Officially Not Young

Its my birthday week and we've been doing lots of eating!!

 

Yumm!!!

I really should stop these huge birthday dinners coz I'm sure their starting to affect my health.

But how can you say no to eating ?  :P

Had a lovely birthday this year.  Got some quality time with my families (plural now!) and we all had a good time.

Such a contrast from last years big 30th mexican birthday celebration.  That was a lot of work and preparation.  It was all good fun and well worth the effort but I don't think I could do another costume party this year.

What's amazing is how much can happen in a year.

In the last twelve months, I gotten married, gone on a honeymoon, got a puppy, been a groomsman, got a sandwich-melt-thing-that-makes-triangle-shaped-toasted-goodness, even got new a new phone contract.  And thats just me!  Family and friends have had kids, got married or engaged, bought houses, got new jobs.

Life certainly passes faster as you get older.

The best part of my birthday, and I guess every other day, is I get to spend it with Anh. :)  Coming home to her (and Lychi) always brings a smile to my face.

My birthday wish would be for people to cherish their time with their loved ones.  I'm seeing lots of friends and family work so hard that I feel like they've missed the point on why they're working so hard.

There is a global shortage of time which makes it so precious - which is why it should be spent with loved ones.

The Email Box

I keep my emails.

(except the ones that don't have subject lines)

Partly because its required at work and I just got into a habit of it.

And partly because I'm just really sentimental.


A few days ago I was procrastinating at work and decided to archive my emails instead of doing boring documentation.

I started archiving emails back from 2005 but could not help reading a few.

Some very rude emails were still there.  And reading through the forwarded stuff and the conversations with the boys brought back laughs.

But I was really quite surprised of the things I wrote - I'm such a stupid head!! Hehehe.
I mean, I'm so emotional and reactive and really quite naive in the things I wrote.  Perhaps I changed quite a bit these last few years, but definitely many things I would have handled differently.

I had a final read of a few emails before it all turned into one *.PST archive file.

That was that I said.  Its move-on time.

I need to make space for more mail.

Season Ender - Will the House Builder

Remember that feeling when you finished the final exam for university or high school? 

 

That feeling of relief and satisfaction knowing that you've just completed the climatic finish to a life-chapter that's been years in the making?

 

Well I'm feeling that at the moment. 

 

I'm closing this chapter in my life called 'Will the House Builder'.

 

It started back in 2004, midway into chapter "Will the Bachelor". 

I realised I should be investing more on my future rather than splurging on a car, electronics or drinking my money away.  And to cut a very-long and procrastinated story about life, philosophy and properties, I came to a decision and bought an empty block of land.

 

 The empty block.   Comes with grass.

A couple of years later, I made the conscious decision to build a house.

The not so empty block.  No more grass.

Back then, I don't think I fully understood the work and stress and chaos required of such a project.

 

The questions I faced - Which one? when? colour? what type? size? 

Thousands and hundreds of questions I had to sort out.  And whilst some might be trivial, things get progressively more  stressful when the big dollars start hitting.

 

Perhaps its easier when done with someone.  At least there's someone to consult about the colour of doors and tiles.  

Then after the house construction there is still SOOOOO much work to be done!

My mentor for constructing, my dad.

But if I look back through the rectrospectroscope, I don't think I would want it done any other way. 

I've learnt so much from this.

The importance of planning and making decisions. 

Things to do and not do when painting. 

The dangers of tradespeople. The snake-ness of real estate agents. 

 Turtle Car wax on floor tiles. 

How great parents are. 

The wonders of poly-fila.  

Bunnings the best place on earth.

Importance of good communication.

Why o why did they paint my house orange?! I said beige!

 

And I consider myself blessed and lucky to have had this chance.  I'm so grateful to my family and girlfriend.  

How they laboured with me for days and days and hours on end. 

 

They gave me their short weekends to help me on my little project.  

They worked on stinking hot afternoons, in dust covered rooms, getting high on methylated spirits and blistering their hands on cheap paint rollers.

 

All in exchange for a KFC & Rice dinner and serves of frozen coke.

 

My sister was holidaying from Sydney, and she helped me paint! Aww...  so nice...

From this, I gather they really love me or they SIMPLY JUST LOVE KFC & Rice and frozen coke.

Friends and Frienemies

I learnt a new word the other day.

Frienemy - pronounced Fre-neh-me.

Pretty self-explanatory. Its a friend who you are superficially nicey-nicey and lovey-lovey with, but deep down, hold only the most malicious of intents for.

Think girls and stereotypical bitch-bashing.

Girl A and Girl B, all peachy and happy for each other. They would talk for hours about boys and go shopping together, complement each other's clothes and buy nice gifts for each other. They even share the names of their future kids together!! Waaaaw! BFFL!! *giggle* *giggle*

But behind each other's back, the razor claws await.

