The Secret of Life. Awareness of Death.

 The Awareness of Death is the Secret of Life. It’s the ultimate twist.

Photo by Ksenia Makagonova on Unsplash

Teacher death met up with us the minute we were born, and is by our side every moment of our life. What death has to teach us is direct and to the point. It is profound but intimate. Death is a full stop. It interrupts the delusions and habits of thought that entrap us in small-mindedness. It is an affront to ego.

Death is a fact. Our challenge is to figure out how to deal with it, because it is never a good plan to struggle against or deny reality. The more we struggle against death, the more resentment we have and the more we suffer. We take a painful situation and through our struggles add a whole new layer of pain to it.

We cannot avoid death, but we can change how we relate to it. We can take death as a teacher and see what we can learn from it.

By means of meditation and by developing an ongoing awareness of death, we can change our relationship with death and thereby change our relationship with life. We can see that death is not just something that pops up at the end of life, but is inseparably linked with our life moment to moment, from the beginning to the end.  We can see that death is not just a final teacher. It is available to teach us here and now.

When we contemplate in this way, our many schemes for getting around the reality of death, such as coming up with interpretations to make it more palatable, are exposed one by one and demolished. Death is the great interrupter, unreasonable and nonnegotiable. No amount of cleverness will make it otherwise.

Contemplating death is not an easy practice. It is not merely conceptual. It stirs things up. It evokes emotions of love, sorrow, fear, and longing. It brings up anger, disappointment, regret, and groundlessness. How tender it is to reflect on the many losses we have experienced and will experience in the future. How poignant it is to reflect on life’s fleeting quality.

You could say that death is your most intimate partner. It is with you all the time, completely interwoven into your daily activities. Since that is the case, wouldn’t it be worthwhile to make a relationship with it?

Contemplative practice challenges us to look deeply into our thoughts and beliefs, our fantasies and presumptions, and our hopes and fears. It challenges us to separate what we have been told from what we ourselves think and experience. We have all kinds of thoughts about what happens when we die and how we and others should relate with death, but through meditation we learn to recognize thoughts as thoughts. We learn not to mistake these thoughts and ideas about death for direct knowledge or experience. We learn not to believe everything we think or everything we have been told.

We can begin our exploration right where we are. We have already been born, we are alive, and we have not yet died. Now what? We might connect to our life in terms of a story or a history. For instance, we were born in such and such a time and place, we did this and that, and we have a particular label and identity. But that story is always changing and in process; it is not all that reliable. However, when our story is combined with a physical body, we seem to have something more solid, a complete package. We have something to hang onto and defend. We have something that can be taken away.

But what do we have to hang onto, really? Our story is not that solid. It is always being revised and rewritten. Likewise, our body is not one solid continuous thing. It too is always changing. If you look for the one body that is you, you cannot find it.

The closer you look, the less solid this whole thing seems. When we investigate our actual experience, here and now, moment by moment, we see how fleeting and dynamic it is. As soon as we notice a thought, feeling, or sensation, it has already happened. Poof! It is the same with the act of noticing. Poof! Gone! And the noticer, the one who is noticing, is nowhere to be found. Poof! When we contemplate in this way, we begin to suspect that this life is not all that solid—that we are not all that solid.

The more solidly we construct ourselves, and the more rigidly we identify with this construct, the more we have to defend and the more we have to fear. Looking at death in terms of such subtle underlying patterns may seem inconsequential, but it is not.

When we drop the battlefield approach—that life and death are enemies—we become open to an entirely new way of viewing things. Instead of this vs. that, us vs. them, something much more inspiring can take place. Experiences can arise freshly because they are immediately let go. Because they are dropped as soon as they arise, there is nothing to hold onto and nothing to lose.  There is no battlefield, no winner and loser, no good guy and bad guy.

Simple formless meditation is a very powerful tool for relaxing this pattern of holding and defending. Working with death through our awareness of momentary arisings and dissolvings is a profound practice. It shows us that the life–death boundary is an ongoing and quite ordinary experience, and that this unsettling meeting point colors all that we do. If we can become more grounded at this level, we can become more open to what death has to teach us altogether.

Although death is an ongoing reality, there are times when it hits us particularly hard. It may be when we have a health scare or a near accident. At such times, we really wake up to the presence of death, and its teachings come through loud and clear. The heart pounds, the senses are heightened, and we feel extra alive. There is a stillness, as though time had stopped.

