Shiny Happy People

I was at lunch with my colleague SY today when TT walked by.  From the other folks sitting around the other table, I reckon they are enjoying a Christmas lunch for their department.  The way TT walks, talks and behaves reminds me very much of the REM song “Shiny Happy People”.  Youtube video here.

I have known TT ever since I joined the Company 8 years ago.  One gets the sense when talking to TT that he has found his life purpose.  As a scientist, a manager and a father.

It is not the laugh-a-minute types who are truly happy, contrary to most people’s expectations.  Happy people have a different look and a can-do upbeat attitude.  When faced with a situation, we look for what we can do to influence the outcome instead of whining or complaining or over-analysing.

Quit the job?

The period between Christmas and New Year is a strange one.

Every year,  I reflect upon the year that has passed and try to gaze into the crystal ball on the year to come.  Some call it planning.  I prefer to call it what I reckon it truly is – crystal ball gazing – as no one except an all-knowing divine being knows what is in store tomorrow.  Hence I approach life by planning for the worst, and hoping for the best.

One thought has been nagging at me for the past few days.  To quit or not to quit the job?  The Company provides me with sufficient autonomy to do my own thing as and when I choose [yes I work 8 hours, and those 8 hours are of my own choosing].  It has enough breadth and scope that I am intellectually stimulated.  The tone of discussion is civil.  The Brits know how to disagree and keep the tone civil at the same time.  After all the English language is theirs. Click HERE for how the Brits keep things polite.  And yes, the Company pays at the 80^th percentile.which is excellent... according to a Mercer study for jobs at my level and moreover has fantastic medical benefits. 

Why then do I want to quit?  The lack of time to be with the children due to work commitments.  I would have quit, but I need the stability of a known income at the end of the month.  I reckon this question will continue to be on my mind, regardless of my eventual decision.

Lucky people

Another really really great Christmas has passed, surrounded by family all in good health.  Medium Boy received a children's story about a Nepalese boy chasing his dreams to climb Mount Everest from his grandaunt.  The book has notes for the adult reading to the child... I briefly summarise it into 8 points, and how I am doing on each point.

Change your attitude, change your luck. 

Expect to be a winner.  Luck begins in the thoughts.  This quote normally attributed to Gandhi sums it up best.   "Keep your thoughts positive.  Thoughts become words; words become behaviours; behaviours become habits; habits become values; values become destiny"

Making time for yourself to tune into your intuition makes you luckier.

Phew, I do this via this blog and by journalling.

Look for the silver lining.

I belive that looking on the bright side of everything helps to attract luck.  No I am not optimistic that I am a Pollyanna.  It is just much easier to focus on the bit of good in everyone and in every situation, no matter how itsy-bitsy the good seems at first.

Let bad luck slide off you.

Bad things happen to good people.  They are only temporary visitors.  The happy things are permanent.

Try new things.

To expand my mind and my horizons.

Be alert for new opportunities.

Rested and ready, the intuitive me leaps upon new opportunites.

Take steps to improve your life.

I act, I do things to grow and improve.  I contribute uniquely via my work in the office and at home to the world.

Live in the present.

Yesterday is over, no point to dwell too much except to extract the juice of every lesson learnt.  Tomorrow is not here yet....


As Forrest Gump might it, lucky is as lucky does.
Keep working on the luck, everyone!

Raising Boys

Medium Boy has been speaking lately to me about what good guys do and what bad guys do.
He wants to be the good guy and save the world.  *grin*

This dovetails with what Michael Gurian talks about in the 'magical boy' phase that lasts till boys are adolescents in his book "The purpose of boys" in Chapter 3.  Picked the book up from the library a couple of weeks back.

Here is a 2009 interview with Gurian when he launched the book.

This topic is very close to my heart.  I am learning how to raise boys on the go.
I have neither brothers, nor close male cousins who grew up with me.  All I observe about boys and men are from a distance.  Before Small Boy's gender was confirmed at the 20-week ultrasound, I had spoken to him in utero as if he were a girl.  Had even picked a name - Clarice - for the baby!  Now I am grateful I have 2 boys... a boy should have a brother, and a girl, a sister. 

I love my active, sweaty-headed little boys :) even when they drive me up the wall fighting for toys.

