Part II :



Influenced them to put up my infamous V pose!


To them its luxury
I learned their usual fare consists of only boiled cabbage with rice. The way she slurp it up made magiee manufacturers proud.



Brave girl had a badly infected wound. She was limping around and caught the attention of our trained nurse who sat her down and cleaned up her pus-caked cut. She washed, she dug at it and brave girl kept a smile thru-out! It was painful alrite, she tensed and clenched her teeth at times. I felt so sore and held her hand while the cleansing was in process. After cleaning and dressing up her wound, she went to play hopscotch in the dirt..geez..



Things we did together. Taught the alphabets, simple english vocabulary, shared stories about Jesus birth in the manger and coloured 'Jesus Loves You' pictures.



We gave out blankets, clothes, toys and some medical supplies.

Siam: Deep in the forest down some creek, 'Silent Night' could be heard at a little Karen village..

+ It was the most romantic outback stay. mosquito nets (pink!) lined the ceiling. tons and tons of blankets as cushions and covers for the cold. Candles burning dimly at some corner. All snuggled alongside each other falling aslp to lull of crickets and snores.

+ Was adventurous enough to bathe by the icy river. Amid washing hair Timotei style, heard my travel buddy Joyce laughing. Looked up and saw my Rejoice shampoo bobbing along with the current downstream. Ran after it for dear life creating big splish-splash. Places like these, I need my damn shampoo. Rescued it alrite.

+ 'Ter Berlerk' (made-up spelling) is Karen for 'What's your name'. We kept asking each other till it's like some form of greeting. To me, they all looked the same differentiated only by the clothes they never change out of. To them, we all looked the same too. I introduced myself as my chinese name 'Su Jun' , 'Cherandy' would be a real challenge I reckon. They got the hang of it and kept calling out 'Su Jun' just to evoke a response from me. Be it a look, a smile, a wave sometimes even a 'What/Simi?' from me. Initially I trained them to call me 'Chiobu' just for the fun of it. But dropped it as it became too gross for me to handle.

+ Early morn. Brushing my teeth at the washing area. "Su Jun, Su Jun". I looked up and saw a bunch of them across the grasspatch. I waved and they waved back amused. Continued brushing "Su Jun, Su Jun". Waved again. This happened afew times and became quite routine.

+ A platform of wood slabs was put together near our house. We lined blankets on it and snuggled under more blankets while staring out at the stars. The max no. of shooting stars under 2hrs was 6.

+ I imagined myself being tied-down with the bridge building but the truth is, there really wasnt much we could do. The best we could offer was to transport planks. I find myself more drawn to the educational class we conducted. This is where I could interact with them the most and is also the most cherished episode of my trip. We sang songs, taught the alphabets tho I guess they have hardly a clue what was being sung, they sang along anyhow. Languages,cultures are no barrier when there are smiles and love being displayed. Imagine Captain's Ball and Poison Ball was played there. Imagine the word 'Chiobu'could be heard at that part of the world..

to be continued..

Changmai Missionary Trip 2004

Tribes we'll be visiting: Karen and Hmong
- Karen Beeyawta Village School
- Panakok Hmong Village
Building Bridge and Teach (I'm sooo looking forward to the Bridge Building but doubt I'll be much of a help anyway).

Allocated Departure Baggage - 5kg Hand Carry , 7 kg Check-In (this is for ladies. Men 5kg Chk-In)
Climate: 15+ degrees by day, below 10 by night. No fear of mosquitos = probability of Malaria minimal.
Taking a chance with Cholera so no jabs taken.
Dysentery - Charcoal pills should provide some relief.

I'm so gonna try find me some elephants to ride!

Santa would most prob trip and fall visiting a particular unit in Ah Hood Road..

