tentatively if i’m going to london, my itinerary would look somewhat like this - 1 week in london, 3 days in paris and 3 days in sevilla/barcelona. i’m not sure why i’m still thinking of going to paris – i’ve been there twice already – but there’s something magical about paris or maybe it’s the disneyland calling out to me. i fell in love with barcelona when i was there last may, i thought this will be a good time to revisit. since i’ll be traveling alone, it will be nice to just laze beside the beach with no particular agenda.

i’ve read through many travel blogs and the urge to backpack and travel with the dirty 6 letter word (budget) seems interesting enough. but i’m not gonna lie, i’m much of a brat. i like my hot showers, room service and privacy. can i still backpack and stay in 3/4 star hotel?

‘if your mum dies, you will feel a lot of things. first you’ll feel like you could have done more to help her but that’s not true. you’ve done everything you could. you won’t feel that way but remember me telling you this – you did everything you could. and it will hurt every time you think of her. but over time it will hurt less and less. and eventually, you will remember her and it will only hurt a little.’

i thought that was a very accurate insight.

what i probably miss most about my dad is his laughter. and sometimes, when i allow myself to do so, i think of my dad and the ways i could have made him laugh a little harder.

two men came up to me in the middle of the streets and they were asking me for directions. and then another man approached and flashed what i presumed to be a ‘police badge’ and he started questioning me, asking if i know if those two men are wanted for fraud, if i have my passport with me, where i am staying and all that jazz.

what he didnt know is that before the ‘interogation’, i’ve already seen these three men talking to each other. and come on! asking a tourist for directions!! how stupid are these scammers! in the end, i told him that i don’t have my passport with me and if he wants to see it, he can walk back with me (my hotel was about 15 mins walk away). i didn’t think he would so i just walked away.

seems that apart from the beautiful sceneries, Barcelona is also notorious for its scams and frauds. walking along the beach, there were immigrants (illegal?) selling pirated luxury items in a suitcase. one eye at the customers and another at approaching policemen. i’m not sure if this is something that could be ‘fixed’ by the government, but this definitely cannot be good for tourism.

so i’ve been thinking of ways that i will die. not in a sadistic suicidal way, but actual ways that i think i might die. putting aside stuff like old age and health, the first in the list is definitely death by electrocution. i’m not surprised to see my body sizzle up in flames since i have this extremely bad habit of switching on and off powerpoints with my erm…toes. and i have this weird fascination with electricity, you should see my powerpoints! if it’s not electrocution, i’ll probably be strangled by wire cables.

car accidents, i think that’s pretty much a given seeing how often i take cabs and how aggressive these cab drivers are. comfort needs to provide anger management workshops for its drivers. plane crashes. although i’ve read that it’s statistically harder to die in a plane crash than say, a car accident. but – i’m not kidding here – whenever the plane takes off, i’m pretty much prepared for the worst. what else can you do when a plane goes crashing down anyway?

so there you go, three ways that i’ll probably gonna die. with my luck, i’ll probably suffer a electric shock while my plane crashes down and i get hit by car when i land. happily ever after.

1. participate in a  marathon. any marathon. ok, actually i took part in two marathons when i was serving the nation – the half army marathon – but i didn’t get any real sense of achievement. it was compulsory and i had to drag my sorry sleepy ass for it. so in my list of things to do, i will want to take part in an actual marathon. i’ll even train for it.
2. take a hot air balloon ride. since i don’t see myself tying a billion helium balloons to my apartment block, i guess the alternative will be taking a hot air balloon ride. i’m mostly nervous about heights. even to this day, taking off in an airplane makes me nervous. which is why i don’t take thrill rides in amusement parks.
3. have a ‘lost’ marathon. this one might be the easiest to accomplish among all the others, but to actually find the time and the mood to sit in front of my computer and catch 5 (or is it 6?) seasons of lost would be a feat. i love the cast, i love the mythology and i love the suspense. but there are just too much to absorb – the flashbacks and flash-forwards – and that makes it hard to start from scratch again.
4. picking up a sports. well, like it’s ever gonna happen. but i would love to pick up tennis again. i like the impact of the racket against the ball. and i think i would look pretty smart in a tennis getup.
5. writing a book. that is what i’m basing this blog on. to chronicle my attempts at writing a book. and if i ever do write one, ‘this is not for the sober’ would be the title for it. i’m greatly inspired by the likes of jonathan tropper (my favourite writer for now), neil gaiman (i worship him and Dream), douglas coupland and nick hornby. i used to love chuck palahniuk but i didn’t quite get his latest works.

not really an exhaustive list of things to do. but given my procrastinating nature, i would love to see in 3-5 years’ time (hopefully i’m still alive and well) that i have accomplished half, if not all of what i’ve stated.