Wasting Time

These days, I have been living in a frugal manner, always thrifty in the matter of money-spending andcooking my own meal (often two meals at one time, that is one meal to be eaten immediately and the other to be kept for future consumption) to avoid the expensive food outside. However, today is slightly different as I made a pilgrimage to Donut Factory (don't remind me about how gastronomically delightful the doughnuts are) for breakfast.

Well, neither was breakfast the raison detre - I went there for better internet access - and nor was I alone as Alice came trudging along (she is the one giving the idea of breakfasting out). She needed my help for her Preliminary Idea or PI (guys, have you forgotten the misery that was Project Work in JC1) so as a responsible "mum" to his/her "Maria", I can't really leave her in deep shit right?

$5.50 was worthily paid for a fine breakfast consisting of two doughnuts, one Double Chocolate and the other Mocca something..., in addition to a cappuccino (though I was said that they could have brewed the coffee better). After munching down breakfast, we set off to summarising Alice's PI from a hefty 900 words to a lean 520. Time spent was two hours and mission was accomplished.

Then, I setted my vision to my right upon a group of young students who were occupying a long conjoined table with books and notepads. They were doing homework, or so it seemed. A little past five minutes after they sat down, murmurs were heard from the table and two hours later, it became a full-blown chatting about trivial matters, gossips and the latest hip in pop industry. No longer did I see the fingers scribbling on paper as the youngsters turned to talking as their main activity. Eyes began to stray from the textbooks as they affixed themselves on irrelevant things like passing people and each other.

I don't mean to eavesdrop or spy on them but the attitude that was abhorrently displayed depicted how youngsters in Singapore take comfort for granted. You have a fine environment to study: an air-conditioned lounge-like setting with food and drinks, little noise except the sound of sipping coffee and light footsteps. Yet, you exploit it by socialising unnecessarily when homework piles before your eyes. Okay, it's good to get together as a means of group study but please don't turn this initiative into a senseless chatting session. Save that for MSN tonight!

I must confess that in our work, Alice and I did talk but the content was more pertinent to the matter at hand than to anything else. Only when we had completed the self-assigned task did we invest our interest in gossips and hearsays.

There was a distinct line between work and relaxation though it has become more and more blurred these days. Work is often interrupted by leisure even before it is completed, hence the waste of precious time and energy. Most often, the product of work lacks quality since there is little commitment put into making the best of the available resources and distraction deprives the mind of full, undivided concentration.

Why, in the luxury of opportunities and resources in abound, do man choose to slack? Perhaps, that is man: he who does not appreciate until all is lost.