A review of 2011 - Part 1

AS 2011 closes in, in retrospect, so much has been done, and yet sometimes, it feels as if it's so little.

And yes, I have a December curse, I seem to be getting it a lot during the month of December. Well, to sum it up, I tore my Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) and my medial collateral ligament. The good news is, the Doc informed me based on the X Ray reports that there was no fracture. But the MRI shows something grimmer and with stories of friends who came through hell and back from an ACL reconstruction, I was praying that it wasn't an ACL tear. But as earlier mentioned, it proved to be. Arrr..darn...

Well, it happened during the Firm futsal tournament. 1 win 1 lost and one more to play for. Being Captain for a team is nice. Tried to be as competitive but also reminded my team to have fun while playing. And the third game, up against my Bosses team and folks I know who were seasoned players, I relished the challenge. But as circumstances were anything to go by, I had an unusual tumble and my foot caught the turf while my body twisted along with my knee and then I realized, this is it. My first knee injury.
Ok, really its nothing to be proud of, but these are things that happened when you least expect them to. Well, you live by the sword, you die by the sword? ahaha

Anyway, December hasn't truly ended yet, so there may be a different twist to the ending of my 2011 story.

Ah...the story of my life.

Alright, once again in retrospect, 2011 was a year of revelations. The people I meet, the people I've become closer to. The people whom you think you know, but not always who they are. Revelations of who you trust and who you should be more cautious with. It's interesting really.

At work, what was once a tranquil department, although ripples appeared now and then, things are finally revealed. Perhaps it came at a cost, but it was something that needed to happened as the dirt under the carpet long swept became visible and apparent. It's cleansing time. It has to happened and it's a positive thing that it happened.

Yeah. I speak in summaries. Well, as a friend of mine said, "there's trouble in paradise". How apt.

So, I leave you here with pictures of my lovely knee brace.
I was branded Robocop by the Despatch boys in my firm and Forrest Gump by my cell group members. This became Robogump.
All hail Robogump!!

I may do a bucket list in 2012. That would include doing stand up comedy. Hey, Never try never know right?

OK. Till my next post before 2012 scratches my door!

Love

Love is something I seldom blog about. Not because I think love is for sissies or that I do not respect the idea of love, but often times love involves emotions. :)

But to say that, would be selfish of me, cause that is my perception of love. But love in all it's forms transcends everything else. :)
It transcends prejudice, it transcends hate, it transcends pride. And how beautiful then Love is.
From the love of two young lovers, two elderly couples, the love of a father and a mother towards their children, and the innocent love of children towards all things pure, to the love of a brother to another brother and a sister to another sister or vice versa, uncorrupted feelings towards one another and the love of friends towards one another.
How wonderful love is.
And here is where I quote 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 from NKJV (New King James Version, my personal favourite), love is all these :-

"Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself and is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil, does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails..."(there is more actually, but I shall stop at this point)

and yet it is said in 1 Corinthians 13:13 :- "And now abide faith, hope, love, these three, but the greatest of these is love."

:) Sounds easy? No. Love is never easy. But if you take away its biblical context and see the verses as they are, as though they were some circular message, then you will see that this is the love that is perfect :). As men we are fallen, but it does not, in any way, deny us the fact that we should aim towards perfect love. Be it friends, family, special ones, animals. :)

The greatest of these is Love :)

Our father, who art in Ipoh

It was never a tradition of our family to celebrate Father's Day. Or Mother's day for that matter. It's usually the birthdays which holds more importance in the family calendar.

However, sometimes, it's always good to remember the people we do truly care for and love, especially family. As people say, you can choose friends, but not family.

One way or another, I'm sure somewhere along the lives of ours, we were asked this question once, "who in your opinion is the greatest person you know that ever lived?"
Well, I would say Christ would be the greatest man that ever lived. But also I suppose closer to home, I would definitely say that my father, was the greatest person I know who ever lived.

Many of life's lessons were not taught verbally, but through his actions, I have learned much.
He has always been the pillar of the family. Cliche as it may sound, it rings true for me.

And in this post, I shall take a walk down memory lane, of growing up under my father's tutelage.
When my sister and I was much younger, my dad was pretty strict with a lot of things. I remember him giving us real time punishments when we did mistakes. When I mean real time, I mean, the cane was a real option. Hahaha. Yes. We as kids, fear the cane! And of course in that process, we feared our father every time we did wrong! Back then, counseling was never an option. We as kids, never got to talk things out. Perhaps we didn't understand back then. We were quite a mischievous and terrible bunch, but I suppose back when we were kids, punishment itself was always evil. But with each punishment we also learn that as kids, there were things that we were not meant to do.