Girl A wants Girl B to grow fat and ugly.
Girl B wants A to get herpes.
Girl B secretly wants girl B's boyfriend to be gay, because he's too hot for her.
Girl A slept with Girl B's ex, who is Girl D's BFFL and are having a baby with.

And so on.

Thankfully, the competitive nature of frienemies feeds on each other so this wonderful symbiotic relationship thrives.

And because frienemies keep their frienemies close (to check on each other).

Though my opinion of a 'frienemy' is theoretical and based on half an episode of Gossip Girl I saw, I came up with a word that would better describe a person I knew in high school.

Friemesis - pronounced fre-meh-sis. A friend and nemesis. A nemesis being a rival whom cannot bested. Perhaps a guy version of a Frienemy.

Whilst frienemies are able to pull back the claws and call truces during shopping days, a friemesis doesn't offer such luxury.

In fact, when or if the friemesis and I cross paths, dark clouds form, petrol prices go up and a baby sea lion cries to mommy.

I had planned on bagging this Friemesis of mine in this post. (You should have seen my Photoshop work. Very scandalous).

Sadly, I'm too nice and I wouldn't do that.

Plus he added me to his Facebook account so he might find out about this post!

But as much as I'd like to write bad things about him, I realise that he is about as important to me as I am to him.

We are galactically opposite to each other. The black and the white. Ying and Yang. The good and the bad.

The water and the fat.

He has become the peg of someone I strive not to become.

And perhaps, I'm the same for him.

Do you have a frienemy or friemesis?

Gold Lightning Mussels

Here's the story of my Saturday that has been.

My day started off with a slice of fruit loaf for breakfast. 

This was actually my nephews' breakfast, but they were still asleep.  Beside... they ate my coco pops...

First thing I did was do stuff for my house.  

I darted off to the Lighting International to buy electrical fittings and bulbs.  I had to sort through down lights, chandeliers and oyster fittings.  Lucky for me the sales rep was really good and she helped me sort things very quickly.  Man-style-shopping hehehe!! 

I had to pick one?

A few more visits to housing stores and voila! my morning was gone!!

I headed home for lunch.  

I quickly cooked some Mee and at the same time played with my two nephews.

"Watcha doing?" J asks innocently

I couldn't answer because I was too busy stuffing mee down my throat.  Nearly chocked as well.

After lunch, I went to martial arts training and nearly died from the heat.  I was literally drinking my own sweat!  Damn the black pants on hot days!  It was like 38C outside but inside it was like an oven (and I was the turkey being basted)! 

After that,  I visited my house and did some cleaning up.  My limbs were still trembling and I was still sweaty from training, but I needed to sweep my driveway.   The dust was going everywhere and was sticking to my skin.  I was turning to rock-man!  Hehehe. It was such a gross feeling.  

Anyhows, went home and did some more cleaning up.  

Then I went to church.

Then I went to my girlfriends house and help them finish the 5kgs of Chili mussels she cooked up.
 

FIVE KILOS!!!

It was really good, but why o why was there pumpkin soup too! Its like going on a date with two girls! You can't make me choose between two good dishes!  

Ended up eating heaps of both.  (which is what I'd do on a date with...)

The plan was to go to Brisbane hotel afterwards for dessert.  But I was too stuffed so we ended up somewhere random  - like the Gold bar in Subiaco.  

I should be dancing... not taking photos.

Nice place.  I dig the funky tunes and the ambiance. Very modern, clean, gold-disco- ish, and they have egg seats! Yeah baby! Although we felt a bit intimidated by overpopulation of Ben Cousins and Paris Hilton-wannabees.

Then went to Scarborough beach to soak up some sea breeze to calm the senses.  

Phew.

What a Saturday.  

Of course this is not a sob story (there is nothing to sob about).  Its just that recently, I've been having lots of these busy days.  I'm running around doing stuff!!  

That's right.  I'm doing stuff!!! 

I used to wake up midday, eat brunch, watch some crappy movie on Channel 7, play some PlayStation till it gets dark, then head out with the boys. 

That was my saturdays.

How I miss those days.

Sentimientos Potatos

3Willings
1) Flashpoint
2) ATB - Trilogy
3) McEurope

My family loves collecting things.

My grandmother loves collecting junk. Her house has mountains of newspapers, magazines, bottles and scraps of metals. She says she collects them for selling in recycling centers. She even collects orange and mandarin peelings. She says she can turn them to candies or air fresheners.

Eww.

This is not the kind of magazines my grandma collected. Although I wish she did.

