2006 Singapore AIDS Candlelight Memorial

Yesterday I went to atted the Singapore AIDS Candlelight Memorial and it was my first time to attend it as a gay man. I must say that it was really an eye-opening experience though it is a small affair not like what u can see during the National Day or World Cup event. Prior to attending this candlelight memorial, I went to meet L**** to return his camera and we had a brief discussion on the photo album. He volunteered his useful tips on how to take better pictures in different setting and then we went off to the Internet cafe to show him my landscape photos which I have put up in the photo slider in my travel blog http://zxaviertravel.blogspot.com/. Then I went to Orchard to meet Gilbert at Kinokuniya Bookstore in Taka. While waiting for him, I browsed through the Japanese book and tried to understand some of the passages.

Around 30 minutes, Gil sms-ed me to meet him at the Coffee Xpress cafe and I rushed over to loook for him. Then we ordered sandwich as I had not had any lunch on that day. We chatted about the career which I sms-ed him earlier on the internship with I-S Magazine. He advised me against this internship with that company as any company who intends to hire an intern, will not be able to give you actual working experience that u are looking for. Even though u will be given a chance to sharpen ur writing skill or gain experience with the magazine design, most of the time u will not be asked to do it but to do some chores like office boys! Then we explored on other careers and we realised that I had a very specific and narrow criteria when it comes to job. No wonder I was feeling so frustrated and vented whenever I tried to search for jobs that my interest tries to match that requirement. I brought up about on possibility to work in WWF and Gil cautioned me that this job is not what I expect it to be. Probably, this job requires me to liaise with the govt or private company to encourage them using energy-saving measures or to lobby for conservation of wildlife flora and fauna. But this company may not give me much opportunity to travel to the jungle to mingle with the wild animals. Gil has exactly hit my point so well that I began to laugh at myself. Wow..Gil has known me so well that nothing can escape from his sharp eyes.

Anyway, Gil reminded me to be more realistic of my expectation of the jobs in Singapore and even in oversea. It is not easy to combine hobby with the full-time job unless I start my own business to cater to society's needs. It is not like finding someone who pay you the fixed salary to eat chocolate and then u work for them. U may have to establish the chocolate shop and come up with creative ways to make chocolate cakes or biscuits to make customers purchase from you. He has made a good point!

So now, i think I may have to shift my focus a bit as it is not a right time to think of the extreme ways to plunge in to pursue interest. Perhaps, it could be more prudent to choose a job which is better than my current job and also closer to my interest in some ways. Anyway, I thank him for sharing his view points and also for volunteering to do career research with me when he has time.

Then we went off to browse through some books for a while before he went off to gym. I sauntered off to Hereen to look around some shops as I intended to buy a new pair of black slippers from New Urban Male (NUM). At there, as usual, quite a number of boys and gals thronged the shop and it was very well-received by customers. I saw Shenzi Chua who is a founder of this shop and said hi to him. As I was browsing through the t-shirts, I notice a cute and hunky salesboy near the counter. He has a strong facial look with his hair carefully styled and he has certainly a pleasant smile. He donned red jacket with "Japan" written on his back. His facial look has certainly reminded me of my time in the sauna with that cute HK guy. Hee...and I went to one side and he came behind me as if he was trying to render his assistance though there were even more customers needing his assistance. Anyway, I let him be and i walked around in this shop. After 20 minutes, I wanted to go off to Re shop and looked for that gorgeous guy. He was outside the counter and I purposely walked past him hoping to brush against him. But anyway he went into the counter, making my heart drop.. :( and then I went outside. Before walking outside, I turned around and noticed his eye glazing at me as if his eyeballs popped out of his sockets and flew behind my back whenever I walked. Hee...

Then I left the NUM and walked around in the Hereen. Feeling bored, I decided to go out of the Hereen and saw so many gay-looking guys around here. Wow...

