it is how you look at it.

london 11.39am 5.5C brightcloudy thursday 2017

simon alerted me that it is snowing outside just now. and sure it is… strange, the sky is so bright , even though it is a cloudy day, but the sun is shining through it, and is very bright… and the weather website says 5.5C, so it is not raining, and it is not cold, so why do i see small bits of snowflakes falling? amazing isn’t it? it is not a heavy snow fall.

the forecast have been warning of cold weather. i dont believe them, and still dont even though i see snow falling here. haha. ok , you will say it is just me, refusing to believe what i see, even when it is right there in front of me… ah well, it does not matter, because i dont feel cold, so there. so what if it is -15C who cares,right? i only get bothered if it affects me, and i am not affected. so we should put it in perspective, so what if the forecast is -15C and it does hit -15C at one stage, somewhere. it will not affect us if we dont live there, or  are indoors and out of it. haha. or if it is snowing and hails, if u are not affected, it does not matter.

i read this article today by someone who is sad at the things that she sees happening in her neighbourhood. she sees homeless people and is sad, then one of the homeless people there make a rude remark about her, and she is sad. then she sees a hipster sipping coffee outside one of the gentrified coffee places and she is sad… hmm, it seems it is how one looks at things  that needs adjusting… you cant sympathise with all the homeless, and then get sad when one of them shouts rude words at you… one goes with the other.

just like you hate the new urbanisation and gentrification of your area, which will reduce the crime in the area, whilst getting upset that you have been mugged so often in the past in that same neighbourhood. what do u really want? keep the muggings? consider it a price well worth paying that the area has no coffee shops and up market shops? keep the area lawless, after all muggers must have some place free for them to mug…

you have to ask yourself what is it you want. there are consequences to your choice. it reminds me of all the celebrities campaigning for taking in all the refugees, whilst not considering how others will have to pay for it… they themselves dont pay for it, even those who say they will take into their homes some refugees, they never do. but everyone else pays, in over crowded schools, waiting lists for everything because of the heavy demand on these services by the influx of new people. and being sad because of all this is counter productive. does your being sad help them? or does it make u feel guilty for being happy when u see all these things happening around you? dont be, if being sad does not help them, why be sad? or perhaps u feel it is exercising empathy if u feel sad for them… it makes u feel you are a caring person. well, i guess if it makes u feel that, i suppose there is a purpose in being sad. if it makes u feel good…so i guess being sad is a small price to pay for that feeling.

added. 5.28pm i had a peek at the weather website to see what the lowest temp today. it was 1.9C at about 7am this morning. i woke at 9am, so did not experience it when it happened. 

london 10.01am sunny 10C sunday 2017

paddington library 11.47am 12.1C coldest today was 4.1C around6.50am

Digital StillCamera

i was early to the library, which does not open until 11am, so i went into the waitrose nearby, which allows shoppers to go in 10mins or so before it opens to browse around. i saw  reduced price veg, beansprouts 35p, brocolli 39p, and even lots of reduced pack of 8pork sausages 454mg 59p.(usually £1.20) and i got a free coffee as well. so that was a nice shopping trip. seems like it might be good to go early. but these reductions are hit or miss really, depanding on what they got expiring today. added. the sausages are actually very good. there was no oil coming out of them when i cook them, so they did not have that oily look about them, and they were delicious. 

life is quite pleasant for these unexpected reductions. otherwise the general world and local news is rather depressing. it doesnot affect me personally, but the doom and gloom rather can get to you, if u let it. that is why i skip the news a lot when i am reading the papers. i guess by their very nature, news will be gloomy and bad… otherwise it wont be reported. good news are not really worth printing out.

sometimes if they were to adopt a policy of only writing about good news, i have a feeling it will still be depressing… because it will make those who read it look at their lives and compare with all the good news around and feel they are failures. whereas all this bad news can make some people feel happier, in that they are not affected and so be happy that they are not experienceing all that bad times that other people are going through.

i think most people feel happy or sad in relation to others around them. and the skill lies in keeping a sense of perspective, and not allow sad people or sad events to influence you too much.