Christmas is approaching and this year i would really like a Christmas tree but my mom is right, our house is always in such a big mess there wouldnt be a clean spot for the tree.
The last tree we had since pri school had lost all its 'leaves'. It was a real plasticky tree that had leaves slotted into branches slotted into the tree. Few years back I tried to set it up but it looked so ugly cos we lost most of the leaves and if they were still around, most were pressed out of shape. And I bet like most of you, come Chinese New Year, the tree would still be glittering with neon bulbs and laden with cotton snow.
So I looked around and felt books have got to be the most common in my HDB flat. We have a total of 7 bookshelves overflowing with it. The Genre is wide: "Chen Style Taichichuan", "The Complete Medicinal Herbal", "How to Get Extraordinary Results from Ordinary People", "Mastering WordPerfect 5" (do people still use WordPerfect these days?), "New Syllabus Mathematics (latest edition, revised edition, complete edition etc)". We've long ran out of space for bookshelves, hence piles of it are stacked neatly at some corner. Occasionally pile would topple over and stuff at the bottom rises up to the top. Upon entering flat for the first time, friends would almost always display the by now classic expression. Imagine dropped jaws and a 'wah...' followed by long pause. One thing's for sure, our unit would burn the brightest if there's ever a fire hazard.

Random clutter-check:
1. two refrigerators

2. four TVs (1 not working but not disposed of bcos 'it can be fixed')

3. three VCR recorders (1 not working but same as above)

4. four vacumn cleaners (1 not working but same as above)

5. three iron (1 short circuited when my mom last used it, not disposed just cos its simply not disposed of)

6. twelve phone sets!! (4 connected, the rest is spoilt in some ways. Not disposed cos I'm beginning to suspect we have a fetish for these instruments.)

7. five desktops (3 in use while the rest is being kept as antiques)

8. four laptops (2 in use while the rest were 2nd-hand bought at very good rates but with no planned purpose of use)

And I hafen got to the kitchen...

I Sing, You Like, I'm Your Idol..

Caught the final ep. of the Singapore Idols last night and I'm happy Taufik clinched it. Not a supporter of both finalist but just by the fact that I cant stand Sylvester with all his excessively 'cute' actions puts me off and had me rooting for Taufik by default. When Gurmit announced the voting had ended Sly actually 'pretended' to cry. Just by that alone makes me feel like hitting him.

Taufik is undeniably a better singer and has stronger stage prescence but I doubt his career as an idol will have much development. Sly on the other hand might stand better chance.

And Then There Are Times

I get awaken prematurely especially on my designated Sleep-In-Day, a routine which I faithfully adhere to and uphold like a sacred ritual. Lady on the line spoke with deliberate politeness (could sense she wasnt used to being polite) that I'm among some fortunate 30 who have won some lucky draw.
Sensing that I'm not recalling, she asked me if i remember filling out some lucky draws at some shopping mall and the only one I could recall was the Harvey Norman forms I filled out. She wasnt too interested in my reply and launch into a script-like rattle of the various items I've won: Designer Italian watch, travel package and quite a few more which I couldnt register at my raw state of mind. Collection time was to be at The Adelphi 2pm. Must be exactly 2pm? I questioned. To which she replied, well if you come later then you'll end later. Wait a min...isnt it a pick and go thing? Afterall it's a 'collection' right? She seemed to read my mind, let me explain she says. My warning alarm went off 'Phony! Bogus! No way is it a simple lucky draw' "Once your here, we will explain our travel promotion to you and inform you of the discounts you will get should you be interested in signing up for our membership...*the rest is unregistered*

This definitely did not sound Harvey Norman, so I told her, I dont think I took part in any contest. This is not a contest she replied. Well, I didnt take part in this lucky draw then...but this is also not a lucky draw...Didnt she start off the whole conversation asking if I remember filling up some forms for a lucky draw? If I were to ask the words "What is this then?" I know more of my precious mobile time would be charged as she dives back into one of the scripts she has, with chunks of lines to rattle off before a response is needed. Maybe with pointers entitled 'How to baffle those suckers again once they sense something is amiss'. So I pass.