Then I walked towards the Cineleisure and saw even more gays hanging out. I saw some gays whom I have met in the California gyms. Some of them stared at me and then some of them whispered to the others with their fingers pointing at me. Again, was there any something wrong with my face or what? Are they gossiping about me? Anyway, I ignored their catty looks and I walked to the Mac Shop to read my email for free hee... So, I read my email for a while and saw a gay couple. One is a Caucasian and the other one is Chinese slim guy. That ang moh guy also gave me a catty look (it is like a cat staring at you for a long time and its stare has never left you) and I wondered in my mind whether the other half would be jealous of his half's roving eyes. Anyway I let myself soaking in the pool of staring for my pleasure.

Then I left Cineleisure and walked all the way to SMU. Before reaching SMU, I sms-ed Queen Mother whether he was there already. He did not reply to me. So, I reached SMU around 6pm and saw my friend there. He is working in MediaCorps as a marketing assistant for 4 years and he just visited Singapore Art Museum with his friend. Then I looked for Queen Mother and he was rehearsing song-signing with his 2 partners. Not bad and they could sign well!

Then i saw Alfred Yeo who was there and later on Kelvin, Daniel and other deaf came to SMU to attend Candlelight Memorial.

Around 7pm, this memorial started and Daniel Tung interpreted for us. Religious leaders were there to chant prayers and I looked around for any cute guys. Yes, there, indeed, were quite number of cute boys attending this memorial. On my right end of the row, a bald guy, Vincent, kept on giving me his catty look whenever I signed with my 2 deaf friends. I later found out that Vincent was one of the ADLUS members and he knew a bit sign language. After the memorial, we wanted to go to Kopitiam to have dinner. Queen Mother, Kelvin, Daniel, Alfred, Vincent and others went to Kopitiam for dinner. Gil sms-ed me that he would join me later. He came from somewhere and we met again in the Kopitiam. When he came over, Vincent was sitting alone and I chatted with Gil. I wanted to introduce Vincent to Gil but I dunno his name. Vincent gave me his confused and blank look as if Gil was my boyfriend! Hee..

Then we went to buy food and I came back earlier. I chatted with my friends. All along, I noticed Vincent kept on giving me catty look and whispered to him about him. Gil said that if anyone stared at him, he would say Hi but I told him that i said hi to him and he kept on staring at me. Then after chatting for 1 hour, we wanted to leave now. So, I asked the other guy whom I cannot remember his name to go home with me. Then Vincent accosted me whether I would come on Monday to swim with them including him. Then, i told him oh, I had a Japanese class and I could not go with them. I could see a BIG DISAPPOINTMENT written over his face. Wow...then I pretended to chat with other to avoid his look. Then we walked outside and I told Kelvin about Vincent. Then I went home with the other guy.

Kelvin smsed me that Vincent asked him about me. He wanted to know how old I was and whether I had a boyfriend. I shrugged it off and walked to the next compartment. I saw a guy whom Gil mentioned to me that he was cute and he was sitting at that corner of the table. He was there chatting with his friend and I think he saw me. Then i went home finally.

Thank you Mr/Miss Annonymous

I have received quite a number of feedback from an or more annonymous readers who post his/her reply to my blog. It was said he/she enjoys reading my blog which to me is really a little honour to compliment my simple blog. Fundamentally, my aim for this blog is to share my thoughts openly, refusing to indulge in any anti-racism, sexism, political judgement or any kinds of discriminatory or personal attacks aiming at gays, handicapped, and other minority groups . Thank you very much for your support in reading my blog. And I hope that you continue reading my blog whenever you have time.

History of Taiwanese Hakka

As I was having quite an animated conversation with Gil last night, I, (I am myself a Hakka), shared with him about the Taiwanese Hakka. In fact, very little is known about the Taiwan's history. It was believed that Taiwan (Formosa) was occupied by aborginese who were living in the mountaineous and coastal areas, surviving on subsistence farming and fishing. Until when there was a huge conflict between Hakka and other dialect groups in Southern China, it forced Hakka to flee to Taiwan and other countries as these Hakka were always picked on by the other local dialect groups. Hakka were always seen as "Guest people" who were considered to have no right to live together with the other dialect group.

