wonderful tonite

it's 12 midnite on 13 march 2008. i guess i'm a night person. at this time of the day, i usually think better. my mind is clearest.

was just sorting out the HCM pictures earlier. what do i do with so many pictures? one's memory can but hold that much, isn't it?

had a good lunch with lynette this afternoon. this fine young lady is adorable. and you know she is real after spending 5 minutes with her. she is that kind students will love and respect and her bosses will too. we chatted candidly over a sandwich lunch. very nice indeed.

calvin asked how come he's not mentioned in my blog? and he said i should write that he is a nice guy. he is, in fact. and to be honest, i think i've been really quite lucky. all my friends are nice people. i'm grateful we crossed paths.

good nite, everyone.

second time in HCM

i think i could be getting used to travelling. only packed this moring. the flight was scheduled to take off at 12.30 pm and we left home at about 10.15 am. not sure what time the plane took off as i was sleeping already. the next thing i knew was that the air stewardess has placed 3 arrival/departure cards on my lap.

this time, our group is 15-member strong, 5 from my side, 10 from bK's.

i really can't remember (too) much from the previous trip here. i don't suppose much has changed but i think it could also probably be that i'm rather tired and can't recall much. i'm tempted to say that that's a sign of aging but i also heard that old people remember things well....so it'll be kind of contradicting.

sharon says the people here arn't that polite. i might have to agree with her. i recall the hong kong people are nicer. here, it seems, they are not smiling as much now :)

this being the first post in 2008, i shall wish all visitors to my this tiny space a very happy and healthy 2008, and to my dear cousin who's still sleeping at SGH a speedy recovery.

have a good one!

brothers & sisters

there ought to be a season 2.

there is so much love in that family. i think i silently and secretly wish that my family is a little like that. not that this one isn't good enough, but it's just that i'm greedy. when it comes to love, there is never enough, is there?

the story is so moving and so touching. needless to mention, tears rolled down on several occassions. mum's either sleeping or at work when i own the tv, so i had lots of space to let my heart cry out loud.

i thought of father, and i really can't remember much. at one point, i was so afraid that that's going to happen to mum as well. do i have enough of her for me to remember? dad has passed on for 12 years now, and we don't ever talk about him. it is so sad. i don't think i've ever cried enough about his passing, which is why till this day, i still do when i see families, and by that i mean families with fathers, coming togehter. i so miss my father. if only i had one more day.

i love that whole family - sarah, kitty, tommy, kevin and justin. they fight. and they love one another so much. so much. is that remotely possible out of that box? and so that makes me think of my relationship with my own brother. if there was a scale from 1 to 10, starting with 'do not love' to 'love very much', where are we? he is my only brother. other than mum, he is my only family. what's going to happen when mum's gone? i won't be her little boy forever. she's not going to be here until i'm gone.

and then i thought of my beautiful niece and nephew, and their grandfather, whom they have never met. these two kids are going to grow up with zero knowledge of their grandfather. i cried when tommy and julia decided to name their unborn child william, after his father. if that's not love and respect, what is? these are not my kids to name but if i had my way, i'd have squeezed in something somehow. they didn't get to see him, but that doesn't mean they can't get to know him. we are so lacking in that in our culture. or is it just my family?

this weekend i also started reading a great book, 'letters to sam'. sometimes we look at the kid and think, "boy, there is so much i want to tell you. if only you understood". http://letterstosam.blogspot.com/

relationships are gifts, and love is a miracle.

geog trip to kuching

when rab asked me if i was free to go to sarawak, i thought i'd just go and see if it'll be a good break. afterall, it's non-stop since school term ended - sem, strategic planning, icet, ... and i have not done up the budget for 2008 plus of cos most of the programmes are not finalised yet.

so kuching, here i come!

the kids are generally nice, since rab assured me that she has had a "stringent selection process". and they turned out pretty okay too. the hotel room was nice and huge (could have comfortably slept 3 persons) and food wasn't too bad. we visited kuching city, went on a sunset cruise from the waterfront jetty, went to mayang tea estate, sarawak pepper marketing board, a pottery factory and bako national park.



2 incidents left a deep impression:
(a) this girl was really quite clueless about walking on dirt. it was a very "mild" type of trekking and there were stones, pot holes and branches/roots along the way. she kept screaming everytime she saw a spider, fly, mosquito... it got a little annoying. then she, of cos, fell. after she got up, i was just about to go forward and ask if she was ok when she started patting her pants and "oh my god! oh my god!", shocked that her pants got dirty. i eventually left her with rab and carried on walking with the others. rab later said that the girl asked a few times if she had dirt on her face and if her face was sunburnt.



(b) we were eating at the "local kfc" and the agency boss was kind enough to buy extra fries for all the kids. but our pupils did not finish them and rab insisted that they packed the fries and ate them along the way later while they shopped at the night market. rab managed to ask for plastic bags for the kids to carry but did not have enough. so when this other girl came up to the bus holding her fries, rab asked her to go and ask for a plastic bag from the counter. this girl very innocently asked, "in what language?" i stared at rab, speechless. rab said "in Japanese." i told rab that her humour was wasted on our kids.

the speedboat ride to bako national park was fun. in fact, the whole trip was quite fun. 3 days out of school and out of work (sort of).

thanks rab for asking me.

a very good run

thank you good friends, that was a very good run!




HL, BK and Janson helped with the preparation. If not for them, I'd have slept in most of the sundays. i guess the run was not so difficult this time because of the somewhat adequate preparation. many, many, many thanks.

jenny volunteered to be the chauffeur in the morning and brought us to the starting line early and calmed. we even had time to go to the toilet at conrad :)

@ncy came back from LA just-in-time to cheer for us. She touched down before 6am, went home to say "hi" to her mum and then went to pick Jy. Where to find such wonderful friends? (my brother said that 8am was way too early for him.) i was looking forward to the 22km mark because i knew the girls would be there. you have no idea how motivating your presence was. thank you girls.

the first 32km was quite a comfortable run. BK constantly reminded me to eat and drink. in fact, i thought i could have drank too much. so much that i felt a little bloated and even had to burp, ha ha. that was really quite funny.

i tried to go a little faster after the 32km mark and eventually finished the race just after 5 hrs. on our way to lunch, there were still people running on the road. by then the sun was blazing and i really felt very sorry for the runners. they were so determined to finish the run. good for them! (@ngy dropped us off one by one after lunch, thank you very, very much!)

it wasn't so painful this time and today, i emphsize TODAY, i feel like i might just do it again :)

first sunday

...of december. yup, that's right, it's marathon, 42.195.

last year this time we were in nepal, having the time of our lives. the beautiful scenery, friendly people and wonderful company. this time round, it's the big run.

this would be my 3rd run, and i believe, this time, i feel the most number of butterflies in my stomach. perhaps it's because i know what's going to happen. i know the pain is going to come and yet i'm looking forward to crossing that finishing line.

when i wake up in a few hours, it'll be time to go :) BK's coming to pick me up and then we're off to our races. to each our own.

after the run, the party of 7 will fly to perth on QF78. it's going to be quite fun, i'm sure. BK's parents are really excited. not only have they packed their bags, they have also changed money. well done! i'm really looking forward to the nice, cool weather and great fun in australia!

good nite and wish me luck.

i believe