“因為幸福沒有捷徑 只有經營 ”

最近威伸介紹了這首歌給我聽：
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oT6Y4d7cA2A&feature=related
歌詞很有意思，希望認識中文的朋友都會欣賞。

the song linked above is sung by Christine Fan. difficult to translate the lyrics in the blog title...literally, it's "because happiness has no shortcuts, only a business/enterprise". in other words, "there are no shortcuts to happiness, as it is a business/an enterprise to manage everyday".

anyway i usually don't warm to mandarin songs, but this belongs to the rare few which are not emo :P. its lyrics are interesting, even funny:
我願意　每天在你身邊甦醒
就連吵架也很過癮　不會冷冰

(I am willing, to wake and sleep beside you every day,
to the point that even fights become exhilarating (fun), not frosty/cold)

i think this resonates with me especially because people generally are tempted to resort to 'the cold shoulder' in arguments. and i have always hated being the recipient of this tactic, often deployed by friends out of selfish moodiness. so yes, friends. next time you are angry with me, please tell it to my face, haha! i have probably done the same with you and inadvertently hurt you (sorries...) but we're all adults now. there's no need to play games anymore.

anyway so i'm on vacation here in singapore! the city hasn't changed that much, save for the crazy malls and further development of the waterfront. high school and university friends are also pretty much the same, and this time around, most seem happier :), somehow more settled. a lot have proper jobs now, which is impressive. haha i feel like such a kid, still living on parental allowance, still tackling work, still living in a dorm... can't wait to get my first (salaried) pay-check!

singapore life is a comfortable life. although working hours can be long, and many work more than 5 days a week, life here is cushioned by city conveniences like a great transport and healthcare system, and a plethora of shops. the streets are safe and clean; the weather, generally predictable! if you have friends and family here, you are lucky; they are located at most an hour of commuting away. no natural disasters, no political insurgencies, low levels of crime. i know that i am generalising the life of the upper middle class, but even when it comes to the low and middle class, the government does provide a safety net. (unlike in the US where the poor, the uneducated, and the ethnic minorities are pretty much left to their own devices.) it's a small enough country where stability will always reign... ...

i wonder when or if i will settle more permanently here. a lot of my peers are returning to singapore to work, and i can imagine that they are happy here. i wonder if that would be the case for me. could i do without the city life? studying abroad in college is one thing, living abroad in a city without family and a close network of friends is another. i don't know. but what i know is this - ever since i went to Brown in 2006, i have found singapore a little stifling. hong kong is kind of the same; well, there is a greater variety of landscape over there, and i think its food is much better than Singapore's :P, but it's still the same old city bubble. and i'm not sure if i want to live in a bubble, although i am scared to venture beyond it. Brown was a bit of a bubble although i actively got off college hill in extracurricular things; Cambridge was certainly a bubble, Oxford, similarly so although a bigger one. i dunno. but i guess i will see what it's like to get out of the college bubble come summer, when Life Uncertainty hits and i have to find my own way...