Around 1,500 years ago (around 7th century), these Hakka fled from Hunan province to Taiwan, contributing to the first wave of immigration from Mainland, bringing their Hakka identity and language. It was reported that because of the migration of Hakka to Taiwan, it caused numerous conflicts with the aborgines in Taiwan, driving them to the mountains and most of the lands were occupied by Hakka Chinese.

Then from 15th century, Chinese from Fujian provincen began to migrate to Taiwan, contributing to second wave of immigration from Mainland, and most of them spoke Hokkien. And these groups of people contribute to the present majority of the Taiwanese while Hakka consists of 15% of the Taiwanese.

Have put the photo crawler in my travel blog

Have already put the photo crawler in my travel blog. Do go and see this updated travel blog.
http://zxaviertravel.blogspot.com/
Have fun looking through my photos.

Today I am going to hospital

Today I will be going to Singapore General Hospital to check up on my left eye cos I notice a menacing red spot on my corneo. I could feel a little pressure on my eyeball. I dunno what is wrong with my eye even though my vision is very clear. Last week, I noticed including my mother, and Jane, that my both eyes have turned red and my mom gave me her eyedrops. After administering a few drops, my eyes were lesser red. And I did not wear contact lenses.

Look like it is quite serious and I need to go to hospital today to check up. Prior to going to the hospital, i would buy the contact lense solution as it could be a cause of reddening of my eye.

*Shrug*

As I was penning my thought....

Just now, i was back from Changi Airport Terminal 1, after seeing my friend, Kenichi, off. Then along the way, I was thinking to myself about many stuffs. Yeah, it seems that this month, I did a lot of self-reflection and a lot of happenings too. I dunno why and I seem to learn a lot from these incidents. It is related to the meaning of love, affection, one-night stand, friendship, career, and of course my family crisis. Sometimes, I do wish to be alone to sort out my thinking when I really need time for myself. I like myself to stand there for hours staring blankly at the sea while hearing the echoes of waves just like you see in the picture taken from the website. Calm soothing sound of waves certainly set my heart and mind at ease.

Yesterday, i caught Stefen on Channel U. It was in Chinese and I could not understand what it was all about but I know what was about cos Stefen was a mountaineer and photographer. This programme showed about his success in scaling Mt Everest and his passion in photography.
I feel happy for Stefen for following his heart and he is always optimisitic in doing what he does.

And Gilbert has finally arrived in Singapore hee...he sounded as if he was still in the holiday mood.

Promoting the safe sex !!!!

To promote safe sex through using condom !!! Click on this animation to view YouTube Movie. No offensive scene is seen but it is really rib-tickling.







Another funny animation !











See this sombre message to practise safe sex.

Dream list of mountains that I wanna climb

Insofar, I have climbed several mountains in Malaysia and Nepal. Here is the list of the mountains that I had scaled:

1. Taman Negara (one of the oldest rainforest in the world) which is home to Orang Asli
   
2. Belumut
3. Stong Waterfall (disputed to be the highest waterfall in South East Asia)
4. Lumbong (Kota Tinggi)
5. Mount Ophir (I had led a group of 5 trekkers with my trekking partner)
6. Gunong Pati (where I was there to train for my S.A.L.T (Singapore Adventure Leadership Training) Training)
7. Mount Kinabalu - The highest mountain in South East Asia
8. Gunung Angsi
   
9. Annapurna Circuit (Nepal) - see the photo taken above. I took it while trekking.
   

My dream list of mountains to be scaled:

Africa

1. Mount Kilimanajaro (Tanzania)
2. Mount Kenya (Kenya)

Asia

1. Mt Everest Base Camp (Nepal)
2. K2 (Pakistan)
3. Mount Arafar (Turkey)
4. Mount Fuji (Japan)
5. Huangshan (China) - World heritage cultural mountain

Europe

1. Mount Blanc (France)

America

1. Numorous mountains in Colorado and Sierra Nevada
2. Aconcagua, Argentina
   

Yesterday

Yesterday I was quite a bit moody cos I could not explain why I felt that way. Perhaps I realised that time flew too fast and my bond with the PSC would expire soon. It is like that u are coming to the crossjunction again with so many road signs pointing here and there. And I had to make a real hard decision on where I can head for.

