Last week of 2009

Taking a stock check of 2009.

The most memorable..........Spain and Paris.

The most dreadful.........time in office.

The most blissful.......family and friends.

The most unexpected.........3 pregnant colleagues at the same time.

The most anticipated.........a new house.

Forwarding to 2010.

The most anticipated......a change in routine.

The most challenging......courage to live life the way I want it to be.

The most sincere prayer......for family and friends.

Prayers....

I pray for him to get back on track,

I pray for him to be responsible,

I pray for their freedom,

I pray for their rid of problems,

I pray for them to enjoy retirement, or near retirement,

I pray for light at the end of the tunnel,

I pray for new path,

I pray for her fate,

I pray for a better life in heaven otherwise.

In YOUR name, I pray. YOU do hear, YOU do know.....right?

Some kind of a mother!

I was turning into the car park when I had to stop for a woman to cross the road. She did not bothered to check if there were any incoming cars. She looked as though she was in her own world and took her own sweet time to walk pass my car. Just when I thought she was done and my leg was on the accelerator, out came her little daughter. She emerged from behind the van that was stationery on the other side of the road. I was lucky that I had not stepped on the accelerator. The little girl, probably about 4 years old, had her head down as the raindrops were pattering on her little raincoat hood. I was in a moment of shock when she appeared. How can someone allowed her child to cross the road on her own? She was so young. I cannot imagine what will happen if I had moved off after her. However, her mother was oblivious about the whole incident. Thank God, I was split of a second slower.

A reflection

An incident yesterday made me reflect on these 2 words, "socially responsible". These are such morally-weighted words. It is easy to tell someone with influenza to be socially responsible and rest at home until one is well. However, the 2 words will weigh a ton on people with diseases such as AIDS. What does being socially responsible mean for these people? Maybe, it could mean stay away; minimum contact please; your absence is for the good of your love ones; isolation etc. Why this perception? I guess "socially responsible" is not given due justice as our environment is not ideally forgiving. Let me explain. Assuming the community fully understands how HIV can be transmitted, trust the probability of accidental infection is negligible, is inclusive of the infected and discrimination is unheard of, being socially responsible would be a by-product. Yes, this may be Utopian. But remember the quote, "every action, there's a reaction"?

If one has to be permanently isolated just to be socially responsible, if one has to be cut off from their love ones just to be socially responsible, if one has to stay away just to be socially responsible, what is the quality of life for them? Let's not connect how they had contracted the disease to how they should lead their life thereafter. The sheer fact of being infected is a price paid, not forgetting there are also innocent victims. Maybe, for these people, the environment they once trust becomes unfamiliar, the people they once loved becomes distant just because they try to be socially responsible. "Please be socially responsible"....a so morally-weighted statement. An important cultivated behavior but a harsh one too if you are at the other end of the spectrum.

What am I doing?

Sitting in office, staring at the monitor, chatting online with colleagues, blogging about what I am doing now. Such boring life!

Mind Blowing....

I am tired but I must get this excitement off my chest. My first travel photography class. At 7.15pm today, I thought I signed up for a useless class (when I saw the course outline). Looked very basic and boring to me. But when the class started, I was blown away. Visualise this; a young man on a "bucket boat" trying to empty a pail of water that had seeped into the boat on a shimmering Saigon River just before day break. How about 2 clay Ho Ching Ming statues (one wrapped in clear plastic and another in Vietnamese newspapers) placed behind a Peugeot(french) bicycle etc. I am not good with words and I don't think I had given justice to the photos using my descriptions. But it was that kind of photos I aspire to produce. They showed life beyond my 3ft by 3ft cubicle, beyond emphasis of deadlines, beyond trying to justify you are a more-than-average. It shows simplicity can be beautiful, it shows life can be simple, it shows diversity and variety, it shows purity of nature, it shows our existence is not the center of the world. Reuben asked me this last Saturday; what kind of photos I like to take. I couldn't decide until today. I want photo-stories. Photos that tell stories.

Another health episode

Somehow, my health always takes a toll when my boss is on leave. And when it happened, I usually did not have the luxury of taking medical leave. It happened again. I was down with a very bad allergic reaction. To what, I do not know. All I knew was after eating the crepe with Peking duck and lychee fillings, rashes, swollen fingers and swollen lips were what's left. The 3 rounds of visitation to the doctor was a torture with all the waiting and screening procedures. Worse still, I still cannot find out why am I having difficulty in breathing. The X-rays shown perfectly clear lungs and throat. Maybe its not the lungs? Maybe its the heart? Had been sleeping badly for the last 3 nights; waking up at 12am and only to fall asleep again at 3am. Tired.....I need a break, I want some rest, I have to sleep. But what am I doing? In office at 7pm, hungry, tired .....If I am lucky, I should be able to get out of this tiny cubicle at 8pm. Praying to get out soon.

