Snow Patrol - Chasing Cars

As usual, I have super delayed reaction. Just uncovered title of this song and its beautiful lyrics... though very not realistic :P Maybe that's why it's so popular, cos it lets ppl dream about ideal situation... :) But the lead singer seriously needs a haircut.

"Chasing Cars"

We'll do it all
Everything
On our own

We don't need
Anything
Or anyone

If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

I don't quite know
How to say
How I feel

Those three words
Are said too much
They're not enough

If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

Forget what we're told
Before we get too old
Show me a garden that's bursting into life

Let's waste time
Chasing cars
Around our heads

I need your grace
To remind me
To find my own

If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

Forget what we're told
Before we get too old
Show me a garden that's bursting into life

All that I am
All that I ever was
Is here in your perfect eyes, they're all I can see

I don't know where
Confused about how as well
Just know that these things will never change for us at all

If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

And so the book that acted as a convenient prop for my pics last Sat turns out to be an excellent read. It's been a while since I've gotten pretty glued to a non-fiction book on the MRT...

Here's an interesting excerpt in which the author tries to make the point that some seemingly 'natural' beliefs/ ideals are but ultimately mere human constructs... Yet we resigned and sometimes unthinking humans are just apt to accept things as they are, thinking that things are too entrenched, too well founded to be questioned etc....

He quotes from George Bernard Shaw in this alien title called The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism and Capitalism (London, 1928):

You must clear your mind of the fancy with which we all begin as children, that the institutions under which we live are natural, like the weather. They are not. Because they exist everywhere in our little world, we take it for granted that they have always existed and must always exist. That is a dangerous mistake. They are in fact transient makeshifts. Changes that nobody ever believed possible take place in a few generations. Children nowadays believe that to spend nine years at school, to have old-age and widows' pensions, votes for women and short-skirted ladies in Parliament is part of the order of nature and always was and ever will be; but their great grandmothers would have said that anyone who told them that such things were coming was mad -- and that anyone who wanted them to come was wicked.

This para (esp the first half) is pretty inspiring isn't it... I think it makes a lot of sense, but guess it requires quite a bit of 'rowing against the tide' and a thinking and unlazy person to make improvements to the status quo. I hope that I'll always bear this in mind, and that there will always be a little spark in me to want to change things for the better :)

A lovely little package... :)

The botched outing to Marina Barrage...

Sometimes, anything that can go wrong will go wrong. But sometimes that's also what makes life more interesting :P

The random Sat outing began with two 'girls' meeting in the lifeless CBD area for their outing to the newly opened Marina Barrage. The plan was to walk to Marina Bay MRT station after lunch, to take shuttle bus to Marina Barrage. I had no idea how to walk to Marina Bay MRT, except to blindly follow Miss M, who enthusiastically brought along her street directory map. Before the little walking exercise, I was supposed to be introduced to some yummy Taiwan porridge. Unfortunately, the place was closed. So were all the other nice eating places that Miss M wanted to bring me to as alternatives :( Nonetheless, we found a decent Indian eatery along Stanley St and had a pretty satisfying meal of chicken briyani....

Then it started pouring. Well, showers were forecasted for the day but I still harboured some hopes that the skies would clear up by afternoon. Since when I reached CBD area it was only drizzling slightly... So had no choice but to change plans, and hunted down a cafe by the name of 'Geek Terminal'...

After hanging out there for an hour or so we decided to try our luck again! And so we walked all the way back to near the S'pore Conference Hall... Along the way I had a running commentary from the CBD-seasoned Miss M, telling me who owns which building etc. For me, the most memorable building of the day though was this new Ascott Residences building, 'cos the exterior 'tiles' were of this old-fashioned looking/marbly greyish design that looked extremely ugly-- not very befitting of such a premium service apt block leh... :P

Alas, the closest we ever came to the Marina Bay MRT station was a sign which said 'MRT Station 500m away'. Somehow somewhere we made a wrong turn and lost sight of our 1st destination... and found ourselves surrounded by heavy vehicles and cranes... And of course, invited curious stares from amused construction workers...

Looking back at the construction mess we walked into...

So in the end we gave up our little hike to Marina Bay MRT station... Though Miss M subsequently suggested we take MRT from Raffles Place to Marina Bay, somehow all my excitement for the elusive Marina Barrage had evaporated... So we settled for early dinner at another cafe instead. What a productive day :)

But good things still came out of it... I stumbled upon a Christmas tree outside Geek terminal and managed to snap some Christmasy shots from inside the cafe for my own amusement... :)

I think it's really cool how the different christmas lights show up in the picture as little circular 'scales' of colors :)

The book I brought along to read, which ended up only as my prop :)