So, i just ignored my feelings and went for the draogon boat training. It was funny that whenever I went for the training, i tended to look around at dragon boaters and would ogle at them for a moment. But that day, I did not have a mood to stare at them. :( Feeling lousy and I forced a smile in front of my fellow mates. Anyway, I took the cox rower to steer the direction of the boat. Everyone went down to the boat and off we rowed the boat. For the first few rounds of training, it was terrible and I was growing impatient with the rowers who were not putting in enough effort. So, i volunteered to take up the time pacer and wanted to push the rowers harder. So, I went to the bow of the boat and took the timing of the boat. It was much more better and rigorous than before and I began to ask everyone how they felt. They felt good and more coordinated with each other. I felt much better now.

Before we went back to the berth, we did around 8 sets of rigorous training i.e. 20 power sets, 50 long and hard pulls, 10 slow-down strokes, 20 power sets and 60 long and hard pulls to the end of the training set.

Then we did the cool down exercise and I decided to take my time to sit down and gaze into the space. Jane was very nice to keep me accompanied and asked me what was wrong with me. I told her that I was just feeling lost and nothing was serious. It was just that I was feeling like I was at the quarter crisis. I told her that I was doing some career homework from "What is the colour of my parachute?" and I asked her whether she was interested in doing with me.
She said okay as she also faced quarter crisis too. I explained to her what was being needed. Then I shared with her that I may not jump into the photography line quickly and I may try out the company which is closer to the photography..say marketing line or something related to the camera industry to allow me to gain better insight of the photography. Then after chatting for 1 hour, we went to shower ourselves. In my toilet, no one except me bathed... so sad :(

After showering quickly, I went outside to wait for Jane and I thought of photographing her with the dragon boats. And I took some shots of her as she would be sending her shots to Her World magazines.

After that we went to Le Meriden food court to have Thai food and I saw a Russian deaf girl who was peddling her pins to the customers. I saw her the day before at Sun Plaza and she approached me to buy her stuff. Then i saw a gay ang moh who always looked at me several times and I told Jane that he always liked to look at Asian twinks hee...and Jane said that the way he walked was exactly the same as me..Haa..Yes I knew ! The way I walked was like I was trained to be a ballet dancer like Elliot as when I walked, my heel of the foot never touched the ground. Then we left the food court and I realised that I forgot to take my blue mat. I ran back to the foodcourt to retrieve my blue mat and I walked back. Jane was waving at me frantically and she asked me to come to her quickly. She pointed to 2 guys holding each other openly and she said that guy was my ex ! Really? Then I tried to find him and saw him putting his arm around his date's shoulders. I signed to her let's see what the other date looked like. In my mind, Jane must be worried for me as I may have some feeling for my ex. But in reality my feeling for my ex is already dead long time ago and I have already buried my feeling in my graveyard. So, we ran among the crowd, catching some glimpses of his date but we could not see clearly. My ex as usual would lock his arm with his date's arms and they stopped outside Old Chang Kee shop to buy deep-fried stuff. Then we discussed what we should do and we ran to the opposite end and pretended buying stuff. Then we noticed that my ex and his date walked our way and we pretended not to see them. We pretended to point to the stuff and we noticed that 2 of them walked past us without saying hi to me. Then we turned around and saw his date looking at me. My ex did not look back at me. I knew it. My ex must have whispered to his date "Hey, my ex is here with his friend, Jane." and that was why his date craned his neck to see how I looked like. Anyway, Jane shrugged her shoulder giving me a sign that my ex did not say hi to me. We walked opposite direction, gossiping about that couple. Then along the way, we bumped into another deaf girl who was rushing off for her wedding dinner. We chatted for a while and then we walked to the Kinokuniya bookstore to take look at the career guidance books.