But as we grew older, his methods changed. The cane was no longer an option for punishment. And in my teenage years, I suppose my dad started using ways to reach out to us. Discussions. Opinions. And perhaps the one thing that mattered a lot, was that he was wiling to listen. I suppose there came a time, when he knew it was difficult to get his message across (we were teenagers back then, and teenagers are really from hell) and he slowly began to let go of things.
He allowed us to choose the paths we took, but yet always there to bring us back, if ever our choices deviated too much from what is good for us in the process of growing up.
In that manner, he allowed us to learn from our own mistakes when we made them, but prior to that, we were always told of possible consequences. It was a situation of whether we wanted to listen or not.

However, no matter, our dad has always been the safety net when we fall and fail. And until now, I know that he still looks forward for the best for us. He has been planning for us, since the beginning, and though I do not see it in my childhood days, as I grew older, it became so much more apparent. My dad and my mom, they have made a real impact on my life, and it is something i will never be able to repay in kind. But I hope I may repay this boundless debt the best I can.

So, the best moments that I have with my father are:-
1. He taught me how to hold my racket and play badminton

2. He taught me how to play basketball (though I really sucked at it and was only playing it due to the existing hype at the material time).

3. The football chats we have when we watch football. I grew up reading the World Cup magazines that he collected and this is a tradition I intend to keep as I start my own collection.

4. When I was 11, we had our annual holiday trip in KL and back then, going to Toys R Us was a super huge event. I wanted to splurge my AngPow money on a Transformer toy which I knew I wanted to get (can't remember which one though). My dad advised me to get Ninja Turtles figurines and said that I could have gotten 2 for the price of one Transformer robot. I duly followed his advised and picked Michangelo and Donatello. My dad however, said to buy one first and get the second one on our next trip. Years down the line, i suppose I realized that my dad tricked me, cause I was still stuck with only Michangelo. Haahha...Oh well......

5. Watching badminton with my dad. We are also big badminton fans

6. There was a time when my mom was in Singapore working and my sis was in College. That was when we had dinners together everyday (we hardly cooked, since there is only the both of us) and I suppose we got a lot closer during those times.

And as those events become good memories, I look forward to create new memories with my dad. If I were to be a father one day, I don't have to look any further for a role model. I already have one in my father.

I suppose I may have never said it enough to you Dad, for being the macho person that I am, but yes dad, Gay Sze and I love you a lot and thanks for always given your best for us. Thanks for everything and we hope that you will not be disappointed with our shortcomings and failures.

Happy Father's Day, DAD!

Men should never scratch in front of open windows...

Came back from another round of futsal.
I should be sleeping soon but i can't. Least not for the moment, cause I sure ain't sleeping with wet hair. :)

Anyway, heard this piece of news on FLY FM. It was reported in the Star as well.
Now as I can recall, a man, after taking his shower, was drying himself up. In the process of course, he was scratching his neither regions. Nothing uncommon.
However, a lady, or more aptly, said man's neighbour happened to be doing her laundry and was hanging her clothes along the corridor of her home.
Now,she happens to see said man scratching his crotch, next thing you know, said man is Court for a charge of sexual harassment or mental distress. Not sure which.
But said man was then fined, for scratching his privates.Charged and fined. Right.

Now, if the roles were reversed, and the woman was taking her shower and she felt an itch and decided to scratch her, well, neither regions, and the man was hanging his clothes by the corridor and happens to see her....WHAM....said man would definitely be charged for sexual harassment and would be branded a peeping Tom.
Haha...such is the irony of the situation that perhaps laws or justice is gender biased?
I don't know...but i suppose the noun Peeping Tom was concocted for a reason and not Peeping Tammy.
Oh well, just my thoughts. I find it rather ironic that justice is dished out to the man no matter what the situation was. I mean if the guy was a flasher and he was really flashing and causing mental distress or a sudden apprehension of fear towards the woman, then yes, he probably deserves it. But what if he was genuinely feeling itchy and had to satisfy the said itch...so wrong place, wrong time?
Well one thing is for sure, Men....never scratch in front of open windows.

Ok. Going to bed now

CNY- Over the years

Going back for CNY is always something I look forward to. Having to relax, chill and unwind in Ipoh and work is usually the furthest thing on my mind. With the exception of 2009 however, when driving back to KL for work on Chor 3 was nothing but depressing. Haha..i'm fortunate enough then that I got to spend almost 10 days in Ipoh without having to be bothered by work :)
Its the meals with families, and also friends which make the sleepy town of Ipoh bustling! Well, looking back over the years, me and my mates still continue the tradition of the gang gathering, be it lunch or dinner, rain or shine, good food or bad food, Menglembu East Ocean of Public Pusing. No matter, we were always organizing these lunches/dinners. Well at least that still remain in Ipoh do it :)
But the fact is, looking back at the old photo archives, we tend not to ignore the fact that so much has changed over the years, but yet, in some ways, nothing has changed.
Seems like a contradicting statement, oxymoronic even, but think about it, and you will know what I mean.
I remember how Thomas commented that I usually take photos of the group, and he was asking me to post them on Facebook. He stated that it was quite a good thing, archiving our CNY capers together. I thought it was a compliment. And I suppose, that I can do it, then why not? I mean, I'm not using any DSLR or high tech camera, but over the years, just the common Olympus digicam, which does not churn out the best results, but churns the results nevertheless.
And sometimes, taking these long walks down memory lane brings a smile to my face.
So, to the gatherings of the past and to more in the future:)