What I'm not a fan of is how she collects cooking oil. Not wanting to throw it away, she re-uses it for yonkers. One time I was cooking and I reached out for this can labeled 'cooking oil' - ithad this thick black liquid that smelt awfully bad. I swear, the cooking oil denatured back to being crude oil. It was really gross.

More stuff that smells bad - fake cologne

My dad follows my grandmother's footsteps in that he collects small little things.

Pen caps, paper clips, blown light bulbs, dead batteries, 8mm screws, magnets from speakers. Small little things are everywhere. One time I was playing around my dad's room, I found a gold tooth! What a find that was.

My sister too is in the collecting business. She's very pro-active about minimising land fill, so she holds on to broken appliances so that she doesn't have to buy new ones (which she says is the cause of over-flowing land fills).

Me, I'm a hoarder of sentimental things.

My good ole mix tapes. Too bad I don't have anything to play this anymore.

If I found sentimental value on anything (which is quite often), I'd most probably keep it forever.

Like ticket stubs to Forrest Gump - coz I loved that movie.

Or an oddly shaped piece of plastic a classmate gave me back in high school - because I thought 'it was cool'.

My very first bank card, library card, gym card. I even have my ID badge from year 7 camp.

If I had the chance to keep my first used diaper - I think I would have.

One of hundreds of CDs I threw away. Where am I gonna go today?

My drawers were filled with all sorts of stuff I couldn't sentimentally throw them away.

I still have the first red packet ever given to me. Money still intact (in fact, all red packets given to me I never take the money out..... should take the money out?) I guess I'm a bigger fan of packet than whats inside.

I had in my drawers, star shaped straws that a friend taught me how to make. I had the very first one I ever made and one I made using Hungry Jacks straws (because Hungry Jacks straws have sentimental value to me).

I can go on and on and on about stuff I had.

Had, being the operative word.

Last weekend I had a moment of cleaning fervor and I decided to finally let go of such sentimental stuff.

Not all, but some.

I went drawer by drawer and cold heartedly grabbed stuff and threw them in the bin.

My year 10 drawing project which got me an A+ went in the bin. Travel brochures for Disneyland 2001 went in the bin. My 'TV Hits New kids on the block' stickers went in the bin.

I had so much stuff I filled half a green bin.

At the end I felt strange. The logic in me is saying 'well you haven't looked for it in years - why would you miss it now?'

I really hated throwing this away. But sadly, they don't make polaroid films anymore.

I was happy that I was moving on and clearing out space for new stuff. But I was partly sad coz I felt I was betraying those past happy moments by throwing them away.

I guess thats kinda part of growing up isn't it. Moving on and not living in the past.

This wasn't mine. I threw it away anyways.

Four Weddings and a Will

My brother finally proposed! YAY!!!

And lucky for him that his girlfriend said yes.
About time I think! hehehe.

Im really happy for them. They've been together for yonkers and have been through quite a bit.

I'm glad that they're moving on to the next stage in their relationship.

And I guess thats the natural progression of things. Boy meets girl (or vice versa), they fall in love, they get married and live happily ever after .... or until the time they have kids.

Its like weddings left right and centre for me right now.

No thanks to Hollywood either.
That puts the wedding tally to four now. Six if I include weddings I'm invited to overseas (anyone wanna sponsore me to go to texas? :) )

Not that I'm excited to go to another wedding receptions that is.

I've been to about a hundred wedding reception actually.
Im not kidding.
I was banquet waiter for about three years(maybe four?) And we'd have lotsa weddings every weekend. I've seen it all. Small, big, medium, repeat weddings. (Hmm maybe I should be a wedding planner?)

Its a western hotel so most receptions were obviously western type.

If I could generalise, I would say Italian weddings are the craziest. Heaps of food and almost always extravagant. Asian weddings are funny - we always run out of orange juice on these weddings. Aussie weddings tend to be just a big party. Kinda like a high school ball or prom night, only with older people (acting like teenagers).

I remember one wedding, they decided to have lots of sparklers before the bride and groom walked in. Great idea, except they forgot to deactivate the fire alarm.

Probably the sweetest thing I've seen was when the lead singer for a Perth band got married. He got up on stage and sang a song he wrote for the bride. He sang so well, it sent chills down my spine. Think Creed singing heartfelt lovesong.

But with the many receptions I've worked on, the speeches part always had me puzzled.
I noticed they almost always sounded like they were saying goodbye.

I mean, theres the customary 'welcome to the family' part and the anecdotes about the couple. But there's always this underlying 'goodbye' sounding tone.

Only after my sister's wedding did it finally make sense.

Its goodbye because you will be seeing them less and less.

Its goodbye to the person you once knew. Because someone else has officially become more important in their life.
Its sad, but its a good kind of sad.

If that makes sense.

Hair Today Gone Tomorrow

I was wondering what I'd look like if I lost all my hair.

