Perhaps it’s because I’ve not had the time to plan for this trip.  Perhaps it’s because Joyce is not around.  Perhaps it’s because it’s dark by the time my meetings end (4.30 - 5 pm), and there’s not much touring you can do in the dark.

I’m not really enjoying myself so far.  It’s not that the work is stressful; it isn’t.  It’s not that my team mates are unpleasant; they’re not.  It’s not the weather; we were blessed with sun on Sunday, and only mild winds on Monday and today.

The trip got off to a bad start on Sunday when my luggage got lost.  Although it was finally delivered to my hotel at night, crappy British Airways didn’t have the courtesy to offer some compensation for the inconvenience.

London is awfully expensive.  It costs the equivalent of about SGD9.00 to take the tube (equivalent of MRT) for roughly the distance from Aljunied to City Hall.  Shopping is wonderful for it’s variety, but not it’s price.  So I haven’t bought anything yet, other than mineral water.  My hotel’s great but not spectacular by Asian standards, and costing my employer roughly SGD600 per night, and it’s breakfast buffet sucks for the lack of variety - there’s only so many times in a week that you can eat the unlimited servings of hash browns, baked beans, scrambled eggs, sausages and bacon without feeling sick, and without killing yourself.

Many of the other meals come free too, courtesy of the law firm (both UK and Singapore) that we’re instructing.  But foie gras and fusion food, from Gordon Ramsey’s kitchen notwithstanding, is not my type of meat - I’m just not used to such exquisite food and have no desire to eat it everyday (or any day, for that matter).  Unfortunately the only three kinds of food that I can grab are (in order of cost) (i) cold sandwiches (ii) fast food and (iii) restaurant food, (iii) being substantially more costly than (i) and (ii).  No "sub-class" of food in between.  Yucks.

I got to catch up with a friend though (who kindly lent me some of his clothes - less underwear he was very unequivocal about that - because of my lost luggage), which I suppose is the best thing so far about this place.

Hotel room (left); Typical road sign in London - rather quaint and
charming in my opinion (right)

Other rather quaint and charming bits about London - the red phone booths (left),
and postal boxes (right)

9/11 Memorail in the park in front of hotel.  Words inscribed on the building (left) are

"Grief is the price we pay for love",

and on the marble slab (right) are

"Time is too slow for those who wait.  Too swift for those who fear.
Too long for those who grieve.  Too short for those who rejoice.
But for those who love, time is not."

Shopping district (Oxford Street)

… is different somehow when you have a kid that you’re leaving behind.  Plane to London leaves at 2325 hrs.

In one of the episodes of the BBC documentary on children, Child of Our Times, several children are put through an experiment where their parents withdraw while playing with them for a time.  Some of the children cry when their parents go away, while others simply continue playing on their own.

I initially thought that the children who were independent and self-confident were those who did not cry when their parents left.  Child psychologists, however, reached the opposite conclusion.  Their view was that the children who cried or who showed some discomfort at their parents’ absence are the ones that were truly secure.  The insecure children were the ones who continued playing as if their parents never existed.

And of course, a host of anti-social problems in adulthood can spring from insecurity - possessiveness (of friends or partners), bullying, the need to control, the need to put others down, the need to show off, the need to win all the time, the inability to lose graciously and to accept failure, the inability to share, the willingness to do even foolish things to gain acceptance, etc.

I think our relationship with God is sometimes like this.  Some of us we think we are getting on fine despite keeping God at arm’s length - opening Bibles only on Sundays (or alternate Sundays or less), praying only in emergencies, and limiting our involvement in the Christian community and ministries.  In fact, we are insecure, and seeking assurance in things that may not ultimately matter - whether it is a highly successful career or the next expensive gadget. 

In reality, this is what really matters -

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.

- Matthew 6 : 19 - 20

And this is the promise for those who set their hearts on and hands to what really matters -

So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’.  For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.  But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

- Matthew 6 : 31 - 33

Singaporean elite, Wee Shu-Min, and to a lesser extent her father, have received a lot of flak recently over her insensitive comments in response to letter by one Derek Wee. 

I think enough has been said about her.  What I want to ask is whether Christians in Singapore are also guilty of elitism, and driving a chasm between themselves and non-Christians.  There is no doubt as to the fact that a good number of Christians in Singapore hail from English-speaking, middle and upper income families.  I for one have to confess that while I don’t think I’m in the ranks of the "elite", I grew up in an English/Malay-speaking middle income family, largely unaware of and unsympathetic towards other Singaporeans who had to struggle to get by.

