A Dog in the Lake House

There is a mangy mutt in The Lake House, a movie starring Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock. It was a very sweet movie - but more about it later. Now, more about the Dog.

How much is that Doggie in the window?
The one with the waggely tail?

My friend Dogmatic. Had lunch with her Saturday, we've known each other for so long and we could speak about everything under the sun, and inevitably, politics. Both of us took political science at university and we did philosophy in our first year together, she went on to do Philo, while I stuck out with Literature. So politics was where our passion lay. (We both had the same Philosophy class on "The Meaning of Life" and dear Dog got an A for her first essay on meanings, so the rest of us asked her for a copy of the paper. We all didn't understand what she was writing about! Haha like the best philosophers, Dog wrote in "un-understandable speak" just like Jean-Paul Sartre, Heidegger, Nietzsche etc. If anyone can understand the gobbledy-gook, it was Doggie. She was truly one of those smarty pants)

Dog is now working with an international body, all so exciting because it seeks to make the world a better place for all of us and future generations. More importantly because of her work, she met the incomparable Mr H! Whom I will finally meet in 2 weeks time :)

It was a wonderful lunch, we discussed Lebanon-Israel, her work and mine, her future plans, books etc. Over the last few weeks, we have both developed a greater appreciation for the Mid East, so Dog ended up getting a book on Israel's secret wars and at my recommendation, Thomas Friedman's brilliant "From Beirut to Jerusalem." She was going for an operation tomorrow and will be out of action for 2 weeks, so the books will accompany her.

She refused my offer to get her The Kite Runner because she had to read one book at a time, and the two books on the Mideast were both magnum opus types. She said, Julie, you should be a humanitarian worker haha Coz I was always giving away gifts - Vietnamese coffee, Sepet VCDs, books like the Life of Pi, The Solitaire Mystery and now, The Kite Runner, Watsons cotton panties etc etc everything I wanted to evangelise :)

We then went shopping. I got $330 worth of Clinique products EEEEKS! And Dog bought yet another beautiful dress at Daniel Yam. This time, it was a champage dress with an attached train, the train could be tied in at least 10 different ways to make the dress look completely different each time. It was gorgeous!

Was very inspired to purchase a Daniel Yam for Dog's wedding.

Well, I'll miss her very much when she stays permanently in Europe. We've gone through so much over the years, growing up and growing old and growing young ;) She's already speaking in terms of, "we from Vienna" ... I said, OI, you're from Singapore :P to bring her back to her roots!

But happy she'll be H and happy that she'll have work-life balance. In Singapore, kinda non-existent, no matter how we play it. Another friend living the global life away from Singapore :)

Kangeroos rule

Just like Kangeroo Joey. Met a man in an airport for like 5 minutes. She gave him directions. She was nice and offered to provide him more info on Singapore and traded contact details. They kept in touch via email. She went to Canada like twice, and he came down here like twice .... and VOILA! He proposes on her 3rd trip to Toronto, at the Niagara Falls. So romantic!

Niagara Falls -- always reminds of that scene in Superman 2 when Superman saves a boy from a fall and drowning. He does that in a jiffy and in the next minute, was back next to Lois Lane, who was wondering where Clark Kent went!

The Roo has been married for 3 years now, and has 2 kids in tow. I never made in to Toronto to be her bridesmaid, thanks to SARS, heck, I never made it to Toronto. And the Roo is back in Singers now -- will be here for the next 8 months or so. Needs to remind her kids that Singapore are where they belong. It's their home. (That catchy National Day song about Home is playing in my head now EEEKS)

Well, the Dog isn't sure when the wedding will be now, so I am hoping it'll happen in April. Then I will head to Vienna for a couple of days, stop off in Bern, Switzerland and see Berl-ayn-dah, and then head to Canada. Have to see the Canadian Rockies!

The Lake House

Go watch it. The people in the show actually clapped at the end. It was so sweet.

Generally when life wants to dish you big rewards, the path to those rewards is full of challenges.