The little book of Hygge – the Danish way to live well

It’s been a long break from blogging. I recently re-read my old posts and realised how important it is to record down memories and thoughts because of my tendency to forget things, even those really worth remembering. The past year just whizzed by so fast and I was always in such a hurry that I barely had time to sit down and think about what it all meant.

Among other things that I managed to check off my list in the past year, I’m particularly pleased that I surpassed my Goodreads reading challenge (24 books, 4 more than the goal I set for myself). Sadly, I was not able to retain much from those 24 books due to the afore-mentioned forgetfulness. Thus I’m making a comeback on the blog and will try to make it a habit to record down my thoughts every time I finish a book. This is for my own reference and who knows, maybe it can grow into something more?

I’m starting the year off with an easy one: The little book of hygge – the Danish way to live well. I finished this book within 1 day and in the most “hyggelit” setting. My day was the definition of hygge:

• Cold and gloomy London winter day
• Brunch in a small cosy cafe having avocado toast and poached eggs
• Afternoon in with friends, wrapped in a thick blanket re-watching Scrubs and sipping rose tea (while reading)
• Friends made roast meat and vegetables for dinner, we ate in the living room while watching some old school Goku Super Saiyan movie
• After dinner lazing about the living room talking about Harry Potter while watching each other play Wii
• Friends made pizza for supper
• All in all a warm cosy day with good company and simple comfort food and wandering conversations

It was the perfect day and perfect setting to read about Hygge, and I enjoyed it thoroughly. It is no wonder that the Danes are the happiest people in the world as hygge is so well embedded in their culture. Yet I feel it is only in Denmark that people are able to lead such a lifestyle. I can hardly imagine myself doing the same in Singapore, or anywhere else for that matter. I simply can’t afford to and can’t see myself living so slowly for such a great part of my day.

Nonetheless, this book reminded me to at least inject more hygge time into my life. As of right now, I’m thinking about chilling in cafes with friends more and going to the beach more often. I hope to have more chill days like today, more warm tea and more wandering conversations in the coming year.

And I hope you, too, will have a year full of hygge ahead!

Cheers,

Thu

Happy Halloween!

Hey blog!

It’s good to be back here, honestly. I wanted to write something so much but everything was just a mess in my head and I couldn’t organize them carefully to create a complete, meaningful entry. Hence there is now a mess of drafts in my dashboard and none was ever touched more than once. So I decided I should complete this one post, also as a way to celebrate Halloween (and Hari Raya and Depavali).

One of the reasons why I couldn’t complete any entry was because of the GP result I got. It made me feel so unconfident. No matter how many times I told myself “the grade doesn’t mean anything, it’s just an exam and it’s not accurate”, I couldn’t help thinking deep down inside that it does mean something. That makes every words I’ve written seem crappy and meaningless, at least to myself. So today, I took all the courage I could have and get back here one more time…

This entry is about some big decision I recently made: I want to be a vegetarian.

Actually I’m already doing that. I eat as a vegetarian about 4-5 days a week and eat meat occasionally. I will become a complete vegetarian soon I guess.

It feels different, good different. After not eating meat for some time, meat just does not seem appealing to me anymore. So it became a sort of habit. I guess it was a change of mind, which leads to a change in appetite. There is a very complicated chain of thoughts behind this that I have not quite figured out myself, but I’ll try my best to convey it.

First of all, I started off wondering what life is about. I guess I always defined “life” to myself as anything that moves and/or grows. But why is it so precious? Why do we value life so much? Why is it that each of us feel that it’s a privilege to be living in this world?  Why is it that the end of other creature’s life sadden us?