Maintaining an awareness of death makes life more vivid. In the light of death, petty concerns fall away and our usual preoccupations become meaningless. It is as though clouds of dust that have covered over something shiny and vivid have been blown away, and we are left with something raw, immediate, and beautiful. We have insight into what matters and what does not.

Awareness of death—hearing its teaching—cuts through the subtle clinging at the core of our experience. It cuts through our self-clinging and our clinging to others. This may sound harsh, but all that clinging has not really helped us or anyone else. Our clinging to others may have the appearance of real caring, but it is based on fear and an attempt to freeze and control life. It is a way of tuning out death and pulling back from the intensity of life. But if we develop more ease with our own impermanence and struggles with death, we can be more understanding of others and their struggles. We can connect with one another with greater genuineness and warmth.

Death turns out to be the teacher who releases us from fear. It’s the teacher that opens our hearts to a more free-flowing love and appreciation for life and one another. When we get stuck in self-importance and earnestness, death steps in. When we get caught in self-pity, death steps in. When we become complacent and take things for granted, death steps in.

Death spurs us forward with a sense of urgency and puts our preoccupations in perspective. Death lightens our clinging and mocks our pretensions. 

Death wakes us up. It is our most reliable teacher and most constant companion.

~ Judy Leif

~  In Loving Memory of Brother JOHNNY GAN (10 Jan 1948 - 14 Jan 2026) ~ 

PY, JG, PG

One week after my brother was laid to rest, I decided to post a very well written piece on Life and Death by Judy Leif to accompany this 'eulogy' of sorts. 

I got to know of my step-brother from a very young age- 5 or 6 I believe. With an age gap of 10 years, we weren't exactly best of friends. In fact it was quite the opposite. He often saw me as a threat to his status of No. 1 son as I was the legitimate son born out of wedlock while he was legally adopted. There were times when I felt his anger and wrath in the thick of passion in hockey practice or playing childhood games. He would erupt in violent verbal threats warning me to beware or to watch-out. I felt his misplaced animosity as strange as I've often wondered how little old me could be a threat to my big brother. I had no interest in being No.1 son. So I took all of his occasional jibes lightly but I was always respectful except when I would secretly and silently 'borrow' his Yamaha 125cc motorcycle for fun runs in the countryside sans helmet or license. Although he knew what I was doing with his bike, he often turned a blind eye and let me have my fun. That was how I fell in love with motorcycle riding and big bike ownership to this day.

Johnny was a solidly competent field hockey fullback who played for school, district and state. He inspired all of us to play the sport as family tradition. I initially played the position of full-back because of him although later in my career, I moved up to play attacking half. I didn't have the bulk to be a mountain of a full back like him. I was to play quick and nimble roles in attack and defence and I thoroughly enjoyed it. 

"He took us butterfly hunting while we were barely knee-high to a grasshopper."

One other gift he gave to us was the beautiful exposure to nature in the rainforest and hills that surrounded our homes. He took us butterfly hunting while we were barely knee-high to a grasshopper. The jungle paths, streams and waterfalls that we traversed for hours were terrifying at first but became beautifully engrained in us as we grew up appreciating nature and her beauty. Although I never acquired the deft skill of catching many butterflies nor putting them to sleep with formaldehyde or pinning the beautiful specimens into beautiful glass-frames of various shapes and sizes for sale to collectors in the British expatriate community, I got to go on unforgettable jungle adventures. 

Johnny was also one of the most hard-working people I know. Both physically and mentally. 

Apart from his sportsmanship, he was a hardworking ace student in the Sciences. I remember the day he was refused an engineering place in UKM despite several attempts, he was heart-broken. 

He was a human dynamo when it came to performing household chores and climbing trees. He had several skills and methods devised to clear mountain loads of chores with ease. We of course struggled to keep up with chores of raking leaves, cutting grass, trimming the hedges or feeding the dogs and poultry. All of which were performed meticulously and diligently by my big brother. He never belittled or berated us for failing at anything he could do when we fell short. We were short compared to him in the first place. 

Perhaps the best memory I have of my big brother's role in my life was the fact that he stood by my family and I, when we were enduring a grievous period of caring for Jon when he fell ill. Johnny and his family were constantly present to lend us unconditional support. I remember clearly, one night when Jon was lying in bed with no improvement, our family was crestfallen watching our son helplessly wasting away and I was clearly buckling under the weight of worry and anguish with no hope in sight. I slipped away silently to the balcony to be alone with my grief. Johnny noticed and came out to comfort me. For the first time, that night I cried like a baby comforted by my brother, his hand on my shoulder. I never felt so understood and loved by my brother as I did then. 