added.when i got back i started cooking the sausages, the other 3 packs i frozed. (yes, i went back to the waitrose after the library and bought another 2 packs. ) and simon came back, so he was able to eat that with the stir fried ho fun noodles and beansprouts (char kuey teoh, we chinese call it) that i cooked. and we were both seeing a tv program while we ate, and it was a very funny one. an episode of ‘would i lie to you’. one of them says he can split an apple in half with just his hands. the others have to guess if he is telling the truth or not. they said he is telling a lie. but he was in fact telling the truth… and demonstrated it. simon says his mum would do it and split the apple with her bare hands … so that we two say it was true. but if simon had not told me his mum does it, i too would say it is a lie. i have never seen anyone do it in my life till now. amazing isn’t it that it can be done. the whole program was very funny and we laughed out  loud. it feels so good to have a good laugh, makes life more happy. 

 

Truth Of The Matter Is….

this contains a lot of things that i find very truthful too. and i want to bookmark it so i can refer to it easily

Garfieldhug's Blog

I am always amused whenever I hear people saying, “The truth of the matter is….”

I have my own version of “Truth of the matter is….”

The truth of the matter is, we need money to grow money. The more seeding fund one has as capital, the faster the business will grow. Of course, we must factor in brainiacs and not stupid oafs in the running of a business! Also, there is always Lady Luck. I do not know why they always address Luck as a Lady and not a Gentleman!

The truth of the matter is, the economy is not buoyant and whatever is said in the press, is not always real. Unemployment is tipped to be in low counts in my Little Red Dot but the fact is, many are jobless. The only vacant jobs available are cleaners ($800 per month in wages), Security Officers (working 3 rotational…

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regaining the use of an old jacket

london

I had a old jacket which i love but about a year ago, the zipper up the front did not work.

it is a strange mis- function. one that i never seen before. usually the zip teeth breaks off and that is the death knell for a zipper. but this one, the zip head rode up the track and refused to come down.

well i was rather sorry to lose the use of it, because it is a very good jacket, as you can see it is a quilt of heat insulating substance and very warm.

i was reluctant to throw it away so kept it in my cloak cupboard all this time. well, i took it out recently because it is getting cold, and had a look at the zipper, and tried to figure how it worked and saw a little bit of metal comes down and prevent the zip from going back. so i took a needle and slipped it underneath the metal and kept it up and the zipper came down the track to the starting point. and it can be used again to zip up the jacket.

but then i found out that i have to slip that needle underneath that small bit of metal in the zip head every time to bring it down and to unzip the jacket. it is not very convenient to use. 

i could not think of anything else to use, except maybe a paper clip but i dont have one in the flat. it is nowadays quite rare to find as most of us dont bother to use paper clips anymore. i use a staple to clip paper together if ever i need to do so.

so i left the problem to stew a bit. today i took the jacket out again, and saw a ring which i found near the bus stand;

( i found this ring which looks like a child’s novelty ring lying on the ground near the bus stop. it was quite a long time ago and somehow i kept it. i dont know why i kept it, but i guess my soul must have realised i will find a use for it one day and this is it.)

and slipped that in and lo and behold, it worked. and the ring looked quite stylish too and also the ring provide a purchase for my finger to pull the zip up and down. 

u can compare the zip for the front of the jacket with what the original zip looked like. the one shown is the zip for the side pocket of the jacket. that handle had broken off and that was quite crucial for the working of the zip, as it keeps the little metal in the zip head from coming down and prevent the zip from going back on the tracks.

I am very pleased that i could use the jacket again. but i wonder what would have happened if i had thrown away the jacket when the problem first surfaced. i would have lost the use of a good jacket.

so maybe it is not so good to throw away things even if it does not work, as it can be repaired.

this jacket has been used for a long time, and still going strong, in that the seams are still unfrayed. usually with wear and tear the seams are the first to go and the thread unwinds. 

another happy day

london

another happy day today. i was at the library and after reading the newspapers and getting online, i noticed a gadgets of simon’s dangling on the strap of my gymbag. i wonder how it got there. i have been carrying it precariously entangled on my strap all the way from my flat on the bus to here in this library and not even noticing it until now and only because it was hanging right in front of my face as if from nowhere. it certainly was not there when i was lifting my laptop out of the bag, yet here i see it right by the opening of the gymbag.

well, all i can say is i m glad my soul dont want me to lose it.

do u know what it is for? i have no idea. must ask simon. anyway i must tell him i have put it on the shelf instead of on the chair.