Here's a small photo archive of the gatherings over the years. Many things change...but some things don't :)

CNY 2004




CNY 2005



















CNY 2006


CNY 2007































CNY 2008

























CNY 2009




CNY 2010











CNY 2011 - new additions to the gatherings :)the pretty ladies










shikes...been wearing the same polo tee since last year...:)

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR!!

V-Power...and the Petrol Hike

(picture taken from www.philippetastet.com)

4th June 2008. It was like any ordinary day. My car was almost running on an empty thank. I didn’t even bother filling up, although there was news circulating about the raising of the petrol price. Actually the day before, the news was that the oil price has gone up to US$130 per barrel. Well, we know it was going to affect the prices of oil in Malaysia. The government has already been harping, that we are being heavily subsidized, and that it was time that we should not rely solely on the government. FINE.

4th of June, at about 4pm, we are told that the price will increase in August. Now seriously?! Wait till August ? Right....and then at about 5.30pm, it was official. Price in petrol to increase after midnight! To my horror, I still haven’t forgotten that I was running on an empty tank! Without thinking further, me and my colleagues requested for an early take off to pump Oil before things got crowded and messy. Of course being the responsible colleagues that we are, that didn’t meant going home after the pump but straight back to work.

Now, I have friends who told me, why you so kiasu? Actually, I’m not kiasu. I’m kiasi. Cause I need to go to One Utama for dinner and movie, and running on an almost empty tank from Old Klang Road certainly ain’t going to get me there on time, if at all. So once the news was out, we hoped that those who left at 5pm, have not gotten the news yet. Hahaha…well..fortunately for them, there is always radio…so......Anyway, we drove to the nearest petrol station. The crowd was already beginning, but we managed to pumped BLACK GOLD into our vehicles. And in a funny moment, as the momentum of the crowd was building up and as I was pumping petrol, across me was this gentlemen in a Waja, ever so cooly, pumping his share. There was a long queue building up to take over his place once he is done. And then when he pressed he pressed his remote control to open the car door, his alarm rang. Damn! Something was wrong. Must have short circuited. HAHAHA, that certainly wiped the cool look off his face. When I left, he was still there frantically trying to get his car to start. I didn’t know what happened but I hoped for the best for him before the crowd starts honking. Well, we went back to work after that.

Here is my take on the price hike. We have been screwed over by the Premier the second time around. Last time, it was the dissolution of Parliament. The PM said that No, parliament will not be dissolved. Right…less than 24 hours, Parliament was dissolved. Then now, the price of oil will not hike until August, but will be based on floating rates. Less than 30 minutes later, price to rise at midnight! ARGHhh!!!! KALI KEDUA!!! That was the first of my dissatisfaction. We all know that the price of oil is going to increase. Yes. No problems. Petrol is now already deemed a rare and valuable commodity in the world.

So if the price increases, then naturally, it will affect us as well, right? How true is this? Sometimes, I really wonder, if the figures shown in our subsidy, about RM1.00++ for a litre of petrol is really accounted for. I just wonder if the figure is true. In fact, I highly doubt it a lot. We are compared with other countries on the price hike. True is it happening everywhere, but here is the question, why on Earth are we compared to countries that do not produce oil? Have Terengganu, and Sarawak suddenly disappear from our country? The last time, on the issue of the BERSIH rally and as a democratic country we were compared to Myanmar! WHY ARE WE ALWAYS BEING COMPARED TO COUNTRIES WHICH DO NOT HAVE THE SAME POLICIES AS US?! WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY?!

Ok. Back to the issue. Since we are an oil producing nation, then naturally, if the oil of price increases, our income, as a nation should increase. We are after all a net exporter of crude oil. And thus the increase in oil shouldn’t affect us this badly. They say if we have less subsidies, then RM13.1 billion (if I’m not mistaken) is saved and will be returned to the Rakyat as rebates. OK. The rebates, if ever will only last us 2 months. Is this rebate a new policy? Or a counter-action to the increase of the price of oil in Malaysia? I don’t know about you, but I doubt this policy has any good effect at all on softening the blow. Well, what happened to the PETRONAS profits? PETRONAS should be collecting profits with glee amidst this situation(you can read all about this in MT). Certainly, the issue of transparency in our government is still an IDEALISTIC thought and not in action. My hope that if it is true and that Pakatan Rakyat will sweep the country soon, then I shall embrace it so see if change can be made. I am hoping for another wave, an even bigger wave than the 2008 elections. I’m angry. And so is everyone else. Because we are being screwed by the government over and over and over and over. Lets hope when the opposition takes over, they are not going to get us screwed over as well. Otherwise, we are gonna screw back….haha..whatever that meant, but I’m sure you all out there will know of many ways.