Damn!

No wonder I'm drinking!

The Elephant monkey

3Willings:
1) Jelly in a cup
2) All you can eat prawn cocktails
3) Miss Philippines 2008

"How does one eat an elephant.?
One bite at a time."

That's what I always tell myself when embarking on something new and gigantamous(TM).

And today I took a big bite into that elephant I call home building.

I signed about ten million paper documents and contracts to finally complete my home construction pre-start.

Pre-start is the final meeting you have with the building company before they begin the construction of your house.

Its kinda like a really really really really long conversation with a mobile phone salesman. They explain to you the different plans and the different networks and the rates and such.

The difference is that you're buying the construction of a house rather than a phone plan.
And home construction doesn't come with a hands free kit or a leather case.

It's a pretty hairy experience.

We are talking about the second most biggest investment you'll make in your life. Biggest would be getting a girlfriend->wife. That's a lifelong contract :P

But I guess if you know what you want, then everything would be straight forward. It's very easy to get lost in the endless permutations of paint schemes, home designs, brickwork, laminates, roof colour, tiles, knob fittings and door colour.

There was a point where I nearly went nuts choosing from eight different types of white tiles. I mean geeze! How many shades of white tiles could one have?!

Anyways, that's a big monkey off my back.

I'm did my best so I'm sure it will turn into a nice little abode.

Shame no one I know like artificial grass. And it's a shame they wouldn't let me put a spa in the living room. That would've been neat.

The site

House of the disappearing pants

3Willings
1) OneRepublic - Mercy
2) 600mL Pepsi Max for breakfast
3) Kingdom Hearts 2

My brother and I said goodbye to the house we stayed in for most of 2007.

It was our little home away from home (even though our parent's house was just a three minute drive away).

Our exuberant lifestyle meant that it was better to rent the house and go our separate way.
So my brother has moved-in with his partner and I've moved back home.

Now as I think back, living away from the parent's watchful eyes had its ups and downs. Yes, I got to do what I want, but I was also responsible for taking care of myself. So I had to do my own laundry, shopping and cleaning up. I had lots of house jobs, albeit small ones coz I’m pretty low maintenance (so I’d like to think).

At home with the parents is a communal style of living. Chores such as dining, laundry, shopping and cleaning-up are done together. We all try and do our fair share (try is the operative word).

The thing I liked the most about living away from my parents was being able to control when, where and what I had for dinner.

I really enjoyed trying out the Men's Health recipes (my favourite was where you use salsa chip-dipping sauce and you simmer that with chicken - what a surprise dish that was). Its so hard to eat healthy or gourmet when mom owns the kitchen.

Sometimes, when I'm especially hungry, I make my 'Will's bowl-a-rice special'. This recipe has cooked rice thrown in a baking bowl with ham or chicken or whatever meat I can get a hold of. Add some peas and a fried egg (the runnier the better). Mix to a slimy consistency and squirt a bit of ketchup for colour.

Then I eat with an especially large spoon while watching TV.

It’s so Korean, I love it.

*Warning! Have a glass of water when having this dish. I nearly choked twice because I was shovelling too much food to my mouth.

But apart from this, walking around naked, leaving the toilet seat up, the numerous hooker house calls and the messy house parties, moving out didn’t really have that much pros for me.

Im sure its different for some other people. But not for me.

What I definitely won’t miss was my disappearing pants!

See my brother has this really really really really really REALLY annoying habit of not buying work pants. So when he realises he hasn’t got any pants for work – he steals mine!

Figure this equation out for me. Every year, for the past five years, I’ve bought three or four pants for work.

So surely I had about fifteen pairs?

No sir.

I had two pairs.

These two pairs I kept specially clean. If one got dirty, I’ll only have one left. People at work would notice me recycling the same pair for the whole week (Its not so obvious if I alternated the two pairs).

One time, I asked my brother if he knew where my pants were. He said he didn’t know.

But checking his wardrobe, I find four pairs with the initials “W” on the inside pockets. His excuse ? “Ooops..”

GRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRR!!!

This didn't just happen once or twice.

This happened EVERY WEEK!

I was close to tears when I was telling my cousins about my brother’s pants stealing habit. It really was very frustrating.

I have bad dreams about pants now.

Its like two people in an elevator and one smells flatulence. You both know who did it, but the guilty one just doesn’t’ want to admit it!

Now that I’m living away from my brother, my collection have grown back to a healthy five pairs of pants.

There were more ups and down to living away from home. I was gonna go on about the neighbors and very convenient two minute drive to McDonald's.

But now I grow tired after thinking about my disappearing pants.
So depressing that was.

Stale

3Willings:
1 - Prince of Tennis. Buuuurning!
2 - Pizza I made using the Ultimate Pizza Sauce
3 - Gimme More Lame video, but this song is off the hook!