Alrite here comes the rejection I must dish out. I suck at giving flowery excuses to get out of sitatuations, I know some people out there who can do wonderful job of getting out of things yet still come off as *oh...such a sweetie...I know you would love to be suckered by me and understand that you just cant help but reject my attempt to do so bcos you have such a sweet reason and I dont blame you at all..* All I could manage was a "Nah I think I'll forgo this". She paused and I could just read the evil bubble forming at her head: #$#$%%@#, I tell ya, it was one pause which made me feel so uncomfortable. Obvious that she's regaining herself: "But m'am, this is a great opportunity..." Nope I dont think I want it, thanks.

"Ok then Bye" Click.

Without adequate sleep, my Sunday was ruined, I was tired but not tired enough to get back to bed so I moped around the house lethargic and sunk my lifeless mass in front of the teevee while playing furniture to the rest of my family.


To end, I bought this new beverage just cos it signifies my mood totally and upon tasting the drink, the message on the Can all the more amplifies my feeling of the day.

Track 6: ...Such Comfort In Loving You..

I cant help it. The man has been singing to me for the past 5hrs in the pirated version which I shamelessly ripped off the net, how can I be so cruel as to ignore him and not do this: spending precious savings on the album thereby making him and Sony Music Entertainment so much richer.

I dont usually invest in albums as it's always a couple of nice tunes among many other crappy ones. Very Uneconomical. So for me to actually purchase an artise' CD could only mean one thing, all the right buttons were pushed, think virtual orgasm. Make no mistake, I didnt say the collection was overly nice, it just worked for me. No two people could have identical buttons so I'm not liable if it didnt go down well for you.

Tech Savvy I'm Not...

will you just look at that...wires everywhere! Spent good half of my day cleaning up my room specifically my dust-laden computer. Oh gosh..I just remember I need to change my bedsheets after all this cleaning and it's like 2ish in the morning...grrrreat.

Painstakingly unplugged the various components and gave them a good wipe and it's when I discover the Law of Gravity doesnt apply to Dust. Dust collects everywhere! Even on the underside of wires and my glass table. Anyways back to the dirt cleaning, my Creative speakers have a maze of wires, they're like tentacles sprawled all over and it's no joke sorting them out. And then there was my block of a scanner, something we exchanged for through accumulation of reward points. It's the thickness of two textbooks atop each other and did I mention so many wires! I was lazy to label the wires to the respective sockets thinking I'm real cool about which hole to plug into correctly..

You guessed it, I dim-wittedly ran my high powered Creative adaptor into the scanner and with everything else in place, I flick the switch on.."Beep! Beep! Beep!!" in retrospect I believe that the beeping was in fact Morse Code for "I'm gonna die!!!". It happened fast, 'Pop', I killed the power and white smoke with some plasticky smell followed.

Believe me, I've never felt smarter. Couldnt get my PC to respond after that, could turn it on but my monitor couldnt detect any signals, not to mention the beeping continued persistently. To cut it short, my brother came to the rescue (thank God for brothers! No thank God for tech-savvy brothers). He couldnt pin the problem but he swapped the memory card into a different slot and it worked!

Life oozed back into my virtual gadget and I cant begin describing how happy to be baack clicking my mousey and drumming my keyboard! Ahhh..internet is my other source of life, my connection to the world...ok sounding drama..I'm happily blogging again and I've downloaded my favourite Huang Yi Da track - 'Xi Huan Ni, Xi Huan Wo' playing it on Repeat for what seemed eternity. This has gotta be Cherandy's track of
the year.
Everything's Normal again

Once you get hold of that driving license, getting lost takes on a whole new meaning.

Liz bought herself a car and wasted no time in getting lost, she claimed it took her a whole hour to get from Orchard to Marina. These days she's more familiar with Orchard so if she wish to get to anywhere in Singapore, we would see her travelling to Orchard before she can start navigating herself to the desired destination. To me this is an improvement, at least the woman is able to find her bearing once she hit the familar town streets.
Tonight is my virgin experience letting her drive me home. A common friend Wen, who had prior experience warned me "You cant talk to her while she's driving. Just keep very very quiet...I almost fell asleep that time...." she recounted miserably.
I made a mental note: Keep very quiet, Talk only when absolute necessary. e.g: "Watch Out!" or "What did we hit??" finally "Arrrrgh!! We're gonna Die!".

