The distinct shrilling voices of the Bee Gees can be heard softly, filling a tiny space of the room’s overall quiet, singing “More Than A Woman”.

The other sounds include the whirling of the ceiling fan (It was advertised as “extra quiet”.  I daren’t think what it would be like to be “normal noisy”. )  and the whirling of 6 tiny fans from the computer laptop cooling pad.

“Daren’t” – that’s an English word that has not been used in a long time. I think the last time I heard that word used was when I was in school, over 40 years ago. If my memory serves me well, it was used quite often by my Standard Four class teacher, the late Mrs. Mun (Bless her soul).

Is it just me or is each day that goes by seems drastically shorter than a year ago. Here, shorter does not mean a few milliseconds or even a minute. It just feels like I am not getting enough hours in a day.

If I break down my average work day, it would be something like this:
6 hours in traffic on roads
4 hours sleep
3 hours brisk walks / exercise
3 hours replying emails, / social media / reading
1 hour miscellaneous
17 hours total, leaving me with only 7 hours to work. During these 7 hours, I have multiple (I would have preferred using the word “loads” as it emphasizes the intensity. However [instead of “but”], “multiple” is a word that people seem to understand more, from what I gather).

As I am about to put my fingers to keyboard typing, converting the clickety-clackety sounds that the individual lettered keys make as they are thumped upon on the mechanical keyboard, making and forming words that mysteriously appear on the 24-inch monitor screen, I become hungry. I start thinking of what to eat. Procrastination? You think? Maybe…

When  the words come, they just come, and there’s no stopping. And if they aren’t there, they just aren’t there. So, I usually like moving around a lot, getting a different view of things, even for a fleeting moment. Unlike some people who get distracted from what they are doing if they move onto something else, I get refreshed. Perhaps, it is the “dreamer” in me.

On a recent coffee visit to Good Ground Bakery, I was in one of those “dreamer” moods. I ordered an iced Americano and a scone with a side of butter and strawberry jam from Joanne, the one whose smile puts the twinkle in stars in the sky. I chose a table at the corner near the entrance. I pulled out my Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 512GB (that’s quite a mouthful) and started to continue working on one of my articles. “Started to continue?” Does not seem to make much sense.

In this context, it does. It means that I started working on an article that I had not completed yet.

As I sat there, absorbing the moments in time that was going by, I thought to myself that it sure would be a whole lot more complicating if we had a fisheye or 360º view of life. Which would be the start and which would be the end of each scene? I am trying to view the scene based on what we generally understand, where each snapshot of a scene or a story has a beginning and an end.

What if instead, we were just there, like showing up in a scene. No explanations…It is still the beginning from the context of at the point we showed up. Gosh! I can’t begin to imagine what it was like when John Lennon wrote his timeless song, “IMAGINE”. Was his imagination on “free flow” mode, just like mine is now?