 

i wonder what it is used for. added. he said it is his charger for the electronic cigarette.

it is simon’s stuff. he leaves it lying on the chair where i normally dump my bag whenever i get home. it must have got entangled in the strap of my gymbag. it could easily have dropped off anytime between my flat and the library and i would not be the wiser, and simon would be wondering where it went to, and asking me if i have seen it, and of course i would say no, even though without my knowing i would be the one to lose it. but thank my soul it did not happen.

i have noticed this happening with others too. i can only say their soul and ours do not want them to go through it. there was this woman who came on the bus and , this is quite a common thing, start to fumble in her bag to find the oyster card… and dropping first one glove than the other and not realising it began to walk further into the bus. but a passenger alerted her to first the one glove than the other. and i was thinking well there is at least two souls who dont want that loss to happen.

 though i was thinking that woman’s soul may want her to lose those gloves one day… by letting her keep that oyster card in the depths of her bag instead of in one of the side pockets where it would be easy for her to find it…or even use the card without need to take it out, as the reader can access the oyster through the bag.  this time she might not have lost those gloves but one day if she continues like that she will lose them. 

today i have added happiness, not only from not losing simon’s stuff, but also found a book to borrow in the library. it is lindsey davis, enemies at home.

i do enjoy her crime novels set in ancient rome.

and then to top it all, i went to the waitrose branch near me and got a latte. and the walk back was very nice, through streaming sunlight filtered by the leaves and falling leaves. all the ingredients to make a happy feeling. oh yes, there is another thing. i had been having some pain in my left feet, so that it was painful to walk, which i realise was due to muscle spasm. so i took to stretching that muscle. i was stretching it whenever i could, at home, whilst waiting for the bus, and today it was fine. no more pain. and i could walk normally. well, being out of pain can really stretch your happiness i can tell you. haha. and no need for a survey to confirm it. 

a sunday day

london

I am sitting in the public gardens outside a caffe nero on the tottenham court road. i am using the cafe’s free cloud wifi. rather nice of them to let it be used by anyone not only their customers. though i expect i will get advertising from them seeing i have to register with my details.

 i had a nice free coffee from the waitrose nearby to accompany the moon cake i got free in chinatown.

incidentally this branch of waitrose has really nice croissants. nice and puffy unlike the one that has newly opened in pimlico, opposite the tescos where the croissants look so small and collapsed that once when i went there to buy it i changed my mind when i saw them.

but i would come all the way here for them if ever i get the urge to have one with my free coffee. I was too full today.

Chinatown was celebrating the mooncake festival today and a stall there was asking the chinese people to sign up for activities. one of these activities  i saw was a free health walk in canterbury later this month.

 i thought that would be nice to go to… it is a free coach trip there , a free lunch and then a walk accompanied by a guide. when i signed up i did not know they include a free lunch as well. i was thinking of just taking along my own lunch and drink;  

and anyone who signs up gets a mooncake so that is how i got this mooncake i am eating now. getting free things is a great plus for happiness. sitting across me is the space where caffe nero customers were sitting. there were quite alot of them. none of them were using their laptops. i wonder why? one of them was on his phone. some were reading. 

i haven’t eaten one for some time and this one got 2 egg yolks. i am reminded how nice egg yolks are in moon cakes. it was very difficult to eat all of the cake. it is so ‘rich’. i am saving it for later. eaten over several days is the best way to eat it.

there was a book came out talking about happiness and the review of it says the author suggests that one of the ways of being happy is to do new things. but from my experience with this moon cake, i wonder if happiness is rediscovering how nice something is that u used to do ages ago and have forgotten. it need not always have to be a new thing.

 i guess i shall read the book if i see it in the library. i wonder whether he mentioned the large role health plays in happiness. if u have bad health it can impact big time on your happiness. 

Humans of New York

Humans of New York.

she said something that i think is very profound.

she said ‘In reality, they are happy because for a brief moment, they are without desire.

 

what are the jobs of the future?

london

I have to say i wont want to be a career adviser to the youngsters now. a lot of jobs are being replaced by robots and machines. the bank cash machine is one. the supermarket self service tills are another. and we are talking of driverless trains, and ticket readers that do away with the ticket collector. 