We fished out some books like What is the colour of parachute, careers with photography, careers using languages, etc..We stayed there for 1 hour before we went to the Wheellock Place to see photo exhibition. After browsing the photos, we stumbled across the photography book which was written in Japanese and English. Jane wanted to test my Japanese skils. So, I read the Japanese sentence and tried to translate into English. Then she referred to the English sentence and found that my translation was quite close. After testing me for a few sentences, Jane seemed to be convinced that my Japanese linguisitc ability was not bad after all and I thought to myself why not try to work in the Japanese company like Canon, Nikon camera company in Japan? I toyed with my idea and then I parted my way with Jane. When I went down to the Borders, I noticed some 4 guys pointing their fingers at me and looking brazenly at me as though there was something wrong with my face or I forgot to zip my pant or what. It was quite kind of offence to stare at me brazenly in the broad daylight and I saw another guy at the corner stealing his look at me.

I shrugged it off cos I was too tired to bother with all kinds of catty looks and I went home. In fact, thank to Jane who accompanied me and shared fun, I feel a bit better hee..

Gilbert in TAIWAN !!!

Gilbert has msmed his 2 photos taken in Taiwan. He said that it was such a wonderful time in Taiwan hee.. :) And I was spending time with Kenichi and his wife before he would fly back to Florida. His baby is incredibly cute and I played with him so much...Look like he and I had a special affinity for each other and his wife asked me whether i liked to play with children. I said I dunno cos I never played a lot with the children. And I told Kenichi that everytime in the bus or everywhere, many babies or children would look at me with smile. I dunno how my face managed to elicit the smiles from them. Hee...and his family took me to East Coast Park to have dinner with them.

And I just updated my travel blog. Do have a look at there. http://zxaviertravel.blogspot.com/

Now I am going to spend whole day doing my career research hee.. :)

Creating a new blog that is dedicated to my travel experience

As recalled of my meeting with Stefen, i decide to create a new blog that is dedicated to my travel experience. Of course, I have not started writing down my travel stories yet. I have to start writing from the day when I first travel alone to Tokyo, Japan in 2002 to visit my ex during the winter. It would mean a quite huge effort to dig into the virtually unreachable chasm in my memory.

This first oversea trip, of course, was definitely a beautiful memory when you visited your first love of your life and it left you with fragmented pieces of painful memory as well. When I thought about it, I really dunno where my ex was and it was like fallen leaves floating away quietly along the river to the unknown.

Because of my new-found courage to travel alone to Japan where I could mutter simple Japanese phrases, I began to travel alone to more far-flung destinations on the other side of the world. Seeing so many things in my life never brought me so much knowledge about the people's culture, way of living and way of thinking as before, widening my vision about the world. It is something that I am thankful for my "lone-ranger" trait that has been latent in me for a long time, waiting for a right time to uncover this trait. Perhaps, in a next few weeks, i will start writing my travel blogs at http://zxaviertravel.blogspot.com

Useful tips from "The 2006 WHAT COLOR IS YOUR PARACHUTE?"

1st Tip: And that's what mastery is all about: knowing what to do when and if things go wrong.
:- It is important for us to know ourselves what we are exactly looking for and know our strengths before deciding on that careers.

2nd tip: The Five Worst Ways to Look for a Job:
1) Using the Internet
2) Mailing out resumes to employers at random
3) Answering ads in professional or trade journals, appropriate to your field
4) Answering local newspaper ads
5) Going to private employment agencies or search firms for help

The Five Best Ways to Hunt for a Job:
1) Asking for job-leads from: family members, friends, people in the community, staff at career centres-especially at your local commuity college or the high school or college where you graduated
2)Knocking on the door of any employer, factory, or office that interests you, whether they are known to have a vacancy
3) By yourself, using the phone book's yellow pages to identify subjects or fields of interest to you in the town or city where you want to work, and then calling up the employees listed in that field, to ask if they ae hring for the type of position you can do, and do well.
4) In a group with other job hunters, using the phone book's yellow pages to identify subjects or fields of interest to you in the town or city where you are, and then calling up the employees listed in that field, to ask if they are hiring for the type of position you can do and do well.
5) Doing a Life-Changing Job-Hunt (BEST) : Need to do intensive homework to cover 3 parts;

