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My Nomenclature Habit

Published by Alexandra

I don’t know about you, but I have a terrible habit. One I’ve had since I was knee high to the proverbial grasshopper. I name things. And who doesn’t, right?

I mean, I name just about everything. What started with teddy bears and the like, moved to other things growing up till I hit adulthood and then? It moved from favourite childhood toys to grown-ups toys, namely, phones, fridges, cars. You know what I mean. Go on, you do it too, don’t blush. We all do it to a certain extent.

Phones have become the most inventive of the nomenclature I’ve started and has been wildly fun over the years. What started simply as Mister Beep, my first phone, moved swiftly to Noisy Parker, and then, my first flip phone—and oh how I loved that Nokia phone and that feeling I had just arrived on the set of Star Trek!

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WeblogPoMo AMA #1

Published by Alexandra

The first question I got asked for Annie’s #WeblogPoMo AMA (Ask Me Anything) challenge was from Lou Plummer in which he asks:

“If you could work as a tour guide in one of the places you’ve traveled to, where would you pick? And why?”

Of course, for me, there is only one place and that’s Singapore. An island that was a huge part of my impressionable childhood years, those years from 8 through to 11. As an adult I’ve dreamed of and yes schemed to get back there for a visit, though it’s true the island I remember has changed, vastly, in the intervening years. And what was once a place of idyll life for me, is now a roaring metropolis of the 21st century, a tech hub, a tourist mecca, but still … As a tour guide? Hmm …

All those flashy hot spot amid the history and splendour of a place I remember maybe gives me a different perspective to be a Tour Guide. One able to recount the history in a way others cannot. I remember the riots during the 60s, I remember the civil unrest, I remember people being shot at, the undeclared war going on in the shadows between super powers like the US and UK, pushing to influence a people who wanted nothing to do with the colonialism of the day.

It’s easy to be a tour guide taking people to the Botanic Gardens, or to the Raffles Hotel, or one of the latest landmarks … but what about the advance of the Japanese on Singapore during WWII, or what happened at Changi prison? Or that, as a child, my parents and I met the Prime Minster of the day, Lee Kuan Yew.

I wonder if I would be an interesting tour guide, or not, given maybe the average tourist probably wouldn’t want to know any of the painful history of this tiny nation island.

Who knows.

NaBloPoMo: 4/30
WeblogPoMo #1

This post is part of NaBloPoMo where I write 30 blog posts in November. Thank you for reading and leaving me a comment, which is encouragement for me to finish this challenge. To follow along you can subscribe using the form provided in the sidebar or use RSS.

You’ve Got Mail

Published by Alexandra

This summer I read Veronique’s post, Just A Small Town Girl, and smiled as I always do at her lovely doodles. But there was one that thing caught my eye and brought a lump to my throat. It featured a hand drawn stamp and the words, Post Air Mail. And it hit me. I hadn’t had any real mail from anyone (not including the odd birthday or Christmas card) not since my mum passed back in 1999.

This sent a shiver down my spine not just because that was over 20 years ago, but because it was the last handwritten letter I ever got … from a dead woman; my mother.

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Creature Comforts

Published by Alexandra

Spurred on by Dave’s post about what he found Comforting To Me. I thought to add a few thoughts of my own on what comforts me, especially on wet dreary autumn days, when there’s barely a leaf left on any of the trees, it’s things like:

  • My partner, who I’ve been with through thick and thin (though it’s true, neither of us is pretty thin these days) but 26 years, and counting, we still haven’t murder one another (yet!), so I have to say they’re my biggest comfort in life.
  • A comforting cup of hot cocoa, except, I can no longer make one with milk (intolerant) or any plant-based derivative (salmonella outbreaks) something I will miss this coming winter.
  • Music is another comfort I use through out the day, especially  if I’m feeling out of sorts. And not the usual pop, no, I turn to the classics or my go-to music, opera. Yes, you wouldn’t think to look at me that I’d be an opera buff, but I am, but in an amateurish way. I don’t super geek out on different singers, but I am partial to Callas, of course.
  • I also find a lot of comfort and solace in old black and white movies, especially those from the 40s and 50s, and the old Ealing comedy classics. A lot which I used to watch, as a kid, with my mother. It’s something that ties me to her, and my childhood.
  • Singing, yes, I know, it’s like loving the opera. What you say, she sings as well? However out of key it might be, I enjoy singing and yes, you guessed it, opera. Not that I always know all the words or sing them in the right key, but hey, who the hell cares? What, the neighbours? Probably. Singing is not only one of my guilty pleasures, it lifts my spirit.
  • And finally, like Dave, there’s nothing like going to bed early and curling up with a good book, or listening to the radio, or just snuggling into the blankets and forgetting about what’s going on in the world.

And you, what brings you the most comfort?