As I stood over his casket on the first day of his wake, all the thoughts and feelings suddenly came flooding back and I bawled my eyes out in his presence once again. Once again he gave me permission to grieve. Deeply.

Thank you dear brother Johnny. I love you and I will miss you dearly.

Farewell for now.

Americans

Image by PineForest & AI

If one were to use just one word to describe Americans, it would be talent. 

That ineffable ability to astonish, entrance, enchant, entertain, excite, and amuse audiences globally and God knows where else.

Americans, having evolved from what is arguably the world’s largest human laboratory, have shown us what humans are capable of: not only in the creation of stories and myths across print, film, digital, and live formats, but in the advancement of technologies that allow us to actively participate in those stories rather than merely spectate. And we are still only at the beginning of this unfolding.

Yet, among a nation so rich in talent, how did they end up being ruled by the least talented of them?

Or is he?

One simplistic way to look at it is this: there is no universal yardstick for talent. It is notoriously hard to define, and it is often said that everyone is talented in some way.

Donald Trump has audacity and ambition, fuelled by an unrelenting will and determination to win. That, in itself, is a form of talent. Is it not?

Hard work often masquerades as talent.

Besides, who wakes up one morning, decides he wants to be President of the United States, and then becomes one - not once, but twice? Like the frog who dreamt he’d be king and then became one. It happens. Or so it seems.

But let us ask a simpler question: is Donald J. Trump really happy, healthy, and enjoying every moment of his life? Maybe. Maybe not. Based on observation alone, he neither looks nor sounds particularly happy or healthy, nor as though he is enjoying himself at all. How could anyone be, whose daily mission appears to be hurling insults and making enemies of virtually everyone?

So what is he getting out of this - apart from money?

How much money is worth the daily physical, mental, and emotional assault on one’s senses—and on ours?

What gets him out of bed every morning and back into it every night?

How does he cope with the pressures of the job while simultaneously being a husband, a father, a man, a human being and a deeply polarising figure? How does his mind operate? What compels a sitting president to effectively tell the member nations of the UN General Assembly to go to hell?

Power.

He believes the United States is the most powerful nation on Earth; and he lacks the vocabulary, or perhaps the inclination, to say it in softer terms. The kind the left, and much of the rest of the world, have grown accustomed to.

“Nice words are not truthful. Truthful words are not nice.”

~ Tao Te Ching

At least this lesser-talented American is upfront about his excesses, his transgressions, and his appetites for power. American politicians have acted with impunity for decades. The difference now is that this reality is visible to more people around the world.

The best actors are among the most talented people on Earth. They can continue performing convincingly, protected by how persuasive their acting is. Donald J. Trump, however, seems to be cracking on openly - creating headlines, enemies, and spectacles in equal measure. Perhaps he is talented after all. Perhaps he is simply a different kind of actor.

Best or worst, it is still acting to a familiar script; one handed down from previous presidents, played out like well-worn Hollywood blockbuster sequels that refuse to die.

America is no danger to the world.

But the world may yet become a danger to America if this man persists in pursuing a personal, divisive agenda that confuses power with purpose and spectacle with leadership.

Why We Do Not Sell Automation as Insight.

 2025 has been witness to multiple launches of AI agents, personal assistants, applications, and tools increasingly integrated into daily life with constant, often invisible presence across various environments.

Yes. They have become pervasive, personal, predictive, and ubiquitous.

While we have little or no control over the invisible presence of AI, we do have the final say on what we perform using AI for work or business. 

Judgement requires consciousness because it carries responsibility. That is why it cannot be automated and why authentic work still depends on humans.

Image by PineForest & AI.

Why We Do Not Sell Automation as Insight?

This is the operating framework we use to make decisions in the age of Al.
We reached a crossroads.
Clients began asking for faster turnarounds, cheaper fees, and "Al-powered strategy".
Competitors were shipping decks in days. Some in hours.

We felt the pull to automate everything.
But while Al generate strategies, frameworks, recommendations, and analyses at scale, it cannot do the one thing we are accountable for;
Deciding what matters.
So we drew a line.
We fully automated research, synthesis, and first drafts.
No guilt. Humans are wasted on those tasks.
But strategic direction, prioritization, ethical trade-offs. and client fit stayed human, even when Al could do it faster.
We stopped optimizing for billable hours and output volume.
We started optimizing for judgment and clarity.
This cost us deals.
Some prospects wanted Al-generated strategy.
We let them do it themselves.