I am thinking of this because i am looking at a tv program talking about this … called man and machine. Things are getting automated. the program ended without much hope for people, concluding that jobs will be lost from automation, but not saying what will replace it. 

I am guessing the future jobs will be in the service industries, police, shop assistants, catering jobs which will  include restaurant work like chefs, kitchen staff, waiting staff, because those jobs wont be easy to replace with robots. and the hotel industry will still need people to clean the rooms and laundry and needed in reception. 

hairdressers, and health staff, nurses, doctors, dentists, etc. will be still needed in future and robots wont take over those.

maybe office staff may still be needed.

care workers may be the biggest growth industry. but it is such a thankless job with long hours dealing with old people, it wont be very nice and wont be well paid either. nursery staff will also be booming i guess. what about education? teaching will still be needed at all levels, primary, secondary, college and university. but it is rather a dreary prospect to be a teacher. 

construction will be another people business, i think. 

oh, electrical , gas, workers will always be needed. plumbers too. so those will be safe jobs to go for. and vehicle( car) mechanics will also be needed , i guess.

but these jobs sound rather low paid with long unsocial hours. maybe not gas , electricity and plumbers. they certainly charge a lot just to come to the home on a callout. 

what jobs are there for us to take in future??? 

maybe with the rise of technology in future there will be jobs that are not even heard of now for us to take. I am glad i dont have to advise future generations about what career to choose. 

i go swimming and i go to the library and i enjoy both very much but it seems they have calculated the monetary value of it, in terms of making us happy, and it seems it is equivalent to a pay rise of £1300 a year. and guess what… going to the gym is not the same. it does not make u happier. of course they dont know if the reason for this is because sad people go to the gym, and happy people go swimming and to the library, and not vice versa. 

sunset and reflections on life

London
I was at the tate modern members’ room last Sunday; using my new membership card which I won in a prize draw at the tate Britain. I went to sit outside where I can watch the sun set over the city scape.

Over 2hrs, I watch the changing light show. The sun do not set behind the buildings in front of us , but behind us so that the light is reflected off the glass in the tall high rise buildings. There is a changing light as they catch and reflect the dying light shining bright red and fading as the hours go by. The nat west tower is particularly imposing, as the windows are bordered from top to bottom by a small wall, and that catches and re flects so that the building is bathed in many red strips of red. And on top they have a water tower which is spot lighted green.
Next to the nat west tower is another building being built and its wall of glass reflects the sunset as a glowing large expense of red light.

I saw a single Chinese girl there, and she asked if the seat on my table was free and sat there. After some time of gazing at the city scene she asked me where I am from.

She is from Bangkok, here on a 10day visit to London. I asked if she is here for the shopping, but she said no. she said she was here a long time ago and just wanted to see it again and had been sightseeing.

I asked if she is a member of the tate too. (I had noticed many of the others coming out to the balcony were speaking foreign languages. They cant all be members surely?) She said she asked the security guard downstairs where she can get a nice view and he took her to the 4th floor and got her into the members room.

So it looks like if u are a foreigner and ask, you might just get the chance to view the members room and the fabulous view from the balcony. maybe that might explain why the place ws so crowded with people. it was from 2pm-4.30pm i was there. 

It might not only be for members only… not surprising really because if they want to make money out of selling food they will need a lot of customers. I think in the tate britain, the members room is smaller and to eat there u have to be a member, but anyone can wander up there to see the view. i wonder how they will make that exclusive for members’ use as there is no door they can stand guard , unlike the one at the tate modern. and if u go up by the lifts it actually bypass the single man at the desk on top of the stairs. i asked him if i am allowed to bring a guest to see the exhibitions, but it seems my pass is for only me. 

When I was viewing the sunset city scene, I felt quite melancholy. It is strange because I have never felt like that when I view the sunset in other places. I guess in other places I was looking directly at the sunset, whilst this one I am looking away from it. The sun was setting behind some buildings on the left of us. Hidden away the sun’s presence was only evidenced by the glow in the sky and the reflected light off some of the buildings in front of us. Somehow it is a different mood to seeing the actual orb glowing and dipping slowly towards the horizon.

