A beautiful Sunday indeed! Skies are not clear of clouds and the sun is not exactly pouring its generous helpings of rays on us. Still beautiful. My idea of what's perfect.

Especially when I think of Bondol, wrapped in her red winter coat. You know, despite all my fascination with snow, having been there and done that, I still prefer the heat and humidity of our Southeast Asian climate. Yeah, the usual not-so-romantic me, I guess.

Also a fruitful Sunday thus far, I'm proud to say. Not only did I look up Indonesia on the net and read tens of pages of related articles -- boy, didn't know we had thirty-three provinces now -- I also learned a few interesting bits on Krakatau, Doctor Who, and Scientology.

All in all, not bad for a guy who doesn't usually leave his bed and do something useful -- making some instant noodles -- before noon on any given Sunday.

In addition, I found this rather refreshing blog and fixed my so-called blogroll. (Me? Busy person? Yeah, right!)

Thanks to our company's first annual badminton tournament (to be held tomorrow, in case you're interested) and my persistent self (which has nothing to do whatsoever with this entry) I went all the way to Hougang to borrow a racket from RB (of RB and Tyty fame). Then, of course, I had to try to be so smart and find shortcuts to the MRT station.

I got lost.

Which was as well. 'Cause after a few dead-ends I somehow found myself approaching a neighborhood basketball court. And it was lively, I tell you. A number of teenagers were there, shooting around and playing cool. Not unlike my own high-school days.

Amused, I found myself a park bench and watched. Two teams were getting ready to play full court. And from what I had seen so far, this would be interesting.

I watched Harry Potter last night. Nope, not the latest installment. That's gotta wait until dunno when. It was Prisoner of Azkaban I had just finished downloading. Yeah, that's right, I didn't get the chance to see it until then.

Honestly, save several "Huh?" and "Come on!" and "You call that a spell?" moments, I found it generally entertaining. Surely enough to keep me from my beloved bed until almost 4 in the morning. Hmm, then I guess I should've said this morning. Oh well...

Just a few random things to throw around since this seems not one of the nights I'm being overly coherent. That's what you get from going to bed at 4 AM.

"Too bad, what happened to your brother. He was a good guy."

Out of the blue, it came out of my boss' mouth that afternoon. We had just finished a discussion on work matters, I sitting in my cubicle, he standing and leaning on my desk. I could not help but look at him and say, "Come again?"

He repeated and added, "I knew him, you know."

Yes, of course I did. He and my brother had graduated from the same university. Not really best friends, from what I had heard, but close enough for occasional stay-overnights at each other's places during those days. It had been a pure coincidence that I had joined his father's private enterprise. I had recognized him from my brother's funeral service. We had since become more than just colleagues, but seldom talked about my brother. Hence, my need to double check.

As inspired, in no particular order and in no way all.

* Metallica. Sure, they're still around and as rockin', but you can't discuss them with just about anyone anymore. I can imagine a few years down the road, my son (oh yeah, I'll have a son and he plays basketball) and I would be in our car -- he would be driving, of course -- and as it happens we would have Master of Puppets playing on a "gold" radio and I would go, hey, check it out, Son, it's Metallica! And he would go, huh, Meta-what?, and look at me forgivingly and think, I love my dad but sometimes he still lives in the past millennium.

* Hair bands -- GnR, Skid Row, White Lion, Steelheart, Stryper, Poison, Warrant, etc, etc. And with that, Porseni, Temu Musik, Pekan Seni, PL Fair, POR CC, etc, etc. And I believe in you, oh through and through...