Our position is simple; we do not sell automation as insight.
What stays authored is the interpretation layer, the judgment, context, and trade-offs that shape real outcomes and carry real consequences.
In the age of Al, we compete on judgment, not output.
Authenticity is not claimed here; it emerges from authorship under constraint.
In an Al-saturated world, this is how we choose to compete.

Because meaning, trust, context and authenticity cannot be outsourced.

P/S. Here’s wishing one & all; A Happy & Peaceful New Year 2026.
May we spend more time with real people creating real artefacts after we’re through working or consuming Ai-generated content. Peace ✌


hhashtag

A Letter to Zane.

Happy (belated) 33rd Birthday son. 

                                                                         "This is US"

Dear Zane,

I apologise for posting this late but it was intentional as I had gone for a 10-day Vipassana Meditation Retreat somewhere in the rainforests of Pahang. Those ten days of physical and digital detox with no devices, no books, no writing, no talking, started on 15 Oct. ended on the 26th. I have had a most amazing, life changing experience, uplifting my sanity many notches and it is on this note that I would like to address you. 

You know son, over the years, I have been watching you in silent admiration, rooting for you, celebrating with you, delighting in your successes and conquests. I am so proud of what I have seen in your achievements thus far. The more I see the joy on your face and in your demeanor, the more I am happy to be out of the orbit of your life. After all, I have consoled myself that, most of all I have to impart to you as father to son, I have already done so, for better or for worse. The rest was up to you and you have done well. And that is just the beginning. 

Remember to play the long game, anyone can start but it takes commitment and endurance to succeed. But then you already know that-it's etched into your arm as your first tattoo. I’m not about to give you advice and neither did my father give me any advice (although I wished he had) but all I want to say is; spend some quiet time (start with 10 mins) with yourself in silence and solitude everyday. That’s all. 

Happy Birthday dude. 

Be Well. Be Happy. 

With love;

Papa xx

A Letter to Summer

HB Light & Joy.

Not too long ago in the last century.

Astride the factory racer- Ducati Desmosedici 999

At the Istana for Matah Ati. 

Clubbing at 21 (with Parents)

Malaysian Icon.

A Ballerina fr. KL wins 1st Prize in Barcelona.

Celebrating AMDA Scholarship

                                                                                  

To New York City.

 


  

                                                Prep & First Day- Enrolment & Registration. 

                                                              Warming up a chilly Times Sq.    

NYC Brands

NYC Brats

Dear Summer,

All offsprings are gems and crowning glory of our lives. 

Our family's blessings came in delightful bundles of joy in quick succession. The ending of the twentieth century brought us great bounty and gifts from the divine.

Being the youngest and a precious baby girl at that, you came with special blessings right from the day you were born. 

" To be a constant source of light & joy for all of us completing the circle that would bind us all together forever." 

It’s been three decades since and I think I know that you’re still the constant source of light and joy for the family. And I. 

I can’t imagine how you look right now but I surmise you look no different from when you were 21? And you will forever be 21 in my eyes and in my heart. That was the day when I saw how you’ve grown into a confident, capable, independent, and compassionate young woman on your 21st birthday party. 

It is one of the most memorable moments in my life. Seeing how you so maturely gave-in to your uncontrollably ‘proud’ father (who insisted on a blindfold gambit) & then you nicely wrapped it up in a poised delivery of your birthday speech. Everyone present was convinced you had come of age then. Especially me. 

Along with all the many birthdays we celebrated with you and all the birthdays we celebrated for Jon, Zane and Mum. I’m glad I had my fair share of precious & beautiful memories of and with you, on your birthdays as well as your brothers and mother. I must say that I truly enjoyed fatherhood.  It was more than I could ever wish for, but birthdays are just that, another excuse to celebrate this ephemeral life and if for any reason that we are unable to meet again, remember to celebrate life every chance you get, I would have no regrets, I have had many beautiful & precious memories of you, with you as well as the whole family to last several lifetimes & beyond. 

I just want to wish you a Happy Birthday filled with happiness and wellness always. 

I celebrate you each time I think of you. Always light & joy. 

With Love;

Pxxa

A Love Letter to the Universe.

