thought of calling me BEFORE I made the trip and was standing at his doorway, right? But for some strange reason I wasn't irritated or upset in any way. Maybe it was because of the agreement we had, that I would still be paid in the event of any last minute hiccups like this.

Or maybe it's because it's a hot, still Singaporean afternoon.

I don't know how other people feel about it, but I feel very serene and calm in the midst of the heat. I walked away from the student's place, through our local HDB flats and headed towards the bridge over a canal to feed the fish with some expired bread that I brought along from home for this purpose. It's good to have some time alone for myself.

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One thing about me - I am very much a loner.

I don't mind being by myself. In fact, I quite enjoy it. Don't get me wrong; I love talking with people especially in a coaching setting; and public speaking leaves me feeling high for a long time after that. But this is one afternoon I am glad to be by myself, enjoying the stillness and allowing myself to soak in the serenity around me.

Being a loner means that I am better at the Christian stuff that is best done alone - prayer, bible reading and bible study. If you consider my other interests and pursuits, such as research, music and ancient styles of 'conflict resolution', you'll realize that they are very much loner-style activities too.

Of course this means that I have to work very much harder at the Christian stuff that requires living in community, like all the 'one anothers' we see in the New Testament, such as exhort one another, forgive one another, encourage one another and all that. So I don't get to gloat very much over people who struggle with the prayer and bible reading stuff. :)

It's rare to really really click with a loner. There are so many different types of loners, with different flavours of personality traits, so they don't necessarily get along with each other. :) The greatest compliment I ever gave someone was to say "When I am with you, I feel as if I am by myself." I wonder how many ladies would see THAT as a compliment! :D

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I made it to the bridge, took out my bread and started feeding the fish with it. I usually go there on Monday mornings with Jacques. We stop there for a while to feed the fish before we continue on to my in-laws place and he goes to his kindergarten classes. The fish feed differently on the bread when it's a hot Tuesday afternoon, I noticed!

Thought of getting more bread to feed the fish with, but the only shop nearby is a Sheng Siong supermarket. I'm boycotting Sheng Siong, so I decided not to get the bread from there. The fish will just have to wait for another day!

Just in case you are not from Singapore, we Singaporeans usually buy our groceries and foodstuffs either from supermarkets (which are air-conditioned, dry and smell better) or wet markets (which are not air-conditioned, they are wet, smellier but the food is fresher). Sheng Siong was running supermarkets but recently bought over a few wet markets. And very soon after they bought over those wet markets they inflicted a 30% rent hike on the stall holders renting the stalls there.

What was their excuse? They claimed that the hike was necessary to pay for bank interest fees, taxes and maintenance fees. I don't buy that. Sheng Siong should have already calculated how much they could earn from buying over the wet markets; and if they were not going to earn enough to recoup their investment through rentals, why should the stallholders and their customers be penalized for it?

Some people speculate that Sheng Siong is deliberately trying to drive the stall holders away so that they can appeal to the government to convert those wet markets into supermarkets. I don't know about that, but I won't be surprised if this happens. Anyway, the wet markets Sheng Siong bought over are not near my place, so it doesn't make any difference if I boycott them. Besides, the stallholders are the ones who suffer if the wet markets are boycotted. I'd rather boycott the Sheng Siong supermarkets, let Sheng Siong feel the pinch directly!

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Yeah, it's pretty rare for me to blog without any teaching points whatsoever. Well, if you find this and read it, it's because you were really looking for it. Thanks for reading! :)