Excruciating first experience!

I was conned by its far from intimidating outlook. I thought I could take the pain. I was wrong. I had my first and probably last (unless of absolute necessity) acupuncture session. I was literally being pinned down by 17 hair-line thick formidable needles. 4 on my arms, 4 on my legs and 9 on my tummy. All in the name of vanity. 

I thought, "How painful can it be? It was not an injury anyway." When the first needle went in, I knew I made the wrong decision. It was pain that you cannot preempt. It was an ant bite, followed by a second of electrocution and then 30 minutes of aches with numbness. In some areas, it was an an bite, followed by a second of electrocution with occasional muscle spasm and 30 minutes of aches.

This was not all! The removal process sent off instant excruciating pain and muscle twitch. Next came the cupping process. A procedure where bamboo or glass cups were heated and immediately cupped onto the skin. The vacuum created by the heat sucked up as much flesh as it could causing the cups to be securely attached to the body. The purpose? To force the toxins in the body to float up to the surface of the skin. I must admit, due to excessive possession of flesh on my body, the cupping process was more damaging than the needles. (See picutre - I have 12 of these marks on my body.) When the alarm from the physician's table sound, I knew it was over. I had never felt so relieved and relaxed.

The "acupunctured" feeling did not end there. I wonder how many days before all the effects wear away.

我要走天涯！

世界这么大，为何我却天天躲在这小小的空间里呢？
我要走天涯，这里看看，那里瞧瞧。
我不要争荣誉，也不想乘天对着无味的deadline.
我要走天涯！

Retirement thoughts...

Someone said, "be careful what you wish for, it might just happen!". "I wish for early retirement, I wish for a windfall, I wish that whatever I wish for just now will happen." Hee hee.

Wondering..

Everyone has their worth and purpose in this world. Ever wonder what is yours? A friend shared his thoughts. That, there's a fellowship to be formed, there's blessings and goodness from the almighty to be enjoyed. While we lament about the toughness of life, the many "if only" situations, it takes wisdom and peace to see its intangible richness. I am glad at least I have 1 wise friend :)

  

Finally started!

I finally started my photography class. Dealing with concepts such as F-stops, aperture, shutter speed, focal length etc were not easy tasks, especially after a long day in office. But it's fun. Here are 3 of the 5 photos which I had selected for a photo critic session on Thursday. Wonder how bad will they be critic. Cross my fingers :P

Cars...

Are there more cars on the road or am I imagining things?

Who should carry the bag - Part 2

If you have the same build as your parents, who should carry your school bag? Answer: Your parents.

P/s: This is not my opinion but my observation.

Who should carry the bag?

Occasionally, I will meet this neighbour leaving for school in the lift. She is a secondary school student who is studying at the school next to my condo. What struck me when I first met her was her unkempt hair. Maybe its one of my idiosyncrasy, I found myself starring at her mop for a good 10 seconds. Hair aside, what disgusted me more was her maid. Her maid was carrying her bag, yes, her school bag. And to make it more unbelievable, she was helping her to carry it to the car where her mother was waiting in it to fetch her to school. If you still remember, her school is just next to our condo.

I have a few issues with this mop-haired girl. One, she looks perfectly healthy but she is unable to carry her bag. Two, someone should buy her a comb. If you think that she happened to meet me on a bad hair day, you are wrong. Her hair looks the same state on the many occasions that we met. Three, maybe we should push for a environment-friendly cum physical activity day. Something like, "Park Your Car, Walk On The Tar".

Pity is, I was never on the "trouble maker" mode when I met her. If not, I think I would have created an unfriendly neighbour as I confronted this, in my opinion, unacceptable laziness.

Expressway express?

These are my observations when driving on the expressway nowadays:

a. Left lane - for extremely slow vehicles
b. Middle lane - for slow vehicles and top speed "tua leng gong"s
c. Right lane - for normal speed vehicles, accident-causing tail-gaters and hell drivers

So are expressways still express? Only when you are on the right lane, in front of normal speed vehicles, being tail-gated by irritating vehicles roaring to kiss your car's ass and behind the hell drivers.

The Human Touch

Relationship, something very delicate. It can be strong and be in a "I will ride with you through any storm" mode in one second and be in "I don't know you at all" mode in another. I can never understand why we cannot be more forth coming in our thoughts, more transparent in our feelings. As a receiver, I always find it difficult to keep guessing what the other party is thinking, is feeling. What if I misinterpret? What if I am a devil's advocate? Wouldn't the receiver then be wrongly accused, unduly misunderstood? If only we can take our life a bit simpler and be more true and clear with one another.