• WHAT- This has to do with your skills. You need to inventory and identify what skills you have that you most enjoy using. These are called transferrable skills.
• WHERE - This has to do with job environments. You need to decide where you want to use your skills, where you would thrive and where you do your most effective work.
• HOW - You need to decide how to get where you want to go. This has to do with finding out names of the job you would be interested in and the names of organisations which have such jobs to offer and the names of the people or person who has power to hire you.

3rd tip: The clearer your vision of what you seek, the closer you are finding it. It is the vision, Ithe picture of the life you really want, that you need to be concentrating on. It has the power to bring about the change you desire.

4th tip: Go talk to at least 3 people who are actually doing this career that you find so appealing and ask them these questions:

How did you get into this field?
What do you like best about it?
What do you like least about it?
How do I get into this career, and how much of a demand is there for people who can do this work?
Is it easy to find a job in this career?
Who else would you recommend or suggest I go talk to, to learn more about this career?

5th tip: Now is the time to fulfil your dreams and the vision that you once had of what your life could be. Even if it takes patience. Even if it means hard work. Even if it means changing careers. It is related to what the world most needs from you.

6th tip: Most job-hunters who fail to master job-hunt or find their dream job, fail not because they lack information about the job-market but because they lack information about themselves. Gathering information about yourself is to make a better decision about your life.

7th tip: Whether in stages or directly, it is amazing how often people do get their dream job or career. The more you don't cut the dream down because of what you think you know about the real world, the more likely you are to find what you are looking for. Hold on to all of your dream. Most people don't find their heart's desire because they decidee to pursue just half their dream - and consequently, they hunt for it with only only a half heart. If you decide to pursue your whole dream, your best dream, the one you would die to do. It is this passion which often is the difference between successful career-changer and unsuccessful ones.

Uniquely Singapore Clipper arrived in Victoria finally

As I was reading the newspaper this morning, I stumbled across an article on Uniquely Singapore Clipper that has finally arrived at Victoria, Canada before embarking the next leg to Jamaica.

As I was reading through the article quickly, it was said that this leg was one of the toughest legs of all these legs that they have encounteted. I thought to myself. Sigh I missed out the real challenge of having sailed the roller-coaster waves, freezing sea temperature and no stops over along its route to Victoria from Qingdao. But I thought to myself, in my opinion, my leg was certainly the most eventful of all the legs that people shared with me during my sailing. Who had anticipated the boat rudder problems that plague 7 out of 10 boats and forced us to make emergency berthing in Philippines? In Singapore, Singapore clipper received the most rousing cheers and wonderful welcome for all of us that we feel at home in Singapore finally. It was a best homecoming experience in my life where my fellow Singaporeans cheered for our successful arrival at our own soilt. And the most memorable event was when we left Singapore, colourful confetti was rocketed skywards and showered upon us like an imaginery meteor shower.