Anyway the Moment arrived. Wen and myself told Liz we're ready to go home. Liz became very quiet then suddenly announced she gotta pee and hurried away. We were all convinced she's damn nervous.

I'm typing this blog on my own PC in my cosy HDB bedroom so hey...it's not that bad afterall. There wasnt a need to utter those lines above, we were even able to hold a decent conversation about the kind of songs she burned on her CD. In fact I think she's a pretty darn steady driver this is besides the fact that she has a scary habit of turning Right from the Left lane.
I had my share of getting lost and I'm most afraid of big towns which distinguishes its roads with numbers: Avenue 1, Avenue 2, bcos numbers dont make much of an impression to me and I get lost easily when surrounded by too many numbers.
Common ones to see are: Avenue (insert numeric) , Lorong (insert numeric), Drive (numeric) and Street (numeric).
Just wondering are there such things like " Ang Mo Kio Avenue 9 Street 65 " ?
How about " Ang Mo Kio Drive 6 Lorong 9 Avenue 2 Street 65?

My brother's Back...

for vacation that is, and he's got this beauuutiful kiwi figurine for me. Well, it's simply lovely cept it wasnt really what I had in mind...I had wanted a kiwi which I could actually handle, this kiwi figurine is enclosed in a liquid glass globe and when given some shakes, glitters would swish around. Not the exact thing I'd asked for but it's a real pretty thing and I liked it lots. Has kinda hypnotic effect with all the swirling glitz and my eyes just glazed over with all the intense staring..
So he's back and my mom's on holidays, I So feel like I'm on holiday as well, my job search can wait...well at least till after my Chingmai trip in December.

In other news, we went to the John Little Sale yesterday and gosh they had undergarments going at a dollar! I know what you're thinking, that they're Grandma material i.e. that stretches up to your tummy. On the contrary, there are real nice ones around going for the buck. Fancy prints of flowers and some tiny beads in front. Swweet!
Do you know that a nice pair of undergarment boosts the confidence level? Try it! For that extra boost, pick out your best piece.

Who holds the Key to all their strenght?

'The Incredibles' truly blew me over.
Warning: This post can be considered a spoiler for those who havent seen the film, so do not read on if it matters to you.

Anyways, the part that did it for me was when Mr Incredible with all his mighty super strength told his wife in desperation that she cant follow him on his dangerous mission despite her having super powers as well, bcos he simply cannot risk losing her again (previously he was misled into thinking the evil villian had destroyed his entire family). With all his super-human strength, the exact words he used were 'I'm not strong enough' when it comes to the thought of losing his wife.
Such irony and yet in itself, most beautiful and touching. This is the very reason why this movie appealed so much to me. Similarly in 'Superman: The Movie', an anguished Superman remembered how he lost his adoptive father Jonathan Kent to heart diesease and he bitterly thought to himself something to the lines of: "..with all the powers in the world, yet I couldnt save the man.." with that,he was even more determined not to lose Lois and proceeded to bring her back to life.

There are people around who appear formidable, untouchable, full of self-confidence and seem to have the world at the palm of their hands. And I think the more 'powerful' they get, the more vulnerable they are. This shouldnt be taken as a bad thing of cos. So if you know your strength is built on someone dear to you, you should start appreciating that individual and not take him/her for granted.
I know of a friend whose father treats her mom with the utmost care as she has real bad asthma and many times attacks were so bad they nearly lost her. Her dad calls her mom 'Loh Fatt Ye' meaning Empress Dowager. I bet her mom feels so loved. I also recall how my father seemed afraid when he had to clean my badly abused knee wound. Click here for that episode. So you see, everyone has points of weaknesses and many times it's emotions that rules.

