“Now It’s On” by Grandaddy plays for me… “I wouldn’t trade my place. I got no reason to be, weathered and withering, like in a season of the old me… Bust the lock off the front door. Once you’re outside you won’t want to hide anymore. Light the light on the front porch. Once it’s on you’ll never want to turn it off any more. And now it’s on…”

Time really is a luxury. But unlike expensive suits, yachts and penthouses, you can’t categorise it. It’s free, yet it’s priceless. It keeps on giving and all you can try to do is make the most of it, as opposed to letting it make the most of you. It continues around us, guiding itself through the folds in the expanses of our minds even when we are sleeping. Time doesn’t stop and it will never sleep.

I’ve been filling up my time once again with my nose buried in the pages of a book. I get these stints infrequently where my brain just plain needs input. Like a loose electrical wire, in its own way it will spurt sparks and crave for an inlet to complete its circuit. At these times the cortex transmutates into that of the consistency of sponge and mop up anything that’s thrown its way. But having read a lot in the space of a day, by the time the sun goes down, my head is left feeling bloated. Does information make your brain heavier? It sure feels like it does.

Yogi celebrated his birthday on Saturday at the famous Jim Thompson’s Thai restaurant. Out of all my friends from University, he’s one of the few who is around the same age as me. Most of my friends are over a whole year older than me and for that reason I sometimes forget that he is only 7 months older than me. He’s liked by everyone he meets and I guess it’s because he’s got a non-threatening demeanour and a sense of humour you can relate to. He’s gotten along with every friend of mine that he’s met, except for H. This is strange because H is as sociable as creatures on Earth get and she’s able to talk to anyone. Perhaps it’s just a conflict of understanding that prevents them from getting along the way they do rather than the way they should. I think as time has gone on, they’ve forgotten about their differences and I guess they can each grin and bear it since they only ever see each other about once a year (around the time of my birthday).

One of Yogi’s favourite hobbies is try to convince people of something untrue and see how long they believe him for. I got the usual “He’s a body double for Jet Li” and “You should see his flash kicks.” Little do they know the reality that I have neither worked with Jet Li nor have the ability to kick at speeds that would even resemble flashiness. Ever since the one time I cut my hair short, the Jet Li comparisons have never stopped. Ever since I showed him a kick to the torso that I used to do regularly in training, he’s been telling everyone how fast the kick is. Believe me, it’s not fast, or at least as fast as it used to be. Time takes no prisoners and my loins are no exception. Synovial fluid and cartilage can’t beat the ravages of time. And since that last sentence made you think that I sound old, let me add that you’re wrong.

Yesterday I went over to Chris’ house for another long overdue guitar lesson. I can’t remember the last time but it must have been about a month and in that time he’s improved so much. I tell everyone who wants to learn the guitar this: that it just takes time. There’s a steep learning curve when learning a new musical instrument and this is particularly true in the case of the guitar. Getting your fingers to conform to a new way of life is not an overnight process. It takes a couple of months of dedication to overcome the first hurdle and from then on it’s an easy race. To me, the process of learning guitar involves quite a few psychological barriers. The first significant barrier is getting used to holding a guitar, then getting your fingers to become agile, then developing a rhythm. Once you have overcome these often harrowing and frustrating barriers, only then will you start to appreciate and enjoy the progress you have made. Chris’ rhythm has improved by many fold and in part it’s due to the familiarity he now feels with his guitar. Familiarity breeds comfort, and when he plays, it no longer looks like it requires so much effort.

Whilst I was over at Chris’ we ordered Chinese take away. Correction: dodgy Chinese take away. Okay, I’m not 100% sure, but I have a strong feeling that it was the reason I woke up at about 5 am this morning with a great pain in my stomach. I tried to ignore it and go back to sleep but the pain wouldn’t subside. It hung around like a bad odour and by 6 am I had awoken again to its belligerence. A tablet of Imodium later with some Jasmine tea tamed the beast within and I was able to go back to sleep. I’m not sure if that was food poisoning, but it certainly hurt as much as I’ve heard people describe it. I hardly ever get ill and I think it’s in part due to my iron belly, capable of digesting Plutonium. Unfortunately, this means that if I get ill, I get really ill and would usually be incapacitated for a few days. But now it’s the early afternoon and I feel fine again. Isn’t food poisoning meant to last a few days? If this was food poisoning, it only lasted about 6 hours. I love my iron belly.

I got round to checking out Dive magazine in the stores. The last issue has the screaming Loggerhead turtle on its cover; the exact same photo I got a preview of a few months ago, so congrats to Eric.