Probably one of the things I fear the most is going stale.

And I don't mean shrivelled saggy nip-tuck kind of stale, I mean stale - not moving, stagnant kind of stale.

My fridge experiment - I call this piece "untouched tomato"

Being 'stuck in a rut' as they say.

In Jim Thorton's article "You are in Rutsville - Time for a change?" he quotes an experiment where 36 rats were put in three different environment.

The "impoverished" environment put rats in solitary confinement. There was the "standard" environment where the rats share a larger room and there was the "enriched" environment where the rats have a large room with toys and wheels, mazes and ladders - a Disneyland for rats.

A month later the rats' brains were examined and unsurprisingly - the rats in the enriched environment had thicker brain cortex's and the solitary confinement rats had shriveled brains.

The conclusion - activity and stimulation in the brain equals good. Non-activity and stimulation equals shrivelness.

And we all know guys don't like shrivelness.

Lettuce left for long periods start to ferment in their own juices

I put the Inert in Inertia

The last few months that's what I've been feeling.

Stuck in a rut.

I've been caught up in the fanfare of everyone else's affairs, its left me with little time to pursue my own personal endeavours.

Thankfully that time has now passed.

Last time we ate this dish it didn't have cotton on it

Fresh new stuff are on its way.

10 Year High School Reunion

I was a bit apprehensive at first.

I was worried that everyone else had grown to do bigger, better, more adult things (you know... stuff that included more responsibility and such...).

JB and GC were my primary school classmates. He used to be as tall as my belly button. She's now a mother of two.

But as I mingled with my past classmates and buddies, I realised that everyone was pretty much same-same.

Simo and Osh. Simo is now a father of two and this was his first night out in 10 months. Osh's identical twin brother is now in Melbourne.

Of course there was the obvious.

Hair styles have changed - some have grown more hair, some have lost hair.

Some have lost weight, some have tripled their size (ZOMG what happened to some of these girls?!).

Some have gotten engaged, some already married and others now single and separated.

The first girl I ever went out with. And girl I had the biggest crush on.

Some have traveled the globe, joined the army or have even started rock bands.

But everyone is still reaching out for their dreams and doing the odd things they did in high school.

B stands for Best bud.

It was just my overactive imagination expecting changes of Ricky-Lake proportions.

Movers

Moved In

"What is it like now that you've moved together?"

I was expecting 'yeah, it’s good. We get to do all sorts of things' or something along those lines. Instead, she said,

"Hmm.. We don’t' talk that much any more.."

And her boyfriend continued with

"yeah, we pretty much do our own thing. She watches her shows and I watch my things.."

Not exactly the answer I was expecting. I would think, once you've moved in, then you'd do more things together. That's the purpose of moving in right? To get closer with each other.

Instead, I got a feeling they formed their own mini worlds where she does her things and he does his.

Your things and my things. Your side and my side.

Moving Out

My sister and family are moving to Sydney.

Its great news coz my bro-in-law is movin' on up the corporate ladder of one of the big four (or is it five) accounting firms.

It will be sad to see my sister and my nephews go though. The two little runts are growing up so fast already.

But it won’t be so bad. They promised to visit often (or maybe I visit them?! :P) But by gosh! Rent in Sydney is farking ridiculous! It’s much cheaper for me to buy two Nintendo Wii's per week!

Moved

I think there’s something wrong with me.

I was watching the Simpson’s movie and in the part where Homer is watching Marge's video,
a big lump formed in my throat and I found it really really really hard to swallow.

Damn that song!

Same thing happens every time I watch the end of Pixar's Cars.

When Lightning McQueen gives up the Piston Cup to help 'the King' finish up the race.

I've seen it thousands and thousands of times, but I always get moved by this scene.

'Ka-chow'.

Compounded Interest

Recently, I've been trying to get myself into things that interest my girlfriend.

I thought, wouldn't it be nice if we could have healthy discussions about .

What a blow out that turned into!

In fact, I think I even made things worse.

:(

What ended up happening was I talked about things that I didn't really know much about. Plus I didn't have anything to back things up that I recently discovered.

To make it worse, I reacted in a way that was childish and a touch arrogant. Of course if its from the internet then its gotta be true!!

Hmm not good.

I honestly just wanted to stir an intellectual conversation.

What I failed to realise was that each one of us has a realm of specialty and navigating through that should be done carefully.

Kinda like me telling Michael Jordan not to do dunks because "I read from Hoops magazine that "jump shots allow for more opportunities and lower risks... '

I can imagine Mike giving me this "WTF?!" look already.