Chameleon
You know once news get around of your resignation, people at your workplace starts morphing into somebody or something else? It's sublimal, attitudes change and some just avoid talking to you altogether. I'm especially disappointed in a certain colleague who was initially real helpful and forward with help needed. Towards the last few months of my termination, I was treated indifferently and I cant help but felt there could have been a conspiracy going on. I felt judged and misunderstood. I wish my colleague knew the person I am instead of basing it from hearsay.
There were a couple however, who encouraged me throughout and I appreciated it thoroughly.

Who hasnt heard about office politics? But just what kinda person do you wanna be? You can be the type that plays the game well and just like a monitor lizard switch sides constantly following majority, or you can play half the game but remain indifferent when it comes to matters that's not of your concern thus playing it safe, or you cant help but be in the game but speak words of encouragement for matters that's not of your concern and risk offending the majority.

I must state that anybody can be a player but ultimately I guess it all boils down to whether you can live with yourself being such an individual. At some point I was really disgusted and angry. And I ask myself what have I learnt from the Bible. I learnt that sometimes people may not know what they are doing and no one can be perfect, including me. When Jesus was persecuted and misunderstood, He prayed for those who persecuted Him. I'm not saying I'm like Jesus holy and perfect, praying for those persecuting Him. I myself am full of imperfection and the least I can do is pray for Jesus to take my hurt away and not be angry anymore.

Come to think of it, isnt it wonderful? Some school of belief has it that forgiveness or detachment of such bitterness is required to seek peace and higher levels of enlightenment. I guess my belief is that forgiveness is required because of love. Jesus loves you, so do I.

Counter-Strike

Met up with a friend for an hour of Counter-Strike in the cyber cafe and I was my normal self as noisy as could be. I just cant contain my emotions, nervousness when being spotted by an enemy I would yelp out in excitement. I love playing LAN games, its either I team up with my friend or I try to kill them, virtually of cos.
There was once, however, I almost killed my friend, literally. Let's call this friend of my 'Pointer'. Pointer would make sure he's playing in the same team as me. If I'm a Counter-Terrorist, he would join me in being a CT. The problem is, times when Pointer gets killed prematurely and starts 'floating' around and watches the game in first person mode, he would track on me and scans the area for my enemies. When he spots an enemy heading my way, Pointer starts coming over to my screen in my face and points out excitedly where the enemy would appear. He would tap on my computer screen exclaiming 'Enemy coming! Enemy coming!'
He doesnt realise he's blocking my view with all that tapping and pointing. When I finally yanked off his fat fingers, enemy had long arrived and next moment I'm lying on the ground with my killer enemy walking over my lifeless body. I wanted so much to club him with my optical mouse.
In another experience, it was a girl friend of mine who was game enough to attempt Counter Strike for the first time in her 23 years of life. We started smoothly from home base, charging towards enemy quarters, someone from my team threw a flash grenade by accident and it blinded everyone tempoarily, my girl friend got all excited, thought it was an attack by the enemy, started sweep-shooting across the area with us being in her fire range. I died while still in home base.
And yet another girl friend of mine, tried out this game also for the first time....nope I didnt die in her hands by similar freak accident. This girl couldnt take the close-up first person view of the gameplay, within minutes she felt sick, dashed to the toilet and vomited. Not long after, we had to go home cos she was too sick to play. I had to drag myself away.
Playing games with fellow friends is like having some kinda relationship with them, sometimes you just wanna kill them but most times you just end up being killed by them.

A Tribute to My Childhood Idol

Posted these pics before quite some time back. But I wanna post it up again.
That's it, I'm popping down the store and see if I could get my hands on the DVDs. If I'm not mistaken, I thought I saw a "Superman" Trilogy being sold. It was retailing at $99.

Man of Steel returned to Dust

My favourite actor passed away. Whenever anyone ask of favourite actors, my peers would have 'Keanu Reeves, Brad Pitt' and the likes. Mine was 'Christopher Reeves' and I remember I was once laughed at for it. B'cos Reeves was not considered the 'IN' thing. Hardly anyone would have seen the few Superman Movies he starred.

