Well after pondering for a few days I’ve been thinking what else interesting can I write about after my Thailand trip. It was all shopping, food, night life, and everything is just as any other trip.

And I’m sure too much of food porn and shopping showoffs will make you think that I’m an asshole.

So instead of talking about those materialistic achievements and how my waist have grown three inches after my Bangkok trip, I looked back at my tweets during my time in Bangkok and I’ve found this:

I saw a secondary schoolboy doing maths homework with his iPhone, his girlfriend next to him at the foodcourt of Siam Paragon.

A companion of mine commented when he saw this during the trip, “It’s not just about the efficiency of the work, it’s also about the style of how you work!”

So really, how true is that?

Yep, he’s a secondary school boy, 15, or 16 at most, flipping and tinkering around his iPhone while writing his maths answers onto the textbook. While his girlfriend is using her brains most of the time, she takes a peep whenever she gets a chance.

All in a high class shopping mall’s food court, Siam Paragon, which you can compare to our Kuala Lumpur’s Pavilion shopping mall.

That really leaves me pondering.

So you have a normal calculator and you have the iPhone at hand. If given the choice, most of us will choose the iPhone because it’s more efficient.

Or is it?

You can click on the buttons just as good as you click on a normal calculator. But clicking on an iPhone makes you feel better, doesn’t it? The eye candy, the swoosh and swirls and the scrolls and fades, and ooh not to mention the stares of jealousy and envy when people walk around you. That can make you feel real good.

So you can make phone calls and send sms with just any cheap handphone. Why choose an iPhone or Satio?

So you can cook just any dish just as good with a cheap Ikea non-stick pan. Why get a Buffalo Pan?

So you can always get the help of your brother or sister or your wife or husband to help you relieve the pain at your back with some good massage. Why get an Osim massage chair?

So you can just get a simple laptop at a cheap price at the store. Why get a Lenovo or HP or Dell?

Because really, no matter how much you want to deny it, style does play a role in your purchase decisions, because working with style and doing things with style makes you feel good.

So much for our rational decision making, hmm?

But then, this is what drives the consumerist society around. The need of luxury for self-realization and a reaffirmation of self values.

Do you agree that we not only strive to work efficiently, we want to work stylishly as well? And sometimes, even efficiency is compromised, we just plain wanna look stylish!

Hmm, excuse me while I go drool at the Google’s new phone Nexus One. Damn it’s so cool, I wanna get one!

She must be a real charm to inspire one of the most popular Bossa Nova songs of the century.

A Brazilian song written in 1962, The Girl From Ipanema (Garota De Ipanema) continues to fascinate us even today with its sweet tune that evokes the gentle breeze of the beach, the sounds of the waves and of course, the beautiful girl that crosses in front of you.

Time to take a break from the blaring radio hits and chart toppers, and come here for some chill music.

Girl From Ipanema by neloqua

Remember the time when you seen a pretty girl walking down the street, and when you see her you can’t help but just go, “Ahhhhhh….”?

This song tells you just that. No high pitched shouting emoness, no crazy banging drumbeats, no hardcore dying for anything. Just light, sweet, and makes you go “ahhhh….”.

This version of Garota De Ipanema is sung by Lisa Ono. She is a world famous Japanese Bossa Nova/jazz/samba singer that made Bossa Nova famous in Japan and everywhere else in the world for the past 2 decades.

Tall and tan and young and lovely, the girl from Ipanema goes walking
And when she passes, each one she passes goes – ah
When she walks, she’s like a samba that swings so cool and sways so gentle
That when she passes, each one she passes goes – ooh

(Ooh) But I watch her so sadly, how can I tell her I love her
Yes I would give my heart gladly,
But each day, when she walks to the sea
She looks straight ahead, not at me

Tall, (and) tan, (and) young, (and) lovely, the girl from Ipanema goes walking
And when she passes, I smile – but she doesn’t see (doesn’t see)
(She just doesn’t see, she never sees me,…)

Girl From Ipanema by neloqua

Bossa Nova is a musical form advocated by Antônio Carlos Jobim, Vinicius de Moraes and João Gilberto during the early 60s. They are also the composers and the performers of The Girl From Ipanema. While Bossa Nova found its roots in Samba in terms of musical form, it is much more downbeat, cool and “chill” than Samba. Singers whisper the tunes as if telling a secret, and unplugged acoustic instruments such as the guitar and the piano are favored for its simplicity.

The Girl From Ipanema is a classic example of Bossa Nova music. And I love it so much I go “Ahhhhh…” every time I listen to the song.

Compare Lisa Ono’s version with the singing of João Gilberto, the Bossa Nova advocate. Things have changed over the years, but it’s still definitely as sweet today as it is 40 years ago.

Of course, there’s The Boy From Ipanema version. Girls can’t have all the attention now, can they? ;)

Diana Krall, The Boy From Ipanema.

Boy From Ipanema by neloqua

Ahhhhhhh….

Images courtesy of neloqua on Flickr. She lives in Rio de Janeiro, Brasil, and she captures the beach moments at their best. The beauty!