vinyarb

Yeah, 17 years later, people are still asking the question: What’s a zig a zig ah?

For those of you not familiar with pop culture, once upon a time, there existed an all-girl pop group called The Spice Girls. For some reason, they became a thing, and when their hit single “Wannabe” hit the top of the charts, and everywhere we turned, we heard that all they really really wanted was a “zig a zig ah”, people starting asking Google what that meant.

Now, 17 years later, we’re still getting up to 9,900 searches a month on that phrase.

Very helpfully, urban dictionary defines it as “what scary spice really wants”.

This is more of a note-to-self.

When we were young, full of hope, and didn’t know any better, we’d get asked this question by the adults:

What do you want to be, when you grow up?

We’d say things like “a fire-fighter, police, actor, singer, ballerina”. Some of the more disillusioned would say things like be a “superhero” (seriously?), and the adults would just laugh and go “awww”.

Of course, now we all know better. We grew up, our dreams died, our bills grew. And soon enough, we forgot about those childhood dreams. We took up jobs in finance, accounting, law, construction, and little by little, day by day, we die just a little bit more. Our dreams drifting further and further.

We start making secondary dreams. Like “I’m going to write a book”, “I’m going to travel the world”, but those are almost always pre-faced with one word: Someday.

• Someday, when I save enough money, I’ll go travel the world.
• Someday, when inspiration hits me, I’ll be able to write my book.
• Someday, I’ll take up a course, and move one step closer to being a chef.

Someday.

It gives you a plan to look forward to, but also a reason to procrastinate. And someday, before you realise it, you’d have missed that boat, too.

Turn that ‘someday’ into ‘today’. What can you do, today, to help inch you ever that closer to your dream?

Someday, I’d like to be able to sit on my balcony, write my novel, and not have to worry about paying the bills. Today, I’m thinking about building a business that will help me ultimately achieve that.

What’s your ‘someday‘, and what are you doing about it, today?

I have Omphalophobia. No, it’s not some disease where I lay awake at night, haunted by dancing oompa loompas around my bed. It’s however, an irrational but very real fear of belly buttons. To be more specific, the fear of other people (and to a certain extent, myself) touching my belly-button.

In a survey done on some 60 volunteers to see the types of microbial life living in their belly-buttons, they found on average, 67 different types of bacteria in each belly-button.

Help me.

Sinkholes are appearing at an alarming rate around the world, and rapid urbanisation must take some of the blame for it.

Here are some notable instances just in 2013 alone.

Sinkhole swallows golfer in Illinois golf course, 12 March 2013

Golfer Mark Mihal was having a fine day with his golfing buddies, when the ground suddenly opened up under him on his 14th hole. He fell 18 feet deep into the hole, but thankfully survived. He was stranded for about 20 minutes before friends managed to pull him out with a rope.

He was extremely lucky, because to get out of this alive, because just a cuple of weeks earlier,

Sinkhole in Florida swallows man sleeping in bedroom, 28 Feb 2013

Jeff Bush, 36, was in his bedroom when the entire floor gave way, and swallowed his bed, along with himself into the ground. He managed to call for help, but his brother Jeremy, could do little to help.

The sinkhole quickly grew in depth of up to 100 ft.

Rescue efforts were hampered as the grounds were considered highly unstable. Jeff has been presumed dead since 3 March, and rescue efforts called off.

Sinkhole swallows security guard in ShenZhen, 27 March 2013

Dramatic video footage captured a giant sinkhole opening up and swallowing up a 25 year old Security Guard. He was eventually rescued, but succumbed to serious injuries sustained in the fall.

Giant sinkhole takes in entire buildings in GuangZhou, 29 Jan 2013

A giant hole opened up in GuangZhou and swallowed 3 buildings. Amazingly, no casualties were announced.

Sinkhole along Keppel road tries to swallow a car, 30 Jan 2013

Closer to home, a man-made sinkhole, created when a water-pipe burst, along Keppel road attempted to swallow a car. Earlier this month, another sinkhole appeared in Woodlands, where excavation works ruptured an underground water pipe, creating a massive sinkhole.