Dear Universe (replaceable with god, nature, the Sun, the Brahman, the Tao, the Spirit or You) 

Image by PineForest

Namaste 🙏🏽. You cruel, heartless, unforgiving, cold, ruthless, capricious vile bitch of an enormous entity, I have never enjoyed this ride more than I am enjoying the ride now. Right now. 

The ride that I gladly call my humble life- fully embracing my joys and sorrows and everything else in between.

Looking back, it seems like I have been living several lifetimes in just one lifetime. 

Through my own doing or undoing I have cast myself into a multiverse of sorts, meeting several different individuals and groups of people, cementing deep and meaningful relationships over the span of seven years thus far. Though I’d like to think that I was conscious and complicit in my actions leading to the family break up, and my solitary life, I can’t help but to instinctively feel that a larger entity was in play, to have ordered this chaos that has launched me on a wild trajectory of cosmic proportions. And that was when I met you the cosmos aka the universe and began to see myself minus the veil of thought, shrouded in pain and suffering.

What a sight to behold the great nothingness. The formless. Eternal consciousness. You and I are one. 

I am a scion of the universe. 

I am eternal as the universe is. I am consciousness. I am formless. I am the divine. 

As formless as my source, I am made manifest in the form of an earthly being fully equipped with six levels of sense perception to fully explore and experience this world. Of Maya. Karma and Anava. Illusion, action and ignorance. 

Ignorance truly is bliss. For in our ignorance in executing our actions, in a world of illusions, we are meant to explore & experience anything, knowing that we will always be taken care of. No matter the outcome, it always works out in our favour. 

A thought now pops into my head, relating to the medicinal herbs startup I founded and recently shared it with a guest- “May we never know what evils or ills that could have befallen us had we had our desires fulfilled.” On the back of that thought, I know the outcome in the present moment is always favourable. It is always what it is. No matter how joyful or painful it is, it will pass-  It is not I, not me, not myself. 

I never fully experienced the joy of being truly happy deep inside, since I chanted this mantra given to me at the start of my spiritual journey towards the end of the last century. … 

“ I am healthy, happy and enjoying every moment of my life, may all beings be blessed with good health, prosperity & spirituality. In full faith so be it.”

 Now I do. 

To put my lifelong quest into words; I now know that I have been seeking spiritual wisdom. Not just wisdom as expounded by the ancient Greeks but spiritual wisdom espoused by the Hindus. 

Buddhism, the more scientific methodology of contemplation, of mind and being, has its roots in the deep history of Hinduism. So while my left brain is intellectualised and grounded by the daily practice of Buddhism, my right brain takes flight on the myths, stories and ideologies of Hindu lores called Sanatana dhamma, a way of life aimed at living a civilised life. Which is a way of ‘being’ as opposed to chasing and doing. 

Although already aware of the being state, I have never fully immersed myself in being, until now. To be fully centered in ‘being’ most of my waking hours brings clarity to the quality of life. 

To be fully conscious and connected to everyone and everything around me yet detached. Mindful of first taking care of oneself in thought, word and deed. To be slow to react, to be impeccable in words and deliberate in actions. 

It’s such a liberating feeling to be; immune to criticism, beneath or above no one and to fear nothing. 

Yet I still feel a deep yearning for my loved ones to give my life meaning and purpose and share in it. 

Right now I know that every one of us will have to sit alone in solitude in silence or in chaos to contemplate life, when the time comes. I pray it be better sooner than later, no matter what condition our lives are in. It is an irrefutable truth. One of life’s guaranteed path to enlightenment aka ending suffering. 

We are more in a state of fear than in a neutral state of mind, let alone being in a joyful state most of the time. When we sit in silent contemplation, we learn how to enjoy it coming full circle to be - 

- immune to criticism 

- beneath or above no one. 

- Fearless. 

And conduct oneself in a manner; 'to be as wise as serpents and as gentle as doves' holding loving compassion in our hearts for all beings. 

What a great way to live.

Thank you, 

With Love,

SL Peter Gan

Amen. 🙏🏽 

A Love Letter to SL on Independence Day.

Merdeka Day for the Nation, Liberation Day for me. 

Pix by PineForest

Dear SL, 

August. A month of significant events, mostly of endings and beginnings, the end of summer and the beginning of fall, then comes winter before spring re-emerges. A time of rejuvenation, renewal and rebirth. 

August is an appropriate opportunity to dwell on the 3 Rs. On why and what is the significance of this eight month that happens to be the departure point of the women and young ones from my life. We have often wondered why among most things ponderable. 