Even though the river Thames can be seen in front and below us, it was a broad river, and the buildings on the opposite shore are concrete blocks really. The view might be like venice, in that there is this broad expense of water like the grand canal in venice, but the buildings let it down. None of the grandeur of the palazzos of venice.

Perhaps it was my mood too. For as we all know, plenty of the things we see are affected by our moods.

I experienced something over the last two days that make me realise that bad news can be devastating, but when it does not happen you would think it would make me feel ecstatic to the same degree but it does not. If the bad thing happens, it affects a person much much more than the news that it did not happen would raise that same person‘s happiness.

Why is that I wonder? Why does a thing not happening do not raise our happiness to the same degree as bad news makes us sad. The degree of sadness that the bad news brings to us is so much more intense and out of all proportion to the happiness we feel when the bad news did not happen.

And happiness seems to pass very quickly whereas the sadness seems to linger on for years and years and might never end. Why? It explains why there is so few happiness and a lot of sadness in this world.

first anniversary of my blog

London
Got a reminder from wordpress saying today is one year since I first wrote a post here.

I never knew there is a world of other bloggers still blogging away and who find blogging more attractive than twittering, or face booking. It is nice to know there are others who like that too.

I find blogging makes me more contemplative and think things through, rather than just type in some quick response and twitter it.

Sometimes, when you wait a bit to response, events unfold and it makes your first reaction seem inappropriate… it makes u pause next time before doing a knee jerk reaction.

Also growing older makes me less obsessive about things. It does not seem to matter whether I am right or not so I don’t impose my views on another. As long as what I do is right for me at that time, that is all.

Life is rather nice, but then I think I am rather fortunate that nice things happen to me. Whether it is because my soul makes it so, which is what I believe because I believe that what happens is what u call for whether consciously or unconsciously.

Thus, I tend to view anything that happens to me as something that is what I want to experience. I may not know why, or how such an experience is going to do me good, but I firmly believe that it will. Even the negative things can be helpful, if nothing else makes me know what I don’t want. Haha.

I met a chap in the Italian festival recently , and we got to chatting about our lives. During the course of it I said I am glad that we got the nhs . He replied it may let me down. Just look at all that long waiting list for operations. I said I don’t mind, really, sometimes it is quite good to wait, and it may be the problem solves itself and you don’t need that operation. Or they find a non intervention procedure that will be just as good without having to cut up and sew up things. He was not convinced. And that I find is quite the way most people think.
My view that if the nhs is unable to cure me, or something happens and I die, well that would save me from a long lingering and painful illness, wouldn’t it? And that would be good thing as far as I am concerned.

But he was not convinced. Haha. Most people would hold the same views as him. Am I the only one who thinks different?

Ah well, perhaps it is why I am not concerned about having private health insurance or lots of money to pay for expensive medical treatments. My view is if I have a lot of money I will be tempted to take those expensive medical treatments which may not really cure me just give me 6months or 1yr more , with a lot of pain maybe, and I don’t fancy that at all. So if I have no money there is no dilemma, having to decide whether to take the treatment or not. That can be quite a relief you know.

I have noticed that if u don’t have the money, the decision is out of your hands, and it is quite a relief. It gives me real peace of mind to know that whatever happens let it happen , no need to move heaven and earth trying to find a cure and desperately trying to stay alive, just for the sake of it, never mind what the quality of the life is like.

But I am getting morbid, so lets change the subject.

Just this, Good health (and I mean both physical and mental health) is the most important thing to have. Nothing else matters, not wealth, or friends, or lovers, or family, or possessions or status, or fame, etc.

And having good health is not a passive thing, which u just let happen, without doing anything about it. You can consciously live a healthy livestyle and have happy way of thoughts and happy attitude to what is happening in the world.

I read of others’ lives here who are blogging in wordpress, and sometimes it can seem a lot of people are having problems. It may be that happy people don’t really write much as there is nothing to say if u are happy haha. But when bad things happen to you there is plenty to say. So it stands to reason that we hear a lot of bad things.

It is why the news is always bad. Haha. Good news is rare to find nowadays.

And if we don’t have bad news happening, we make it up, like the coming forecast of the worst storm since 1987, which is forecast to happen this Monday night. So the newspapers are already making it up and anticipating it. As if bad news that is actually happening now is not enough. Lol.