Then he'd probably head butt me with his ultra shinny bald head, cut himself and send me to court ,I go to jail, I meet up with Paris Hilton in the after prison party, gets mistaken as her Spanish lover, kidnapped by a psychopathic fan and is tortured to death in a gimp suit.

.
.
.

Okay maybe that is a bit far fetched.
But it could happen.

My point is, the intention was good, the execution was royally messed up.

Live and learn I guess.

Flood of 91

It was raining that morning. We wanted to visit our house in Cainta to check out its' construction.

We took my grandfather's jeep.

It was the type the military uses, but was red and had an off-white tarpaulin top.

Dad usually takes freeway EDSA to get there, but he anticipated the traffic because of rain and decided to take another route.

My two brothers and I sat at the back and my dad drove while talking to my mom about the construction.

Soon we found ourself in a two way street with the road ahead knee-deep in water. Its been raining for a few days now so this wasn't out of the ordinary.

There were small apartment houses lining both sides and you could see that the water has crept in some of the doorsteps.

But this wasn't deep. I've seen worse. Like waist-high floods. The jeep shouldn't have problems getting through this.

My dad switched to a lower gear and drove the jeep slowly through the water.

I loved it when the jeep cruised through the floods. You can hear the engine murmur through the water. It kinda feels like you're in a boat.

We drove a few metres. The jeep coughed but continued on.

Looking further down, we could see that the road ahead was long. The water would get deeper because the stranded vehicles further away were more submerged. It would have been very risky to plow through.

The nearby Shell station was dirty and run down. It had two pumps and you can barely make out the yellow and red colours from the diesel stains everywhere.

But the station was five feet above the road so it was a perfect safe place to wait for the flood to subside.

My dad drove the jeep up unto the station and parked so we overlooked the street.

And then we waited.

Rain, rain, rain.

Wait, wait, wait.

It wasn't very windy. But the air was shivering cold.

The fat monsoon rain was getting heavier.

We talked about all sorts of things and watched more cars get stranded in the flood. We waited patiently.

Then the waters started rising. And it was rising quickly.

The cars stranded on the road were now submerged to their side mirrors. And the rain continued to pour.

The water kept rising.

We sat there intently watching.

Soon the flood waters had risen to the level of the gas station and waters were now touching the jeep again. The cars in front were completely submerged and can be barely made out through the polluted water.

It kept on raining. We were starting to worry. We were about five feet above the street, surely the waters can't keep on rising!

It kept raining and raining.

My parents were arguing on what we needed to do. We could continue to wait in the jeep or we could try and get to higher grounds.

It kept raining, and it was getting stronger.

The water kept rising and rising.

I was silently praying in my head.

Then the waters started getting inside the jeep.

That was the trigger for us to get our quickly. My parents hopped out and we all moved to the front before jumping into the water.

I remember jumping out and being surprised on how deep the water was. It would touch my elbows if I had my arms straight.

My mom held on to me and my older brother.

I remember holding on to her waist tightly. We desperately tried to walk across the murky waters. My dad followed behind with my younger brother.

The water was so cold and the rain was making it really hard to see. The ground was also uneven and you could see the petrol and fuel mixed with waters.

With the help of a few strangers, we were guided up to the steps leading to an employee quarters, the upper floor of the gas station.

Maybe it was only four minutes or five minutes that we were in the water, but looking back at the jeep, I realise how fast the water had risen. The water was now in level with the seats of our jeep.

We were stranded in the small employee room with some other families. The family that lived there didn't look like they had much.

Their clothes were grey and dirty and there was little furniture in the room. But they were very kind and offered us their food.

The next hour saw the water continuing to rise.
Some have started praying. And we joined soon after. We all prayed for our lives.

I remember hearing screams of onlookers watching a desperate civilian swim to safety against the flood torrent. It was all very scary.

I'll never forget seeing our jeep submerged under the flood waters. All you could see was the white rooftop.

Then rains eventually stopped.

The flood rose to maybe six or so steps of the employee quarters before it started to subside.

We saw a few government officers drive by on boats. The national rescue service maybe.

It was already six in the evening before we saw our vehicle again.

And it would be another four hours before we finally get home. Safe at last.

1 September 1990

One Two Three Four 5-6-07

Been celebrating my birthday for four days now. Been eating heaps. None of it healthy. But in my defence, I'm planning to jump into an exercise regime that will whip me back to shape.

And my birthday IS a once a year thing. I guess its okay to treat yourself to trans-fatty foods once in a while… even if it’s a few days.

A few weeks back, my friends asked me what I wanted for my birthday.

The guitar I bought from Cebu was falling apart. The bridge looks to be popping out, just like the tunning pegs. When you strum, the strings rattle on the fret board which makes for a horrible guitar to play (not to mention dangerous!).

So for my birthday I wished for a new guitar.

My good friends gave me three.

