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The Good Life


For the whole day, I had been pervaded by a certain restlessness, a restlessness that drove me more and more into social media and the internet without end. Expectedly, the temporary distraction only made things worse.

Then I went to look for him in his room and told him to hang out with me over some beer in the balcony. He joined a while later and we sat there and chitchatted over the next couple of hours.

As we sat there and talked while the Berlin skies darkened into a beautiful blue black gradient, it reminded me of earlier times, when around two decades ago, my family had moved to Singapore. Every evening, my mother, my sisters and me would sit and chat on the balcony of our apartment on the 24th story while staring out into vast urban landscape that lay in front of us. 

Somehow, it felt like these were the real highlights of life. There was something so soothing about sharing a quiet evening like this with a good friend, reminiscing about little events that held some significance in our lives. Like how his flight was delayed and the airline put him up in a 5 star hotel or how much I missed the food back home.

If this was all there is to life, some good friends, a beer, a quiet evening and the vastness of the sky to stare out into, I suppose that would be a really good deal.

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