But I unashamedly proclaim he was my favourite. I loved the Superman Movies that had him in it. Co-incidentally I happened to update a website of mine with his picture last night. When I was vacationing in Hongkong approx 3weeks ago, I bought "Somewhere In Time" with him starring.

From Superman the Movies to Somewhere In Time, Reeves come across as someone really gentlemanly. His every move and the way he speaks was cultured and calculated. I
t's quite a shock really, died at the age of 52.

Somewhere In Time was a really sad sweet movie. This movie is about experiencing a really passionate moment of your life and then realising you could never have it again. I bought the VCD and watched it after I came back from Hongkong.

To end, I post the lyrics to the soundtrack of Superman, The Movie

Can you read my mind
Do you know what it is that you do to me
I don't know who you are
Just a friend from another star
Here I am like a kid out of school
Holding hands with a god
I'm a fool
Will you look at me
Quivering
Like a little girl
Shivering
You can see right through me
Can you read my mind
Can you picture the things I'm thinking of
Wondering why you are
All the wonderful things you are
You can fly
You belong in the sky
You and I
Could belong to each other
If you need a friend
I'm the one to fly to
If you need to be loved
Here I am
Read my mind

Desire of Ages

We caught the movie "Passion of Christ" yesterday. It does make you cry. Well, maybe if played on telly it might not but in the theatre where it feels you're right there, it just very well might.

I did and so did strangers around us. Its not a sign of weakness, it's the ultimate strength given to humans.

I feel people watching this movie could cry for different reasons. Christians knowing the story, cries as we are shown a graphical representation of what He have gone through for us though keeping in mind there might be exerggerated scences played up for theatrical reasons. Dramatized or not, one thing's for sure, it sure was helluva painful. We're talking about the treatment reserved for the vilest criminal here so you cant say it couldnt have hurt much.

Non-christians cry when they are shown a human being treated in such a cruel way. Whether they believe in Christ or not, these forms of punishment were real and you gasp at how cruel Man can be towards each other.

So I went reading up about this Roman punishment called 'Crucifixion' to try gain more insight of what they subject the Human body through and came upon this article which gave an account of what Jesus's body went through from a medical perspective.

http://www.thecross-photo.com/Dr_C._Truman_Davis_Analyzes_the_Crucifixion.htm"

The four Gospels in the Bible: Mark, Mathew, Luke and John recorded the events leading up to His death but none presented it in such a manner.

Random Ramblings and Nicoll Fell Yesterday...

Lousy day at work. Past issues not handled carefully came back to huant me. Digging back to History is a pain and realising i could have done it better was a real "Grrrrr" at myself.

Anyway, I had a discussion with my colleague yesterday. She too felt that there's a change to Singapore nowadays. More things are happening to our island with the latest being the collapse of Nicoll incident.
I feel we are slowly losing our "Blessings". As a young country, we started off with government policies that were strict , honest and efficient and I would say the blessings were abundant as a result of these. We were doing relatively well, and most importantly, we felt safe.

These days it seems there's a little signal of movement towards more 'relaxed' regulations. Bar-top dancing has been allowed, changing of laws towards oral-sex and homosexuality laws etc. What the government relaxes, the public will indulge, especially so for a mass that's suddenly exposed to their new-found freedom. As people gets more and more morally degraded, so will the protection of the Holy Spirit withdraw. Disaster like a devouring wolf will be happy to follow.

I'm not perfect myself, but as I witness these turn of events, it brings a shudder to think there will be more to come.