The best is the Legend acoustic with electronics. Lets me plug it in to my laptop. Now I can happily play Kumbaya and other gospel songs and record it too!

The other was a pink yukalele for fun. It sits in my room next to a pink box they gave me last year for my birthday.

One year ago.

Its amazing how much time has passed.

So much has changed, but the things that I wanted to change, have hardly changed at all. And again, I’m just plodding along because that’s the only thing I know I can do.

Amongst celebration this year came the sad news that my dad needs to have an operation.

Calcite deposits are compressing on C5-C6 nerves causing uncomfortable sensations in his foot. Its not a life critical operation, but an operation nonetheless. Its something you don’t want your loved ones to have to go through.

My brother said it’s a degenerative thing, and is not uncommon.. part of getting older he says.

Two people have asked me this year if I feel any wiser.

I believe we get wiser every day with what we do and see and what we experience. So I do believe I'm wiser.

And three guitars richer.

Third Time Lucky

You know when you say you're going out fishing I don't actually expect you to catch anything

:P

I've finally done it!!!

The capture of a monster! It took five mintues of intense reeling in and nearly broke my rod in half.

Watta fish!

Mission accomplished!!

And even though I paid $10 for bait, it was well worth it. :)

****

I haven't always been a fishing fan. When I was a kid, I've gone fishing many times and I didn't get excited about it.

That was until around four years ago when I worked with Hoang.

Hoang was this small guy at work who helped me heaps during my time as a test engineer. He's a small Vietnamese technician with a friendly easy going attitude to everything.

In between testing circuit boards, he would talk to me about fishing, fishing, fishing, chickies (our code name for porn) and then more fishing. We spent countless hours a day talking about fishing.

Every morning he'd sip coffee from his blue mug that had a marlin picture. He'd dream to me of catching a giant marlin one day.

Giant Marlin.

Marlin Marlin Marlin.

When you hang around someone long enough, you end up picking their interests, manners and habits. And maybe even their dreams.

I think its important to never lost track of your own dreams. It might put you in different territory to everyone else, but then thats why its called your dream, your goal.

Hoang's asked me many times to go north with him to catch Marlins.

I went south to catch salmon.

*****

we organised this trip. we dealt with all the drama. we did the hard mile.
how come the one who least deserves it, gets it always?

Life is horribly cruel sometimes.

Especially when the bad guy gets the prize.

Most often, the one who's doing it right, who's sacrificing and doing it hard, goes un-rewarded.

When I saw the sad look in her eyes I badly wanted to catch a salmon.

She wanted to be with someone who she can be proud of, not one who was making sure everyone was alright.

Building a Mystery

How come you're not talking to me?
Because I’m being mysterious
What d'you mean?
If I don't tell you what I’m thinking, doesn't that make me mysterious?
At this point she starts laughing until her stomach muscles started hurting

I don't know why I even bother. I know that understanding women is impossible. Actually it’s probably a myth. A

A woman that makes sense is probably a man.

He's so hot
Huh? Why? What’s so hot about him?
Ooohh, his voice, his eyes.. his eyes. So sexy
What’s so sexy about them?
(seductively) I dunno.. Its so deep.. So mysterious.
... I can be mysterious.
At this point she bursts out laughing and starts rolling on the floor. She was laughing so much she started farting in rhythm with her chuckles.

Okay, maybe she didn’t' fart, but she did laugh quite a bit.

I guess the thought of me being mysterious can be quite funny. But I know it hasn't always been that way.

You're unpredictable and you fascinate her a lot. You fascinate me as well!

I quote from a past e-mail.

When you're mysterious, you're attractive.

Enigmatic.

When there's something contradictory and puzzling about you, that provokes a challenge. It makes people want to learn more about you. They want to figure who you are, how you think.

And chipping away those mysteries can be quite rewarding.

So what happens when the mystery is gone? When you've finally solved that last puzzle and have gotten to 'know each other'.

When opening up a birthday or Christmas gift, there's that mystery and surprise when everything is still wrapped up. You start opening it and you struggle with the ribbons and you rip through the layers of paper and the sticky tape that 's held the wrapping together.

And when you finally discover what you've been given....

It may be the very thing you've always wanted. Or it may be a dud just wrapped up in a lot of fancyness.

When you're honest and trustworthy, you become the exact opposite of mysterious. You're always available, you're always there and you give yourself away.

I've given myself away.

I’ve served myself whole, rather than being tiny chunklets on a tasting platter.

And that can be quite overwhelming if you’re not hungry.

Everyone else around me has his or her own agendas. Only a few are unclouded and sure to.
But me? I’m always there. As reliable, dependable and un-mysterious as ever.