I was taking a shower today, and when I was washing my bra, I realized that a small spider got stuck in it. It was gross having a spider on my bra but strangely I did not think about that at all. All I thought about was that the spider was drowning and I have got to help it. So I flicked it. The spider landed safely on the bathroom wall. It crawled around for a while but it did not move far away. I don’t know if it was injured or was just not smart enough to move away from the wet area of the wall, but the spider just move about the same spot helplessly, and after a while it did not move anymore. It got caught in a big drop of water and was drowned. The spider stopped moving and stayed in a very awkward poise with its legs in the air. It was such a tiny spider and it made me sad. Well at least I know it was not painful for the spider because for all I know, its nervous system does not allow it to feel such a thing as “pain” (I hope I’m not wrong…). But that moment, it occurred to be that life is so fragile. Such a blink of an eye and ‘pop’, out like a light.

I wonder if that spider is really “living”, or just “existing”. After questioning what life is and considering its definition again and again, I decided that “life” should go along with “consciousness”, and maybe, maybe only, “intelligence”. With that being said, something that is moving or growing might not necessarily be living.

I read an article the other day about intelligence of animals. It gave me a pretty broad picture about how different animals have different intelligence levels. So if I use my definition of living as associated with “consciousness” or “intelligence”, then something as a, let’s say, mussel should not have “life” as it does everything according to reflexes. There is no awareness or thinking whatsoever. So in this scale human is obviously the highest order of life there is. We are even gifted with extra traits such as imagination, humor, etc.

This keep me thinking, the “food” I eat everyday, pork, beef, chicken… they are all from living things. Those things used to be moving about, being aware that they are alive and faced the fear and pain of being killed to become food. Some are even smart enough to have certain thoughts and feel certain emotions. For certain all those animals are ranked pretty highly in the intelligence scale. Even birds like chicken, pigeon, owl have been proven to be capable of using tools. Research has shown that pigs are able to feel positive and negative emotions. With all this being said, it’s just heart breaking to see all these creatures, all these living things have to end their lives to be some other species’ food. Yeah I know it’s the way life works. It’s nature. The stronger ones will survive on the smaller ones and then they all die to become food for the tiny ones (bacteria is it?). And nature will work in its most miraculous ways to keep everything in balance. But I just could not stand the thought. It’s heart breaking to even imagine that those animals are killed. Sometimes i even think that human beings are such cruel creatures. At times that thought came like a fact to me. Well I have nothing to blame on. Some people are even killing other fellow people, what should I say?

Having such impressions about “life” makes me feel wrong whenever I eat meat. If Evolution is indeed true, I wonder why the ancient human beings started eating meat at all, from fruit-eating apes. It’s so strange… so so strange…

I guess it’s hard to follow my thoughts as they are often very messy and come from the most unlikely times. But I hope you know what I mean…

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Anyway, I hope to come up with a new book review or movie review soon. When I’m in the mood for that.

See ya! 🙂

Want your bad romance!

(The title has nothing to do with the post :D)

Finally, the weekend is here. I had dance practice this morning. Almost can’t feel my legs and though my stomach is screaming, I was just too tired to eat. But it was not so bad. 4 hours of jumping around and stressing all the muscles in my body really helped a lot in my arduous way towards losing some weight.

After cleaning myself and erased all the visible traces of the dance practice from my body, I went out with a friend. Actually today was the first time I ever met her, but I had a good time. We emtied around 10 plates of sushi (they were really good, considered my empty stomach and how long I’ve not eaten them) and strolled around some shopping malls to find her a beach dress. Like any other Saturday night, the malls were all flooded with people and noise. Apparently today is Earth Hour but every building was still brightly, generously lit (looks like no one actually cares, people are too busy with their own life; sad, selfish people). My friend (or the store sellers) had great deals tonight. She would decide real quick what to buy and just take it. I would be looking at some really cute dresses and think about when I could wear them, realised that I would not have a chance to wear them at all and put them back. Painful, huh? In the end all the money I spent for the night was to fill up my stomach.

Yes, it’s true. I don’t go out that much anymore. Did my life just get boring?