24601

Les Miserables is my favourite musical of all time.  The most concise storyline I am able to find online is here. 

From the first "Look down, look down, don't look 'em in the eye"... I am hooked.  During days when I look at a sunny sky when at my laptop in the office cubicle, I am thankful I am doing work I enjoy.

"What have I done?" Jean Valjean's yellow ribbon moment with the Bishop.  Am reminded on how society views ex convicts.

"At the End of the Day" I am another day older and reflect on what I have done for the day.

"I dreamed a dream" He has never let me down in the things that matter, however there ARE days when I feel an affinity for Fantine when I am appalled at the Husband.

"Who am I?" Valjean's signature tune.  Reclaiming his humanity from his 19 years in forced labour, that he is not just 24601.

"Confrontation" between Valjean and Inspector Javert.  The lyrics tell of the circumstances that made both Valjean and Javert who they are, what are their motivations.  The music makes the moment vibrate in the counterpoint between the 2 men, both with a sense of purpose... Valjean to rescue Fantine's child Cosette, and Javert to apprehend Valjean.  My musical technical mind appreciates how the tune and lyrics come together.  I love this track!

"Castle on the Cloud" for all the children who are unloved.

"Master of the House" for all the liars and crooks in the world.

"Stars" I understand too well Javert's need for order in the world.  Just like the stars in their multitude... providing order and light.

The stirring revolution tune in "Do you hear the People Sing?"

The flush of first love between Cosette and Marius. "In My Life/A Heart full of Love"

Bringing all the characters together in "One day more".  Valjean disliking Marius because Marius is courting his daughter Cosette yet wanting to preserve Marius' life for Cosette, preparing for the revolution.  A touch of comic relief from all the heavy themes when the treacherous Thenardiers sing of how they will raid the corpses for valuables.

Eponine's "On my own" to Marius for those of us who experience the pang of unrequited love.  Appealed to the 18 year old me who watched the show for the first time.

Then the attack, and Eponine's death in Marius' arms "A little fall of rain".  One hears the hush when Marius sings the last note by himself.

"Drink with me" Marius drinks to his fallen comrades of the revolution.

"Bring him home" Valjean's protectiveness of Marius.... parents may relate to 'keep him safe... he is young... he is only a boy..... let him live, let me die... bring him peace'

Javert's suicide as Valjean lets him go from being a prisoner of the revolutionaries.

"Turning" with the passage of time.


The Husband watched the musical with me in London Jun 2011.  After the show, he was contemplative and summarised the show thus 'really miserable, nearly everyone dies'.  Ah but the thread of hope runs through with Marius and Cosette's wedding.  That despite misery, life really does go on....

Merry Christmas!

To defend a right

When a man fights, it is normally to acquire.
When a woman fights, it is normally to defend.

What I am defending now...  the right of a person to a life outside of work.

One of the Chennai team has postponed his medical examinations for 6 weeks now just so that he may complete his tests.  The tester in KL came back to work 3 days after her father had a hernia operation so that she may complete her tests.  The data keeps changing in the test system.

Why does work have to be so hard?  It should not and must not be the reason for not taking care of yourself, and not taking care of loved ones.

These are real people.  REAL people with a life.  Not just another digit in the Company.

This too shall pass

My current boss asks me for updates during our weekly calls, she makes me feel like I am just another thing on her to-do list, and does nothing to help defend my work.  I have to explain to boss' boss myself what is going on.

This too shall pass...

Small Boy is clingy to me when I leave home.

This too shall pass...

I am down again with a cold plus slight fever, and I am at the office.

This too shall pass...

Many things shall pass.  As I approach Christmas, I stop to think about the meaning of Advent (the 40 days before Christmas) and the true meaning of Christmas.  I want to re read Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol"... if I can spare the time from work, home, the boys. 

A thought experiment: What do the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future tell me?

Past - that I am blessed with many Christmas Days spent with family and friends.  That I am blessed to be able to sing in a choir, to give my time to others and have sufficient money to fulfil another's wish for the Boys' Brigade annual Christmas drive.

Present - that I am blessed with 2 healthy and lively boys, and a soul mate in my Husband.

Future - that I will continue to be blessed.

And all this. too. SHALL. pass!

Hanging by a thread onto my sanity,  Celine