Fly me to the moon and let me play among the stars...

Dan Ryan's. I met Andrew for dinner tonight and it was nice. It was nice just to see someone I haven't met in a long while, someone from a part of my life that is almost faded by now. Maybe he feels the same way. And through each other, we relived memories and revisited old times. I realise that I do love those years I had and I do love the people who were with me despite everything that happened. But then everything happened and everything changed. Adra's gone away to Sydney and in many ways, the distance between us has grown way beyond the space between two continents. Sherman's well.... moved on. Vic's in the army and I hardly see him anymore. Clarence will be going to the army and, as it is, I hardly see him already. Giles has his own life. Sam's moved on as well so far that it might as well be as if we never met.... I miss them all, all of a sudden, so much. It might have been the wine or the salad dressing but nostalgia washed over me like a wave that leaves me wet and shivering, not at the cold but at the feeling of something so familiar (yet so long ago that it has nearly been forgotten) on my skin.

After dinner, we parted ways. The night had just been washed with rain and the air was cold. I was full from the food, the company and the memories, so I felt like walking. I walked from Dan Ryan's to Orchard MRT station. Along the way, I made a stop at Border's and, on impulse, I got 3 books for the price of 2. It was time for me to pick up something interesting to read again, something apolitical. Every time I pick up a new book, I am genuinely excited. I'm excited at the possibility of stumbling upon a mini epiphany, something that casts a strong, clear light on life as it is, something that will add to my person what a thousand pages of Kenneth Waltz will not. This time round, the excitement is threefold. Well, two and a half I guess considering that one of the books is a trashy novel.

As I walked up the steps to my place and turned the key in the lock, a thought flashed in my mind. I despise slimming/beauty advertisements. I really do. I despise the way they blatently publicise superficial notions of beauty in their cheesy jingles, the bad directing, and a script that's even worse. I despise the way they capitalise on the insecurities of girls and women to create a false sense of identity for them. I despise the way they assume that there are people who will be easily convinced that you are only beautiful if you are skinny. It makes me wonder when there are people who do believe that for a fact.

Beauty is an intangible glow that emanates from within. You cannot see it with your eyes neither does it manifest itself in the flesh. It can be felt, it can be sensed and from the glowing to the glowed-upon, the entire process takes place inside people, not ouside. The most beautiful people I know are human in every sense of the word and that is part of where their beauty lies. :) I don't need to say anymore. There are people who will understand what I'm saying.