Partly because school work does not allow me to have that much time to go out anymore. Apparently I have quite a lot of homework to finish this weekend and the whole of Saturday is already wasted without anything being done. Dance prac sort of took up my whole morning and afternoon. The evening was spent hanging outside. I guess I have to finish some of my hw before I go to bed just to let the guilt that is screaming inside me calm down for a while so I could actually sleep. The point is, I have more work to do, hence less time to play.

And the weather, well. Singapore during this time of the year is really irritating. Kind of like HCM city. It could rain any minute in the day. Whenever you go out, if you don’t want your flats to get all wet and gross, you must bring an extra pair of slippers just in case it rains. Umbrella is an utmost necessity. Besides, no long pants. Nothing too long because if it’s not raining it will be as hot as hell. Nothing too short because once it rains it will get cold. Nothing too thin because, yup, it turns transparent if the water gets you.  Nothing too thick because, again, it’s hot, and even hotter when the rain stops (this is what so screwed up about Singapore’s rain). Do not walk too near the highway because you’ll get splashed on by some joker in a blink of an eye. Do not go out without making sure that your umbrella actually WORKS. Well this Dos and Don’ts list could go on and on. In a nutshell, the weather is bad, really bad for going out.

At some point of time, I just lost the mood to go outm however depressing the hostel gets.

This is real, real bad for me. My life can’t be boring like that. Because personally I don’t think I am very boring. And only boring people have boring lives.

I’m gonna do sth ab it.

exams are over!

Hey… Beautiful day!

I’ve just finished exams and already I saw tons of things I have to do during the holiday.

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Now, it’s the end of my secondary 4 year. My first 2 years of studying in Singapore was pretty much fun. There were changes that made me become a (positively) different person. There were times of fun and laughter. There were also occasional tears and regrets. But overall, I am glad for being here, with the things I have and the people I’m with right now.

In front of me is a long way, another 2 years, much tougher than what I have been through. There will be even more changes, I think. But, whatever happens, there are a few things I wish will not change over time.

My family. I believe, and I trust that they will always be by my side. I might not be near them, but I know, Mom, Dad, Grandpa and everyone else in my family would gladly open their arms for me whenever I need them. And I would be there for them as well, always.

My special one, Phong. It was amazing how we met. I have strong faith in our relationship and I believe we will go through the test of time to be together. Anyway, I think you understand all that I want to say J

My friends in Singapore. I can’t imagine how my 2 years would turn out without you guys. Thuong, Linh, Ly, Hieu, Melisa, Chee Chung, Dat, Manish, Geraldine,  Sara, Victoria, Anh (whom I would love to talk to again), An… all other ppl in my batch, and many more. You make me feel so comfortable, so homely, so… loved and cared for. School is so much more fun when I can see you all every day, just to talk to, to have lunch with or just to fight over my ipod. Each and every one of you really means a lot to me. All the things we’ve been through together helped me grow up and see myself differently. I wish we would always be close friends, as I would always value our friendships. And I hope you do, too.

My friends back in Vietnam. Khanh, Vi, Nhan, Hoang Anh… and those who are no longer in Vietnam, Nhan, Ngan… I really appreciate our friendships. Through many years I (and some of you) have been away, everytime I talk to you guys, it feels like just yesterday we were still together in the same class, doing all sorts of crazy, childish stuff together. With you guys it feels like I’ve never been away at all. And that’s what makes you all so special to me.

My Malay dance family. I found myself attached to this dance group since the first day I came, not only because I love Malay dance, but also because of the people here. In the dance group, I could always enjoy myself. I was with the people I like in the dance studio and together, we would practice until we couldn’t take it anymore, still we pushed ourselves and encouraged each other. At the end of the day, although I was tired, my muscles were aching and I could no longer walk properly, I would always look forward to the next training because Malay dance is one of the few things I actually enjoy at school… Though things get a little bit screwed up lately, I hope it will get better so I can enjoy dancing just like before.

That might be all to sum up the things that mattered most to me during the last 2 years.

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And now I would continue to prepare myself for what is coming next…