Carbon levels and a Master?

Coming home from a grocery run at IMM, I was sitting in one of those newer cabs that have lcd screens at the back of the seats.

Interestingly, it was playing a clip on the carbon levels and environmental impact: the rising water level due to global warming has totally submerged a few islands and more are in danger of submerging. If you can recall recent reports, India and Bangladesh had an ongoing dispute over a tiny island called New Moore where global warming stepped in to resolve this dispute by submerging the island.

Informative and shocking both at the same time. I sat there transfixed to the teeny lcd screen listening intently to the video clip. What happened next was even more shocking. The credits rolled and lo behold! Supreme master tv!

I have seen bus ads, paper ads and now TV ads! Gosh! How is this being funded? Don't tell me that this is going to be another case of a golden tap? The intent is noble, to educate the world about the climate crisis. But is there all there is to it? I hope so. At least the message is being spread.

Conspiracy!

I had about 6 hours of sleep last night and feel rather stoned. And its one of those days where the world conspires against you. The weather is cold and just perfect for a sleep in.

Books

What better way to start my new blog than to talk about my first love: Books!

My earliest memories of books surround the old National Library at Stamford Road (Singapore). The red brick building is one so familiar that even when I close my eyes now I can picture the stair landing where I used to wait at for my mother to pick me and my sister up after the library was closed for the day. You see, my mother was a librarian. On weekends and school holidays, she used to bring us along to work and we would have a gala time trying to cram in as much reading as we much books as we could.

My mother's office was located in a separate building beside the library. To get to the library from the office building, one would have to weave their way through underground passages, take a ride on a rickety old lift and walk through a few other offices. For two (my sister and I are twins) 5 year old children, this adventure was made even more exciting because we made this journey by ourselves. Along the way, some of my mother's colleagues will recognise us and guide us along, sometimes giving us little chocolates or trinkets.

At the library, I'd trawl the shelves for books and then settle myself down in a cosy corner to read. This will occasionally be interspersed with trips to the toilet, playing hide-n-seek amongst the bookshelves, making friends with other children and also by my mothers' colleagues constantly checking on us.

This is how my love for books was cultivated. My mother used to bring books home for me to read without fail since i was very small. I started reading the newspapers everyday since I was 6.

With the advent of Kindles and iPhones, you no longer have to visit a bookstore or a library to get your hands on reading material, a whole world of books now magically appear at your fingertips. I have also switched to buying e-books; e-books are much easier to read when you are jostling with the crowds while on the trains and buses.

But sometimes, when I am feeling whimsical, I go down to a bookstore and buy an actual book. When I hold the book in my hands and begin flipping the pages, I am instantly transported to a time lost in memories. A time where I am 6 years old once again, sitting in a corner of the old musty smelling library and reading while I wait for my mother to pick me and my sister up after she knocks off work.