Trivial

The trivialitites of my life, without which would mean a hollow emptiness:

Buy new sandals/winter jacket/underwear for the daughter because we are going back to Singapore this weekend and winter will almost be at our doorstep when we return.

Buy necessities for the trip because I am now used to certain German toiletries. One example is the Proschmelz toothpaste (which removes plaque effectively!) as opposed to the Darlie one I grew up with.

Mental note to self not to acquire new summer clothes to strut around the Lion City as hot summer days here in this country have become almost non-existent.

Get a prepaid data plan for Singapore while I resist the temptation to have one in Germany. I am a living contradiction.

Prepare my body with smoothies and salads (in vain because I have been ditching that diet in favour of a bout of carbo indulgence: pasta soaked in homemade pesto or shrimp noodles drenched in hae bee hiam) before stuffing my face with greasy deliciousness.

Anticipating grudgingly the clinging humidity that awaits me, us.

Can't wait to see my family and friends. I really do miss them.

I certainly did not expect this spur-of-the-moment frivolity would bring tears to the eyes. Writing is indeed an evidence of love, as beautifully explained by Anne Lee Tzu Pheng in this interview excerpt:

Q: What inspires you? In life and in writing.

A: Love. Because it makes you want to give, and learn, through giving, how to receive. Love is at the root of creative writing: writing is a giving of yourself to the Other, to the world through expressing the human. Human beings need to know what they are, what their world is, and the writer uses language to open up, to activate, both the desire to know and the things worth knowing.