Common Sense aint so Common nowadays

It was fun! Had an afternoon of sea-water and hot scorching sun. Together with the church youth, we filled up 9 kayaks and fought waves and splashes. The tide was up and it was choppy at times. It struck me how tough a simple act of getting my kayak out to the water was. Prompted by my ever faithful rowing partner to get on the boat first, the idea was 'get-on-and pedal-out-to-sea'. I got on the front...wave came...kayak rocked threateningly, I saw sea water getting nearer to my face and was tipped over the minute I climbed aboard with legs dangling up. Never mind, try again, got on and pedaled with all strenght I could muster. The bit of water fight and joining up of all the kayaks was highlights to otherwise normal pedalling and sun basking out in the water. Life jackets given were useless, torn zippers, flat and worn.. We fastened it best we could by tying nylon strips attached to jackets. There's no doubt if a huge wave were to sweep us over, our oversized jackets would simply be washed over our heads.
It was only an hour and a half but it felt like forever, so does the weight I feel resting on my arms now. My guess is tomorrow's gonna be even worse, for all I know my armpits might ache as well! Right now as I type, I've got 3 pieces of Salon Plastered on my shoulders. They do offer some relief, let's hope they stay 'relieved'.
I thank the Lord for keeping us safe and as Faith said, '..give us Wisdom that we may have the wits to stay safe..' Isnt it incredulous? That sometimes we have to pray for common sense to watch out for ourselves? Like my lecturer once said "Common sense is not so common nowadays" so we'd better not take it for granted.

They Could Have Just Said 'No' The First Time

You know that previous entry I blogged about? That super-hero who dived off the towers? Well, our neighbouring country had banned the episode entirely, with or without cuts. They axed the program knowing we axed the sensitized shots. I had this feeling they didnt even wanna consider taking back on that episode the first time they reviewed the program. The embarassment must have stung so badly the first time, they felt the whole incident should be just swept under the carpet. No more Extremists Ep.1. It's banned, no more mention, no chance of airing in that part of the world. The way I see it, decisions like these would only worsen the extent of bribery within the country.
On the contrary, if they would accept the cuts, review the episode again and find the program to be 'clean', let it go on air, wouldnt that give you an impression the officials know bribery is wrong and that they wouldnt want that act to have more exposure then it should by airing it and yet at the same time have the right frame of mind to let the 'clean' shots pass.
It takes more of a gentlemen to go over an ugly episode to find it cleaned up and allow passage then closing up of the mind and throwing the whole program out altogether. Brushing it off gives the feeling they dont wanna deal with it. In other words, doesnt that equate to closing their eyes to bribery? Now how would that help the country?
Let's throw the angel off abit and zap back to the moment the bribe took place. Actually the whole success of Felix leaping of the towers hinges on whether he could actually bribe someone. He wouldnt be able to make it on his own without the cash bait. That guy actually took a whole hour getting around the building looking for the right exit. He needed an insider. Now, if you were that someone he actually approached with the 1000 US Dollars, some clown comes to you with all these money and tells you, you can have it all just by letting him jump off the 88th storey, would you take it?

*I'm not targetting at any one country, bribery is a universal problem. As long as there's Humans, there's bound to be mischief. I'm just being bittter cos I'm not that fella who was being approached.

Look Ma! I can fly!

We had to snip some shots of this guy taking a leap off the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur. Renowned B.A.S.E jumper Felix Baumgartner, shot to fame with some of his famous highlights: The dive off Christo Redentor statue in Rio de Janeiro and Petronas Towers in KL.

Out of curiosity I did some research and discovered B.A.S.E is an acroynm which stands for Building , Antenna, Span and Earth - the four types of fixed objects utilized for foot-launched skydives instead of the usual parachuting from a plane. This would mean launching off from lower altitudes as compared to sky-diving and that being the case, a reserve parachute is useless. If the first parachute fails on the jumper, that's it. Talk about extreme sports.
So what's the big story about some guy who decided he wanted to jump off the right arm of the statue of Jesus Christ in Brazil or the free-falling from the Petronas Towers? Turned out, most BASE jumps are not legalised. Applying for permit would take the kick out of it so they claimed. Naturally our little snip-snap yesterday was prompted by potential legal consequences if we went ahead and aired the Petronas jump in KL.