Sarah McLachlan sings,

You’re so beautiful, with an edge and a charm
but so careful, when I'm in your arms

Building a Mystery is an awesome song. I've been trying to to play it for ages now. Listening to its lyrics, I think I found where I want to be.

I like you in black.. kinda makes you mysterious

Freefall

I’ve posted it on the wall at work. Finally, after a year! A piece of paper that authenticates my capability of doing something completely unorthodox, crazy and extremely dangerous.

I think its quite amusing that its my boss who noticed it first. He chuckled 'I guess we're all a little crazy to work here'

I stuck the skydiving certificate exactly a year after I've done it. There’s no sentimental reasoning behind this. I've always wanted to post it up at work. Everyone else has diplomas, degrees and accreditations to various societies and institutions.

I have a certificate which stands for 'this guy is capable of doing insane stuff' . And I must admit, it fuels more conversations than a university degree or two would ever do.

"Was it scary?"

is pretty much the first question I always get asked.

The jump was scary. There’s no denying that. You can see it on my face in the video! My heart racing, hands sweaty, body odour of the tandem master. And no way did I anticipate it being that cold 14000 feet above ground. So yes, it was scary.

But I didn't think that was the scariest part. I’d put the dive in the same category I would for a roller coaster or the octopus ride in a theme park. You do it, its scary, thrilling, exciting and fun and then you go abouts your normal routine afterwards.

For me, what was scarier, are things I do for my girl :P

But honestly, I've always wanted to go skydiving. The same way I want a Mazda Rx-8. I wanted to do it, but its not in my ‘ things to do in the next 10 years’ list.

But there was an urgency for me to jump. My girlfriend was jumping - with or without me.

Never mind the stress and worry I drove my poor mom to when I told her of the jump. Never mind that at that time I had no money and I needed to sell things to afford it. Never mind that an asian guy died doing skydive with the same company just a few months before.

I took all of that, put it aside and told my girlfriend, 'Nope, you are not jumping alone'.

If she ever had to go through something terribly scary or outrageous or troubling in her life, I am going to be there by her side.

Just like the song, 'anywhere you go, I’ll follow you down,'

I would have forgotten about the skydive if it wasn’t' for events of last week that ended up the exact same way it did last year. It humoured me that most people have changed and that those that I wish had grown up a little, remain exactly the same.

This in turn reminded me of the worry, anxiousness and loneliness that plagued me the days counting down to my birthday. The days after the skydive, the most stressing time in my life.

Never did I think that I would be a heartbeat away from losing the one person I’d never want to lose.

My heart still races when I think of that day. I remember everything spiralling downwards in insane speeds.

And there was nothing there to catch the fall. Nothing.

That was scary.

Graduations

Short Talk
By the time you get used to the flow of things, when everything starts to feel nice and feel right, it’s already time to say goodbye. April has been a blur.

Graduations

Stuff yourself with the free sushi rolls and salmon hors d'oeuvres. That’s my advice to those graduating on what to do after the long long long long long long ceremony.

Somewhere here are tables of free food! Thats what years in university is all about!

I didn't get a chance to do that during my graduation. I was bogged with drapery and was cooking under my four layers of clothing.

My graduand buddies: Shaz, Al, Chewy

The reason for the heavy drapery was so that I would look smart for the mandatory graduation family photo. This photo my parents will show relatives and will hang in the walls of our house for generations to come. So I hadta look good.

Smile! Coz this photo will be on display FOREVER!!

And photos we took! It's as if we didn't take photos, all the hard work during the half a decade in university would disappear. Click Click Flash Flash. No wonder I got sore cheeks that day - too much fake smiling :P

But seriously, graduations are always kinda sad to me. It’s another stage in the growing up cycle.

Realising that you’re growing old and taking on bigger responsibilites is always kinda sad (and depressing).

We're all smiling at the free food

In all graduations I've been to was speeches about opportunities and how we should all embrace the future and the world is our oyster and that we are all going to be leaders and so on. All this does is paint a picture of what we could all be, but not tell us where we should be in this crossroads called life.

Always watch your step

I know it should be merry moment, a celebration of academic achievement and hard work and end to tuition fees, blah blah blah. But everyone knows it’s also an end. The end of an era of common hang-out places, routine work and friendly faces.

This was our lab. We did a lot of anime study here. We also cooked Mee-goreng

Graduations are actually kinda like weddings. It’s a happy time, but it’s sad because something is changing. And everyone feels like everything, all the happy memories and jokes and good times, will come to an end after that moment.

But then you wake up the next day and realise that the earth still revolves around the sun, people still love (or hate) you, your buddies are still there and that not that much has changed at all.

Except that you’re sick from eating too many sushi rolls and salmon hors d'oeuvres.

Congratulations to Anh, Ian, Lea and those who graduated recently. Well done.