..Space between us..

"But let there be spaces in your togetherness and let the winds of the heavens dance between you." - Khalil Gibran

This is one of my favourite quotes. In every kind of relationship, each person needs to look after their personal space while respecting the other’s. But what makes each relationship unique is how both look after the space between them, not too tight, not too loose, not too far yet not too near. There is no formula to measure this distance, but you both will feel it when it's right and that’s what makes it beautiful.

When I read this line, I imagine the scene in this frame: two skaters gliding across the ice, drifting apart, then coming back together in perfect harmony. It’s in those moments of distance, when they separate and create the space between them, that their closeness feels even more meaningful.

..From 2025..

Coming back to make these little frames again in 2025, I stumble across my old blog (this one) while checking the name Little IUDEA on Google to see what would come up. About halfway down the page I saw it and the last update was about eleven years ago, wow. It brought back good memories.

I remember that I liked reading and writing back then.  I still like reading but I can't remember what stopped me from writing, probably laziness about checking my English, and maybe the endless online world that made me enjoy exploring and taking in information more than listening to what myself really thinking. 

It makes me feel that if there's something I wish I had done more back then, it's writing more of this blog. I remember thinking I would come back to read it in the far future and see how my thinking changed. I think eleven years is far enough and I wish I wrote more than just 3 posts! Well, it's not too late to start for my future self ten years away I think.

..Always running home..

"Ever walked on the same road every day, sat on the same bus every day, smelled the same flower every day and one day wondered what I am doing here, on this road, on this bus, on this planet?"

An old man suddenly stops on his way to a ticket gate on a busy Monday morning. Maybe forget where he is going or suddenly realised he is in a wrong place at the wrong time. Not a strange scene as people behind suddenly stopped because of the person in front of them. They all make annoying faces when trying to walk pass him. Poor old man, has he ever realised he gave someone a bad start to a possibly hectic week.

"Are we walking at the pace we want to? Or are we just walking as fast as the person behind us. Or are we trying to be faster than the person in front?"

A man is sitting on a peak hour underground train. One of his favourite moments as he doesn't have to walk. He could only travel as fast as the train driver want him to. Easy. He watchs people around him crammed inside the train. Some are reading morning papers, some are closing their eyes. A brief moment of peace perhaps. He closes his eyes.

"It is natural that children will walk to school and run home"

A young boy came back from a shopping with his parents. He saw a big shopping mall thousand times bigger than his local supermarket. A high street full of people from all walk of life. His town high street can be walked in less than 10 minutes. His old town was never the same anymore.

"On the way to hell, a small flower can make us smile"

The man opens his eyes after hearing the call of his stop and walks to the ticket gate. It's the same route he has been walking for years; his feet can do the thinking for him. He walks pass shops and plans his evening shopping. Suddenly he sees a little boy walking with his parents. The joy in the little boy's eyes reminds him of something. Something he cannot remember seeing from thousands of people in his office building. Suddenly he finds himself become an old man, slow and struggling to walk as fast as he wishes to. After a couple of attempts to speed up and realised he could not reach the speed he want to, in the middle of the ticket hall, he stops...

...A wrong turn?...

"Sometimes the wrong turn will get you to the right direction"

A nice little story from a lovely family who came to visit my stall. The mother said this box is true pointing her finger to the box in the picture. She said that on one day she missed a DLR train stop that she supposed to get off ( I know how annoying this could be especially if you are not in the right mood). But because of this, she said, when she get off the train at the next station to take the other train back to the right direction, she met her cousin that she haven't met for sometimes. She wouldn't have met her if she didn't miss her stop on that day. 

In everyday life there are many roads we didn't choose to go down. You will never know what is waiting for you had you chosen the other route. There is no such thing as a 'wrong' turn if you can learn a thing or two from it. Many of my designs actually started from a mistake in the beginning. If you keep following the same routine you will always get the same results. This remind me of another good story:

"Soon after Edison revealed his earth-shattering invention, a French reporter asked, “Mr. Edison, how did it feel to fail 999 times?” As the story goes, Thomas Edison just smiled and replied, “Young man, I have not failed 999 times. I have simply found 999 ways how not to create a light bulb."

Before they left on that day I asked them to write something for me so I can remember this story that she have just told me. The daughter asked can I write in Dutch and I said 'anything'. After she finished writing, curious what her daughter wrote, the mother came and checked :) and when she found that her daughter wrote in Dutch she shook her head and translate them for me. Another beautiful mother-daughter character relationships that just make me smiling. I'd have missed this had she chosen to write in English :)

..Money cannot buy you happiness..

"Money cannot buy you happiness, but you can always buy a bicycle"


It was a long quiet Saturday for me standing behind my stall and suddenly I found a young little boy looking at my boxes. I cannot remember how we started chatting but we ended up talking about a bicycle box similar to this one. I told him I did this because one of my favourite moment when I was a young boy like him was to ride my bicycle down a hill (I still do), he gave me a big beaming smile and said he likes it too!. You can tell by his eyes and his exciting voice that he did enjoy those happiness moment. This little chat ended when his mom came back to take him away but it was really brighten up my day.

I think riding a bicycle is a happiness in itself. You could play as many exciting spaceship or racing car games on your electronic devices as you like but nothing will compare with getting on your bike and just ride away. Nowadays many people, including me,  travel a lot using cars or public transports and we have to go back a long way when we could really enjoy riding a bicycle without having to worry about the traffic. I chose a moment when a man riding bicycle down a hill hoping to bring everyone back to those little happiness moment. Hope you enjoy it.

PS. Sorry for my poor grammar but I hope you get the ideas :)