Me and My Maos' are off to Hainan

Me and my Maos' are off to Hainan tomorrow morning. This is one trip that has me very excited cos i will be visiting the land or rather Island that my ancestors came from. I am always excited about visiting new places but this is no different, but as i am nearer to actually landing on the Island i am beginning to get goosebumps. I mean this is the place where my ah kong & ah por was born and lived till they migrated to the then MALAYA to create a better future for themselves. This is also the place where as a kid i listened to my ah por speak fondly off. How the fruits and vege tasted so much better and were more fragrant than the ones we get here. The fish in the sea was abundant and the waters were crystal clear. Now i have an opportunity to smell and breathe the air that my forefathers breathed and walk the earth that they walked upon. In fact i have asked my aunties for the name of the village my grandparents lived in cos i intend to find and visit the village. Wish me luck!

This hailam brother is coming home...

Reflections

Days pass me by as i travel this road of life, i count my blessings that i have people in my life that care for me deeply and want the best for me. There are those who are angry at how i let my life BE at times and there are those who will support me for what i choose and they let it be known to me that they will be there when i stumble and fall. Some may not agree with my choice

but they remain close at hand. This I know and I also know these are people that i can count on whenever, wherever.

I just wanna say, I appreciate YOU and i am blessed that you have Got my back!

Namaste.

Tempoyak!

On friday as i was finding my way through Gombak's Taman Greenwood I saw a durian stall by the roadside. I have not had durians for a long time so i was looking longingly at the thorny king of fruits and seated prettily on a collapsible table beyond that were some opened-up durians in styrofoam containers (some of us are too lazy to pry open the thorny shell to get to the delicious

fruit within) and some yellowy gooey stuff in plastic containers. I preened my eyes on it and realised that it could be...TEMPOYAK! Since i was at a traffic lights i was frantically searching for a place to turn around or park.

Why the sudden excitement? Well it's my 25%'s favorite, a city girl with a taste for the Kampung. She fell in love with the smelly thing while on our last day in Gunung Tahan when the guides cooked it for us. So i had to look for a parking to go buy it! Resourceful as i am and with a good sense for direction i found myself beside the stall neatly parked and jumped out to get it. After much questioning of the pakcik who sold it i bought one for my 25%. And my car smells like Tempoyak for the next 2 days till i delivered it to her house.

Now i sit quietly in anticipation for my 25%'s call. That would mean she has found out how to cook it and we will be dining at her place again. Such is the joy of Life!!!

Conversations

Conversations are important in a relationship i belief, it is nurturing to the relationship and it helps in the understanding of one another.

I think i have had more arguments in my current relationship than any of my previous ones. I come to realise that it is because i am more adamant at making my stand and being firm in having certain things in my life than to just give in. It is more tiring to fight with oneself than it is to fight with another. It was tiring to suppress myself from BEing who i am. After realising this i decided to make my stand for ME. Hence my conversations are about having the other person see my point of view as well as appreciating their point. It is the same thing at work. I have come to see the point of my superior and not fight the establishment once i realised i was reacting and being so victimy.

A level head, keeping tempers in check and a conversation clears the air and allows forward movement.

Solitude

Sometimes it is nice to be alone, to have one's own space to think, do one's own thing or do nothing but just BE with oneself.

I think it is important for each and everyone to have alone time to spend with Oneself. There is no stress of deadlines or appointments. It could be a trek in the jungle by oneself, sipping a cup of Latte at StarBucks and watch people and life pass by or even browsing in a bookstore and allow the answer to One's question pop out in the array of books displayed. Perhaps you will find that which you are seeking if you had earlier asked of the Universe.

Whatever One's intent, just let it BE and allow the Universe to speak. I enjoy my moment alone every now and then not because i don't like the company of another but it is refreshing to BE with Oneself.

Losing ME.

2009 was also a time when i lost a part of who i am. As i got more and more involved in my relationship i began to lose out on the man that i am.

Over the course of 365 days much have i lost in myself. I have become less of who i was. Aren't relationships meant to add on to one's repertoire of BEingness? So why has this robbed me so much of myself? I have trekked less. Met up with people i love...less. Lost much of my spontaneity and i have been bugged down by schedules not of my own. Everything depended on another. I could not decide an appointment without consulting the other. Being in a relationship has somewhat became a chore for me. It became tiring. I was not planning ME into the calendar and hence it made me resentful. I became a victim of my relationship.

This year the Fire Horse in me will gallop the plains like i used to albeit with a thought for the other, after all when One is in a relationship One has another to think off too but i promise myself that I will have my day in the Sun too!

2009 - It's A Wrap!

Another year passes us by and another year has passed me by. In my mothers' eyes it's another year her son escapes getting married again and it's another year gone for the asking. In 2010 i'm sure both of them will find new and more creative ways to ask me the same old question again.

Reflecting back on 2009, much have i experienced and done in the last 365 days. It was a year of Firsts' for me. I learned to breathe compressed air, snorkel like how it should be done and not drown myself, coordinated an LP...and what a ride it was for all concerned, ran a mini-marathon, swim competitively and almost bloody drowned myself in doing so, ran a jungle trek race, bowled, played Dodgeball and found out the HARD way that the concrete floor is actually harder than one's head and tho Rome may not be built in one day, the "ha-mou-lau" (bungalow in cantonese i think) grows in less than 10secs and that when one's head hits the ground it sure makes a loud noise! Hahaha...thank god my head didn't split in two. All these games that i participated in competitively was only made possible due to the 2009 AWLympics organized by LP Connection. It was also the first time i visited P. Redang, P. Tenggol to swim with the Whale Shark as well as swim with black tip sharks (small one la...approx 1m) in Langkawi. It was also the first time i stamped my passport in Macau & Hong Kong and a dream of many years (leads all the way to my childhood) came true, I visited Disneyland. That it was in Hong Kong did not matter. :) Oh...i also had my head shaved clean and bald for the first time in my life! That one is for my 25%.

My stepmom had a relapse of her cancer but the tough old lady is fighting it with a brave heart while my mother in Taiping has finally sold the old family house where she grew up in and slowly but surely is relocating herself here in KL. Hmm...does this mean she is closer now can bug me about marriage without opening her mouth but just giving me the Look?