Similarities

I recently met a friend who seemed to share so many similiarities with me especially in terms of food habits.

We both dislike eating vegetables with stronger smell, eg celery, spring onions, parsley. As such ingredients were normally used as garnishes in main dishes, we both had no qualms of picking out these from a bowl of porridge. I could sense your disapproval at this juncture of our picky food habits. In terms of food that we liked, we also tend to favour more Asian cuisines than Western. However, my friend was more adventurous when it came to trying different food. When I was introduced to Heng Hua cuisine, I thought some of the dishes required an acquired taste. On Indian cuisine, I have yet to sample them other than the more common roti prata.

The similarities do not stop at food. There were instances when we seemed to be able to speak each other's thoughts. When we were talking about movies and the need to sometimes watched it again, we both understood the rationale as we would have concentrated on the pictures and missed the dialogues. This was especially so for action-packed movies.

I thought I was pretty fastidious when it came to quality checks on goods before making a purchase. Well, I have finally met an equivalent. My friend could even spot damages that I might have missed. We were having fun having a competition on who could spot more defects on the items. Finally, we were both satisfied the good were in tip-top condition before we made the purchases.

Some of my closer group of friends have more than once complained about my retarded responses to SMSes and even an aversion to talking on mobile phones. My aversion to talking on mobile phones without sounding too stifled has only abated somewhat after working in the telco industry. Well, now I can proudly tell my friends I am not the only one who seems to be living in a dinosaur age. This new friend of mine shares the same aversion to mobile phones. In fact, my friend's aversion to mobile phones may be more severe and slowness in SMS responses make my response feel like my response travels in light years.

Sometimes, I wonder whether to find so many similarities with another friend is a blessing in disguise or something to avoid. It is a blessing as I am certain you can imagine the connection and the ease of companionship with someone who shares similar thoughts. On the other hand, for those of you who are more familiar with management concepts, you will have heard "Group think" which essentially advocates against similar thinking in a group as there will be many blind spots. Maybe I should not think so much and just enjoy the friendship while it lasts.