clean and green singapore

ever wondered why the streets and pavements are always so clean?

today was truly one of those days.
where people thought i was speaking french.
fyi, i don't speak french.
where customer service officers are out for lunch during lunch hour.
Mm... its a bank.
where you are caught for throwing your cigarette butt on the floor.
ya.

and so i explained to the plain clothe officers that i was actually on my phone,
engrossed in a super heated conversation
with the people from the bank who
only understood french,
i did not realize what i had done.
i confessed that i was not making up excuses for my action
but in fact picked up the butt and dropped in the bin.

and they were nice enough to let me off.
AMEN!

so now i know why its always clean and green in singapore.
its just damn too expensive to litter!

& i thank GOD for it, seriously.

say my name say my name

mohanavelu s/o sathasivam
that's my name.
named by my dad when i was born.
it means beautiful spear in tamil.
i am indian, you know.
my dad is indian and my mom's half indian & half vietnamese.
that kinds of explain why i look like how i look.
exotic. eurasian. tall, dark, handsome. suave.
HEY! don't be rude!
its what people call me.
of course there are others who would describe me as...
malay mix. short, too dark for chinese, so-so looking.
and recently, phinoy. yah.
these names i don't like.
i am indian.

so where did marcus come from?
well, my dad's father was catholic.
so he named all his 11 children with catholic/english names.
there was thomas, joseph, mark etc.
and i was named mark, after my uncle mark.
so far so good.
then, my uncle mark died.
drowning accident.
i was 4 or 5, i think.
and i really traumatized by it.
imagine, you are named after a relative, then he dies.
i seriously thought i was next!
i can still remember when i was growing up,
my parents were super protective whenever we went to the beach.
i wasn't allowed to go any deeper than knee level into the water.
all this was way too much for a growing kid.
i didn't want to be mark.
i wanted to be called anything but mark!

so when i finally got to secondary school,
i changed my name.
its not in my ID or anything but still it meant something to me.
i called myself marcus.
and its more me. its actually very me.
Marcus.

then my brother decided to be creative.
you see, like my dad's siblings, we all got catholic/ english names too.
david. margret and victoria.
and mark.
my brother now wanted to go by David Peter Charles, the 1st.
peter charles is my dad's catholic name.
i know. its long and corny. so trying.
& i definitely didn't want to be out done by my brother, know what i mean?
but marcus charles wasn't... how do you say it... Mm... BOOMZ enough.
i needed a middle name but not peter, don't get me wrong!
i love my dad but if peter was my middle name, then i would also be... the 2nd.
so i created my middle name.
it has no meaning whatsoever!
its just a middle name.
and i love how it sounds.
just a made up middle name.
Ardensis.

Marcus Ardensis Charles.
that's my name. it's not my catholic name, since i'm not catholic.
its my english name.
since then it has been Marcos Charles, Marcus A. Charles, Marcus Act Cute,
Marcus Air-Con Charles, M.A.C. ,Marcus Dentist Chow, Marcus A.C. etc
stupid people who can't pronounce or speak english to save their lives.

BTW, its now official.
i have registered my english name in my ID, finally!
so please get it right.

MARCUS ARDENSIS CHARLES
alias MOHANAVELU S/O SATHASIVAM

and i am christian. not catholic.
indian. not malay mix. not phinoy. thank you.

peace and rest and smile

a friend's father crashed his car.

a cute couple i know just called it off.
i didn't ask for details.
all i know is that it wasn't easy and they need to move on.

a friend has been sick for 4 days.
flu.
kinda sucks since he's actually on leave the entire time.

another is trying to figure out iTunes.

and i am free.
just checking my emails,
chatting on Facebook and blogging.

and yet with all that's happening around me,
with my friends and all,
there's peace.
peace in our lives.
and with peace comes rest.

i know the couple will eventually get over the breakup.
its gonna be really tough and hard at first but it will happen.
they will smile and be happy.

for the time being my friend's father will get some exercise but
the car has insurance so that will sort itself out.

my sick friend will gain his strength & be stronger when he's all well.
i know he will.

and iTunes is really not rocket science!

so... smile ppl.

annoying people

its funny how my life has changed in the recent months.
never did i imagine that i would become tech savy,
and i hate to admit it but i have.

the latest addition to my tech life is my new phone.
the iPhone 3Gs.
a gadget with almost everything you would need and maybe some more to help improve your life.

at first i was really against getting one.
everyone has one.
it was kinda annoying.
everywhere you turned or looked, someone was using it.
be it for music, games, weather updates, workout routines, stock-market reports, movie reviews, tweeting, facebook entries, emails or for just making calls.
its everywhere!
so i said why not?
maybe i'll have fun with it too.
and i did! and i do!

its amazing!
i got myself a 32Gig.
took me like 2 weeks before i started downloading applications. games mainly.
then the fun really started.
i discovered iTunes!
O.M.G.!!!
the amount of music you can download to your iTunes is unbelievable!
in 3 days i have 128 tracks in my iTunes!
and its all now on my iPhone!
& i listen to it all the time.
sometimes with the headphones and at other times without.
now, i have become one of the annoying people i see with their iPhones!
and i don't care!

Mm... what should i get next?

give thanks be thankful

i was invited to a dinner party over the weekend and
was kinda hesitant to go.
as you know, i am not the sociable type.
but since i was free, i went.

to my surprise it was really a very small dinner party.
with only about 9 guests attending,
i didn't think i'd be out of place and boy was i wrong!

you see, my hosts were both lawyers.
and they, of course, invited their lawyer friends.
but thankfully not all lawyers.
there was 1 university lecturer.
ya.
and me.

then i met Rudy.
successful. established. celebrity. lawyer. loud and funny.
this guy knew everybody.
and if he didn't, well he made a point to.
frankly, he was the life of the party.
sharing his antics and hilarious stories,
Rudy definitely knew how to entertain.
or maybe he was just drunk.
well, whatever it was, he spoke his mind.
no mincing of words or sentences, Rudy said it has it is.
and what i first impression he made.

people tend to want to leave an impressive impression when they meet others.
when what they should leave is what others can take from them.

when i left that night, i took with me the knowledge that we all can make a difference.
be it lawyers, a university lecturer or me.
that we must be thankful and give thanks in life for our lives.