People talk. To me. Some of them get so comfortable they spill life's trials and tribulations in the short period of time we spend together.

Then there are those who don't. Talk, I mean. And I know I should be glad they don't pour everything out to me, but I guess I'm just a little unnerved by it all. I realize these people probably care too much to unload their emotional baggage on someone who's already hunched from the load on her back.

I simply can't remember when this whole "talk to serene" thing started, or how it "got about". It does seem like Cole brought out the shrink in me, with our constant intellectual sparring and me trying to get him to think out of the box. Then there were my few babies in CNH, Summer 2001. We stood by each other...cried in each others' arms. Coming back to Singapore, as freaked and wary as I was about the world, I still managed to let my guard down enough for people to talk to me. Thing is: I don't get them to talk. They just do.

On my most recent London trip, I did expect to be bonding with my team girls. I ended up spending time in the room of one of them, listening to how she grew up and all. Then came the tears. Now that's another thing. Tears. It's dawned on me quite recently that when people speak to me, they usually end up crying at some point. And I do feel bad about that. Sometimes I try to force the tears out just to make them feel less alone, but most times, it doesn't work that way.

My only outlet, to this day, is my writing and sharing little bits of myself with the people who speak to me. I don't narrate my life story, but I do tell whatever's relevant to their situation and the conclusion of it. Geez...I do sound like a freakin' 50-year-old.

Ms Kuan just sent me an sms this afternoon...asking if Cole fancies me. I smiled to myself as I read that, at the same time wondering where the hell she got that idea from. She said VIBES. And VIBES seem to be what's getting everyone talking about HIM and I. Oh well, we'll see where those VIBES take us...