Memoir by Dickson Idlier

I joined my wife to attend the "Caregivers forum" at Grand Hyatt Singapore Hotel at Scotts Road on 2nd Nov 2019.  During Dr. Ang Yong Guan (specialize in Psychiatry)'s presentation, he mentioned about two interesting people that changed his thinking and lifestyle.  Dr. Jason Fung  on "intermittent fasting" and  Mathew Walker  on "Sleep". Dr. Ang has mentioned in the presentation he has managed to keep his weight down with Dr. Jason Fung's advice. 

I have been meditating for a while now, more than 2 years but I have not progressed much, even though I tried to meditate an hour a day for a fair period. The image is what I looked like with the question "WHY AM I GETTING BETTER IN MEDITATION?"

I chanced upon freeganism when reviewing my retirement plans. I just left my stressful job and recovering from a stress-induced migraine. I wish to retire from work by age 45 but no concrete plans yet.  I felt freeganism is a path to fulfill my early retirement dream. The idea behind freeganism is to get what you need for free and use your money only on necessities. I joined "Freegan in Singapore" Facebook group, where Colin Lau's articles on freeganism opened my mind. Initially, I dumpster diving twice daily. Later reduced to once daily. Then finally every weekend only. At first, I only managed to rescue merchandise but limited food. Now, with some luck, I can rescue food, bread, and cakes to pack my fridge so I have enough to eat with my wife. I still pay for food when I'm lazy to cook as I hate cleaning up.  Not anti-consumerism but not waste the limited resources we have. 

As I get free stuff through dumpster diving, a problem slowly materialized. Stuck with stuff I don't need but still useful. So initially thoughts to give away. The giveaway details are in my earlier blog post "Declutter in progress but where to get rid of my stuff?".  Below are pictures to show the magnitude of my hoarding problem. This is the state of my dining area

The "Filipino Project" is started by Singapore freegan founder, Colin Lau. The project collects usable small items (clothes, bags, kitchenware, luggage, bed sheets, curtains, blankets, stationery, soft toys, plastic toys, shoes, electrical and electronics, lingerie, etc) and gives them to Filipinos. They pack these items into big carton boxes and ship back to their hometown in the Philippines. The Filipino groups pay for the shipping costs usually. These shipped items are then given to their family members, relatives, or church members as some are so poor, they can't afford a meal. Some items are sold to pay for their essentials, like food, electricity, etc. Visayas group that came to my place. Still have 2 ladies that not in the photo as they came later. This is my 7th giveaway to this project on 14 September 2019.

Photo by  Samuel Silitonga  from  Pexels I want to start meditating in 2007 as if I am not wrong, wanting to tame my "monkey mind" then.  My wife asked her boss to introduced me to her friend, Ailing, on recommendation where I can learn meditation. My wife was worried I might go crazy if I meditate on my own. 

This book was introduced by "The Minimalists" during their podcasts, "006 - Tuesday".   Later on, as I was browsing through the library books, I found the latest book by Dan Harris. When I noticed this, I searched for his earlier book, '10% Happier' and found it.  This book is a mediation for beginners guidebook, story of how Dan Harris got into the meditation practice.

When dumpster diving, you may find interesting stuff as you salvage through the green and blue trash bins and any items people left at the void decks.  The most bazaar finds that I found was... a  Live 11-inch Freshwater Stingray.  This is the sting ray that I found (now in my 3 ft tank)

When I was looking for a “small and slim book” to improve my writing at the library, I chanced upon this book “The Writer’s Diet” by Helen Sword. This book will help stimulate your writing, supercharge your verbal fitness and streamline from your prose. It focus on five topics and each topic provides a simple explanation with a few training exercises at the end of each topic. Below is the short run through of the five topics (Extracted from the book):

Freeganism is an alternative lifestyle philosophy based on minimizing consumption by recovering wasted goods like food or merchandise. In short, reduce the desire to buy new or upgrade stuff, live with what you have and be happy with what you already have. Then after dwelling further into it, I noticed that it includes two interesting activities, dumpster diving, and sharing and/or giving stuff away. Image of Oscar, who likes trash

I ialways wanted to retire in Thailand but is it possible? (Image from  shutterstock.com ) Thailand, Land of Smiles. Who doesn't want to live there for retirement, right? After I quit my last job, I was so determined to retire in Chiangmai, Thailand, so I researched for details regarding "retiring in Chiangmai". The book I managed to find useful is ‘How To Retire Happy, Wild and Free’ by Ernir J Zelinski. I realized retiring in Chiangmai has many shortcomings. I shall list the main reasons why I decided to abort the plan:

I was an organized hoarder until I aspired to be a minimalist (Image from dreamstime.com ) I was an organized hoarder before exploring what minimalism is. Well organized hoarder means stuff is well hidden out of sight, so just don’t look untidy on the surface. Where is the stuff? Concealed in a physical or electronic storage location, drawers, Toyogo plastic containers, cupboards, hard drive, memory cards, etc. The guilt of throwing away stuff makes you think twice throwing it. To lessen this guilt, below are ways I got rid of my stuff by my preferences:

This is the first blog post that I wanted to share the topics: Freeganism, Minimalism, Meditation, and Retirement. I'm heading in the correct direction, so hope to reach the destination before the end of my time. It was amazing as what I have gone through before I reach this stage of my life.  I inspired by Asakura Yoh to have an easy life. (Image from PNGFIND.COM )