Austrian borned Felix Baumgartner bought himself a business suit, glasses and pretended to be a businessman as he walked into the commercial twin towers with his faked ID cards. With 1000 for bribes, he got to the 88th storey, parachute in his suitcase and with a little camera, he filmed himself launching off from a window-washer crane. 8 seconds of free-fall from the world's tallest building then in 1999. The best part was watching him land on the ground, did a victory sign, rolled up his parachute and walked away from it scout-free!
From the $1000 bribes and fake ID cards, it's little wonder the Malaysian authorities would demand such clips be edited out. It's outright an embarrassment!

Reading through internet posted articles on Baumgartner, I was quite amused he made a remark about the jump off the statue of Christ that goes with the line of thought that he would be fine since he was jumping off the Right arm of Jesus. I'm sure fellow Christians would be able to know why. =)

Cant get enough of the man? You can read more about him and his adventures at http://www.felixbaumgartner.com/gross/

A trip down Chinatown
Started our day with breakfast den came back and moved my hamster into his new home - an aquarium tank.
Later in the afternoon, we had Chicken Rice at Boon Tong Kee before getting down to Chinatown for a feel of 'Chinese New Year'. There was this shop which goes by the name of 'Chinese Heritage...something' and apart from being retail, they had this section decorated in the most chinese retro possible decor serving light snacks, eggs and toast. What caught my eye was this Chinese tear-away calendar hanging on the wall. Its year read 1962. I miss those tear-away chinese version calendar. Tmr I'll try shop around for them. My parents told me shops that sells joss sticks and incense etc might sell them.
Tonight I downloaded the song that caught my fancy while listening to Gold 90.5FM. It's a jazzy slow lazy number soothing to my ears..

MISTY - Johnny Mathis

Look at me
I'm as helpless as a kitten up a tree
And I feel like I'm clinging to a cloud
I can't understand
I get misty just holding your hand

Walk my way
And a thousand violins begin to play
Or it might be the sound of your hello
That music I hear
I get misty the moment you're near

You can say that you're leading me on
But it's just what I want you to do
Don't you notice how hopelessly I'm lost
That's why I'm following you

On my own
Would I wander through this wonderland alone
Never knowing my right foot from my left
My hat from my glove
I'm too misty, and too much in love.

Mere 3 days, 2 nights
It was end of the year, with some vacation leave to clear, my friend sugested I follow her back to her hometown in Malaysia for the vacation. We took the night bus for the journey to and back. Did I mention I would stay away from Malaysia if I could help it? Its the same reason I wouldnt settle down in Australia even though I was there for 3 years. I'm uncomfortable with the idea of being the minority. All it takes is a different skin tone and language to set u apart from the rest. Throw in a history of hostility between the two countries, and u wouldnt go around flashing that bright red passport of urs. Once crossed the border, I feIt vulnerable and I could say I was afraid. I dont have the power of language. They dont speak English. Ask me anything, I would appear like a dumb duck. I depended on my friend and she gladly took charge. It was 4am when we reached Trengannu. We were the only 2 to alight as the bus's final destination is furthur up. The plan was to reach and call her dad who's at home expecting our call. 4 public phones- 3 not working with the last only for emergency calls.Great. 4am in the dimly lit canteen with not many pple around - malays and looking at us. We comtemplated waiting till her dad came but that could be another hour or so. She decided to ask the driver for his mobile and made the call.
Her suburb's at Kemaman. At daybreak, her brother brought us around. Had breakfast at this small scale hawker centre. If there's any rating of cleanliness like they do in Singapore, I would think most stalls there would display a 'D' or 'E' rating. But it's ok cos I ate and there was nothing wrong.
Being in a small town, everybody knoes each other. We would travel around and she'll see friends walking around doing their thing. As we eat, she'll tell me stories about the hawkers or customers whom she'll have heard stories from. It's nice in a way having pple who knoes of ur existence but like she say, once u do something wrong, the whole town would know of it.
Tmr the pics would be developed and I'll try putting some up in this blog and blog my journey through.