Forgive me if I get ahead of myself
by Yeoh Siew hoon
Most people make New Year resolutions about what they will do. I have decided I will make a list about what I will not do. Because in deciding what you will not do, you automatically do.
I will not:
1. Miss a flight again because I over-slept or forgot to book a taxi.
2. Leave everything to the last minute and spend the 11th hour worrying about what I have to do between now and then – as I did with this column – once again.
3. Be late for appointments. I have programmed my mobile phone to be 10 minutes faster than the rest of the world’s so I will always be earlier than myself.
4. Use the word “icon” or “iconic” again in any of my articles. It was one of the most over-used words of 2007 in the travel business, along with “world class” and “discerning”.
5. Fret anymore about what “world class” means. In 2007, I tossed and turned in bed, trying to figure out what “world class” meant – what world did they mean? Their world? Our world? Who determines which world? After all, one man’s world is another man’s hut.
6. Buy any more souvenirs from any touristic places I go to. I will henceforth only collect memories, not stuff.
7. Live every moment as though I had the rest of my life ahead of me. No, I will live every moment as though it were my last – which then makes me wonder, why am I writing this list of don’t dos, when I should be out there doing it?
8. Say no to travelling to new places.
9. Watch another movie with dragons and airships.
10. Peek at my Blackberry under the table and send surreptitious messages during meetings – someone likened it to trying to pick your nose in company. I’d rather be Plain Jane than Plain Rude.
11. Be rude to people who play their MP3 player out loud at airports and in aeroplanes. (On second though, I’d like to delete this item from this list because soon, they’ll also be talking on mobile phones inflight and if someone doesn’t stand up to “them”, there goes our peace in the air.)
12. Suffer from “logonorrhea” – the disease of having too many passwords that you forget them.
13. Eat too much. But I will play, laugh and cry as much as I want.
Catch more of Yeoh Siew Hoon every week at The Transit Cafe
Ian Jarrett
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