You and I once wondered what it would be like to only live off on only one’s wits? 

What a question! 

What a life we have lived ever since we took that pilgrimage of only living on one’s wits to survive especially for the last seven years. Wittingly or otherwise. 

I know it’s nothing new to the many people who live not knowing where their next meal will come from. But nothing beats the experience of helplessness and anguish, I learnt that, like joy and happiness, they soon vanish like the morning dew and the morning glory. You stay fully awake and aware of the feelings yet detached to the emotions. It is just another one of life's experiences, it rises and soon passes away. 

We stay connected to reality while fighting the thought and question demons in our mind. 

Or stay lost in our thoughts suffering unreal stories. These are the only two choices presented to us in every moment of life. Stay present in reality or lost in fantasy. 

In the greater scheme of things, life is meaningless, so don’t take it too seriously. It is up to us to give it meaning. Our individual mission is to find out what drives our passions to give meaning to life. 

Tough question to address at first. But it simply starts with finding what you enjoy doing most and to do it until you can monetise it, live by it. You sell your own creations and that makes you an artist. 

Everyone who has picked up a tool, a pen, a knife , a move, a shovel or a gun to survive, has lived off our wits. 

Everyone lives by their wits, knowingly or not. We sell our talents to survive. Many still have yet to tap into their own passions. 

Find the intersection between your talent and your passion you will find your calling eventually. 

Once you find your calling or gift. You spend the rest of your life honing it and then give it away for free or for a price.* That’s Enterprise. 

• both monetizable. (Picasso said the first part, I added the rest.)

We have found our calling - You & I. It was the day we decided to leave the company of friends, old and new, at the Bank to seek new experiences in the field of Advertising in 1984.  It was a decision I had not regretted for we found ourselves in a world where creative, pragmatic dreamers run riot and thrive. And now, we are on the tip of a large enterprise, like most social enterprises with heart, to make the world a better place joining others to grow a new earth. 

Sounds altruistic but that’s what we have found lacking in this world that needs to be done. 

And if the journey to live only off our wits, has taught me anything; it’s this; 

We are enough. We are it. We are - Existence. Consciousness. Bliss. 

The universe truly conspires in our favour. 

Have faith. Come what may. 

One of my favourite quotes on life is “To joyfully participate in a life of sorrows” from Pico Iyer is 

further soothed by Albert Camus’s “ Life is absurd therefore meaningless.” 

He goes on to say; “ therefore it is up to us to give it meaning…”. 

I have to say on my part I was living with presence of mind - POM, searching & finding meaning all my life until now… when I realise I’ve found meaning when I found you SL in solitude. It was quite an eventful journey to traverse just to end up in inevitable solitude with you. If not, I dread to think how dreadful, scary and anxious life would be for me/us now. 

Life's like that I suppose; it happens to us like breathing or the beating of our heart, it's done for us. We don't know how or when it will stop or where it'll lead us, we just have to face or participate in this life unfolding in front of us. Unavoidably until we face it's greatest mystery- Death. 

And so I say, give your life meaning, write your story and tell your story. 

Inspire someone to live a more fulfilling life. 

It is our only defence left over technology. 

When we realise this, it is not only our independence day but liberation day as well.

With love 

Peter. 

P/s. Stay the course, let go and relax. 

Pp/s. Living off your wits means going out into the unknown, no well trodden path, no evidence of success or even survival. Enduring all that while forging a new path no one’s gone before. It is only when we were willing to abandon the shore that we sail the unknown horizon. We leave our stories as legacy. 

Ppp/s. This post also hallmarks the period we fly the magnificent coop we holed in for near 7 years living off our wits, to a lofty aristocrats neighbourhood nearby. 

Pppp/s. Did I say I Love You? I’ll say it again;  I Love you. 

Ppppp/s. I’m truly deeply, madly in love with myself. Because I am nothing and I see myself in everything and everyone around me. 

Since the first of the month I have been feeling under the weather. Cocooned in my shoebox for 3 full days I finally felt fit enough to wander around this new exclusive neighbourhood within a 500 meter radius. It was a delightful discovery of quaint little establishments that stocked my favourite things. From teh tarek & roti canai, to swanky omakase restaurants and quaint hipster cafes to a rustic supermarket stocking fine fare. Reminds me of Jalan Batai in Damansara Heights, Holland Village in Singapore and Washington Street village in DUMBO Brooklyn. It has been a different kind of new experience that signals a new phase in my life. Quietly pleasant.