My next petrol pump is going to be RM98 for a full tank. I drive a Wira 1.3 by the way. And this increase is not going to be the last of it……..

This City is Haunted By Ghosts.....

Borrowing a line from a song by Alexis On Fire, the title if written whole would be, that “ This city, this city is haunted, by ghosts from broken homes. This city, this city is haunted, there’s no hope, left for these souls.” The title of this song is also aptly named, “This could be Anywhere in the world’. Seemed like an ordinary hardcore song. However the lyrics remain more poignant than they should be for a song of this nature and is hauntingly striking, if we look beyond our comfort zones.

As we lay on our comfortable beds, in our air conditioned rooms and ponder upon our everyday problems; on how we lack the materialistics, Ipods, PS2’s and how little we earn for so much of work that we do; we ramble on with our personal problems. How trivial are they then compared to those people who struggle with their lives daily, trying to feed themselves with the meek earnings that they have. Only recently have I felt that there are people who need hope, perhaps much more than others, where survival is nothing more than everyday struggle to be fed. In 2005, there is an estimate of at least 100 million homeless people in this world.

I’ve seen homeless children. Orphans. Interacting with them. They are much easier to reach out. Still young and ever eager to see the world.You see, I joined my LF to this outreach called KAWAN located in the heart of the city. It’s a drop-in for the homeless where they are fed. I was invited and I took this chance perhaps to do some ‘charity’. Or so I thought I would. I thought, ‘Hey…I’ve been to an orphanage. How hard can it be? Its gonna be a walk in the park.” When we reached the centre, for the first time, I felt what it is like to live on the streets. I mean I didn’t experience living on the streets, but judging from the conditions of the area where KAWAN is located, its not as easy as I thought. At the point, I knew I was humbled. How arrogant was I into thinking that all is fine. It isn’t.

Many things went through my mind. Were these people hostile? Some of them could have been drug addicts and even perhaps the question of the realities of AIDS arising. It did went through my mind. This is much different from dealing with children. These are people who have gone through so much in life. These are people who are as old as our grandparents. And there are those who are younger. Their hearts hardened and weathered by the harsh living conditions. Poverty, hopelessness seemed an integral part of their lives. And it was at that moment that I decided to try to bring myself to do what I can for these people. We had a praise and worship session .We did some sharing, a skit on the parable of the Prodigal Son, which is perhaps a New Testament classic. It was in Cantonese. We acted it out while Eddy, narrated. It was most fun and encouraging especially when we saw that there are some who have heard of this parable before and giving some feedback. And then there are those who are weary from a days work of survival and just waiting for the food. When dinner was served, we took the opportunity to mingle with the crowd. It wasn’t easy, well at least for me, as I tried to choose a common topic to talk about. And when I did, I learnt that these folks have much to tell, and have much to let out. About lessons in life, and how not to stray onto the wrong path. And when it was time to leave, we say our goodbyes and vowed to come back soon. My eyes, to say the least were opened. I confided with some of my LF members and they too told me that it wasn’t an easy task initially. But with their perseverance and their genuine care for these people, it wasn’t impossible to deal with.

There are many homeless people out there. People with real needs. They do not need computers. They do not need PDAs, notebooks, a Gucci wallet or an LV handbag. They need food. They need to survive. They need more than Charity. They need God’s Word. They need hope. Our cities are haunted with ghosts from broken homes. How they are homeless, is anyone’s guess. Perhaps they have families who have disowned them. Perhaps they have lived on the streets for far too long, and forgotten what it was that had put them there in the first place. It is a sad state of affairs. Perhaps we need a welfare state. A system where these people can be taken care of. All this of course is yet to be seen. Right now, it’s the NGOS who are picking up the pieces, and I really do have the admiration for them on how they dedicate their lives for this cause. However we all know that admiration alone is not enough. Perhaps we need to act, to make change in things such as these. And we need to complain less about our trivialities. Try to be more aware that your problems are not the biggest in the world.

As I wait for my next trip to KAWAN, I’m writing this post, as a reminder of the people who have genuine needs. Once again they need a lot and especially Salvation and grace, not only from God, but from the people around them. I don’t know what my next step is, but I know that whatever it is, it would be a step to do my part for the people who need help. “ THIS CITY IS HAUNTED BY GHOSTS FROM BROKEN HOMES.” And THIS COULD BE ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD. So perhaps the next time you have an encounter, what would your part be?