Do our nice clothes, big cars, huge houses, and expensive tastes in food make it difficult for us to identify with the majority of non-Christians who are not like us, and for these non-Christians to feel comfortable amongst us ?  Have we, consciously or unconsciously, allowed the church to be divided along the same lines as society ?  Let this not be, for the ideal standard that the Bible exhorts Christians to live by is this -

"Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible.  To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law.  To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law.  To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some."  (1 Corinthians 9 : 20 - 22)

"There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, [rich nor poor,] for you are all one in Christ Jesus." (Galatians 3 : 28)

YouTube is amazing. You can find almost anything on it. After putting up the Simple Plan MTV in my last post, I found the MTV of Joyce’s favourite wuxia novel and TV show (and actor) (man in chicken suit notwithstanding). Since it’s a story that has a happy ending, decided to moderate the current angsty-ness by putting it up.

And to my ex-colleagues, if you happen to be reading this post - this wuxia novel happens to be the one that uses the red dot on the wrist as a device to indicate the chastity of the heroine.

Running Tip #1 - Music helps you keep to a regular pace.  So although I don’t carry an MP3 player with me when I run, there’s usually some music playing in my head (how Ally McBeal).  Theme music for last night’s run was Simple Plan’s "Untitled (How Could This Happen to Me ?)".  Been feeling rather angsty lately.

While I’m at it, might as well make a public service announcement - don’t drink and drive !

What else, right ?  Ships are so passe.

Am due to fly off to London on Saturday night for work in the first week, and then a much-needed vacation with Joyce in the week after.

For work, I have to wear a suit.

Which I find I can no longer comfortably fit into.  Thanks to Jed.  Thanks to my new job.  And thanks to the Indons.

So I bravely braved the haze last night, put my sneakers on and went for a run in a desperate last ditch attempt to whip myself into a sleeker silhouette by the end of the week.  The PSI, I understand, was in the region of 80.

I recall running in a haze was much easier in the past, even when the haze was at its worst in 2006.  I am  getting very unfit.  And probably old too.

From page 12 of today’s TODAY (18 October 2006) -

Deeparaya "Wrong"

A top Muslim cleric has condemned as blasphemous the melding of celebrations for the major Muslim and Hindu festivals which fall close together this month in multi-cultural Malaysia.

…

Perak state mufti Harussani Zakaria, a member of Malaysia’s National Fatwa Council, criticised the joint celebrations and said Muslims should not mix their religious festivals with those of non-Muslims.

Politicians of both religions are holding joint "open houses" where they serve Malay and Indian food at the same table, and joint cultural performances are being staged with Malay and Indian dancers.

"This is against the tenets of Islam," Mr Harussani said on Monday. "We practice tolerance in our country, but it does not mean that we should celebrate each other’s festivals … The non-Muslims should celebrate their own festivals without involving us."

…

One of the things that has always troubled me somewhat is how Protestant religious leaders tend to be absent from national events for the commissioning (and blessing) of national buildings, monuments, symbols, etc. 

How is this absence different from the outburst by the Malaysian cleric above ?  Where does one draw the line between respect for other religions and support for religious harmony, which are important values and initiatives, and compromising one’s faith ?

The beloved and I spoke about it on the way to work today, and she wisely pointed out that the difference was that, as far as we are aware, Protestant leaders don’t go around issuing religious edicts directing their fellow believers not to mingle with people from other faiths (though I’ve heard of some needlessly abrasive ones that come close).

In their personal capacity, these leaders have taken the view that participating in such national events may mislead fellow believers into thinking that they have compromised the faith, or they may themselves believe that participating in such events amounts to compromising the faith, and they have therefore quietly decided to stay away from such events.

I think this is a fair and prudent approach to a potentially explosive issue.

The apostle Paul had to grapple with a fairly similar issue in his time.  Christians were divided over whether they could eat food put up for sale, but which had previously been offered to idols (apparently it was very common at that time - I suppose as common as it is today to have halal-certified or kosher-certified foods).

Paul’s view was that food "sacrificed" to idols amounted to nothing all, but added that because not every Christian was mature enough to understand this, mature Christians should not exercise their freedom to eat such foods in a way that would stumble less mature Christians.

So then, about eating food sacrificed to idols: We know that an idol is nothing at all in the world and that there is no God but one.  For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as indeed there are many "gods" and many "lords"), yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live.

But not everyone knows this. Some people are still so accustomed to idols that when they eat such food they think of it as having been sacrificed to an idol, and since their conscience is weak, it is defiled.  But food does not bring us near to God; we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do.

Be careful, however, that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak.  For if anyone with a weak conscience sees you who have this knowledge eating in an idol’s temple, won’t he be emboldened to eat what has been sacrificed to idols? 11So this weak brother, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge.  When you sin against your brothers in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ.  Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause him to fall.

- 1 Corinthians 8 : 4 - 9

Jed pooped.

Jed, engrossed in some TV advertisement.  Proof that too much TV is bad for intellectual development.