The mission:

To determine if the Wendy's in Holland Vill

 

age is as good as the taste of L's childhood.

The results: 

Unfortunately, few things taste as good as they did in our memories! L removed the pickles from his cheeseburger because it reminded him too much of McDs. Does any one know why the sauce is so sweet?

L and I had met a while back; we met up again when a mutual friend suggested it and I'm glad we did! While L's initial suggestion to teach me how to play Counter Strike fell through we had an enjoyable evening catching up. I'm looking forward to trying the Penang laksa from near Coronation Plaza that he recommended, and to hearing more about the tips he picked up from the Joel Robuchon cookbook he was reading.

 

Thich Naht Hanh was in town recently to conduct a meditation retreat; I attended his public talk. An important realisation from that talk was the importance of self-awareness. I understood self-awareness as important to personal growth; Thich Naht Hanh shared also that without self-awareness, we would be incapable of empathy.

In addition, he shared three mantras that could be practiced any time, any where, to draw happiness into our lives. No esoteric practices, no religious content, just an honest appreciation of who we are and of the people around us. Lightly paraphrased, they are:

"I am here for you"

"I am glad that you are in my life"

"I hear your pain, and I am here for you"

 

And what do you do to appreciate and affirm those you love?

Taken last Saturday at the Wu Guanzhong exhibition, Seeing the Kites Again. brainopera thought it'd be interesting to photograph me helping a tourist take her picture in front of Pandas

Here are some of the events I'll be attending this September--do drop me a note via the form if you'd like to join me!

 

8 September, IGDA Pecha Kucha Night I'm especially looking forward to the talks on game mechanics, re-readability in interactive stories, and rainbow unicorns.

I'll also be at the Asia Research Institute on 16 and 17 September, come say hi if you're in the neighbourhood.

 

*Photo: street art from Danshui, Taiwan

 

Exhibitions I want to see:

Chong Soo Pieng: Bridging Worlds, at TNAGS

Sumatra, Isle of Gold, at ACM

Illuminance: Agus Suwage & Filippo Sciascia, at NUS Museums

 

 

 

 

Hi there!

I'm Chew Lin, a twenty-something in Singapore, and welcome to September Socials!

Who am I?

By day, I'm a writer and facilitator, by night, I'm a saloniere, sometime podcaster and voracious fan of police procedurals (Criminal Minds! all three CSIs!). Recently, I've been learning how to cook. It's fascinating how cookery is part science and part magic, though my favorite part is when everyone gathers around the table and bonds around something delicious.The power of a hug is also a piece of every day magic that I enjoy.

I enjoy reading; books that just crossed my shelf include Hafiz's The Gift, Hidayah Amin's Gedung Kuning and Bonnie Blodgett's Remembering Smell. The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion has been a favorite for a long time. Fresh air is good too! I've been lucky to have friends' company on rambling walks in the nature reserves, and you know they're best followed by hot prata and cold Milos!

What is September Socials?

September Socials is a crowdsourced dating project--now that we're all online so much, why not harness the power of the Internet to meet other singles? In this, I was inspired by the Dating Brian project in New York, and closer to home, Malaysian blogger April Yim's own September Socials. So for the month of September, write me and we can arrange a date!

How does this work?

Keen to meet me? Just fill out this form; my girlfriends and I will take a look, and I'll write you to arrange the date.  Don't worry if your September is packed--I'll keep the form open for the whole of September, but dates can be for any time till the end of the year. Dates do, however, need to be in Singapore.Write me at datingsg at gmail dot com, if you'd like to say hi before that.

You can also find me on Twitter @chewlink. Otherwise, I am often at This Week in Asia, or blinkBL-NK. To follow the progress of the project, just come back to this site, or search #SeptSocials on Twitter--you'll be able to see April's dates too.

Please feel free to sign up your friends (just tell them first!) if you think we should meet, and to share it in your social spaces.

See you soon!