Though I, admittedly, did not really like these team people there, I must say that they have actually shaped my thinking and changed my habit. In the past, I did not bother to make my bed or to keep things neatly. I did not bother to help out with the housework or to volunteer to wash dishes. I simply took many things for granted thinking someone will take care of it. When I was on the boat, everyone had to do a lot of dirty chores, washing toilet bowls, fixing the spoilt toilet bowls, fixing the water pipe that forced us to ration water as much as possible, pumping out oil from the hull, carrying heavy stuff, washing decks, maintaining equipment and others which amounts to thousands times the household workload. One time, during our mother watch and when we woke up from our rest, to our horror, the kitchen was a huge mess with so many food leftovers, unwashed utensils and we were rushing for time to prepare breakfast. I was cursing people for giving us so much work but we had to do it. We practically cleaned up all the mess taking us more than 1 hour before we actually prepared the breakfast. I thought to myself at home what about at home that some of us are not cooperative with each other, dumping unwashed utensils and someone would have to clean up. I realise that one person doing all these household chores has really a lot of things to do, leaving little time for his own personal stuff. When I came back, I decided to myself not to take things for granted anymore. I would make my bed neatly after I got out. I would wash my utensils and others after they completed their meals. Every Saturday, I make it a point to clean the house and wash toilet to keep the house as clean as possible, thus chipping in my effort to help everyone of us. I thought to myself, what makes me change. I thought to myself, Clipper experience which is akin to my National Service experience certainly improved my bad habits. And also, it certainly helps to shape my perception of people. I shared with one of the mates that she was feeling frustrated with some other mates whom she could not get along well. I told her that she has 2 options

1) Stay on the boat and endure all these unpleasantness. See good things only in unpleasant situation

2) Jump off the ship and swim away from here.

She laughed at it and she felt better after that. She has her power to select things that are good for her and not to bother about other people.

Lastly, when I looked at the article, I feel a sense of pride ballooning in me that I am very lucky to grab once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Even though my career prospect is not very bright and I am not from the rich family background, i only know to myself that I have only one life to make full use and I decide to take a biggest risk that I have ever had because it really involves a huge cost and some kind of impact on my career. I told myself, either I go for it to chase my wildest dream or to stay on to collect pay on daily basis while eking out on a mere existence.

In life, it is a matter of options whether we want to exist to live or to live to exist. It is really up to us. I decide to exist in order to LIVE. So, I grabbed it and went for it. When I saw it, I am glad that I am part of the team and i could recall beautiful moments that I have never seen in my life. Like seeing dolphins frolicking in the golden sea with magnificient sunset scenery. Who will have a chance to experience this rare beauty on this boat?

Because of this experience, I went to the one of the most remote place in the world, Mongolia. Who has a chance to go to Mongolia which has a few transportation network to outside world?

All these myriad puzzles of experiences come together to form a tapestry of my whole experience which no one can buy or no one dares to own it. It is like a song "Whole New World".

Photo of trio in Bugis Village

Finally I got the photos of 3 of us at Bugis Village. In this photo, u can find Kenichi, Ricko and myself. In a few weeks, Kenichi wil be returning to Florida and of course I would miss him dearly. Hee..

As for Ricko, his birthday was just over and I sent him a very kinky free greeting card from www.10percent.com hee...

This weekend...

Last Friday, I was told by Gilbert that he had to undergo the operation at 12pm to remove the stones from kidney. So, after work, I cabbed down to Gleneagles Hospital to his room 919. I finally found him lying on the bed, and he looked frail as if his skin hanged losely over his skeleton. Poor thing and his face lit up upon seeing me with a bouquet of yellow daisies. Prior to my arrival there were 2 huge and tastefully arranged bouquets of tiger lilies and other flowers. Distinct smell of pink tiger lilies permeated throughout his ward.

I approached him and enquired after his health. He said he felt much better with the stones being removed. He also added that the doctor had detected the presence of polym which would be under investigation. He would have another appointment with the doctor on this lab report. So, his face grimaced in pain as his cathether has been inserted through his bladder and it definitely caused him a lot of discomfort while moving around on the bed. We chatted for quite sometime and we watched TV programmes.

An hour later, his sister came over to visit him. She updated him on the event that we were supposed to attend.

Then I left the ward around 11pm and took bus home. The next day, as usual, I did my housework quickly before my whole family left together for the election day. We drove to the Wellington Primary School where all the residents living in Sembawang area had to vote for either PAP or SDP.

Then after that I left home for my photographic trail around Little India. I bought a row of 4 films at $9 and then Jane and I walked around Little India, taking some interesting shots of this town. Jane shared her experience in Bangkok as she backpacked alone to BKK. She also shared that she saw a couple of gay men walking hand in hand, making me green with envy that in Singapore, holding hands in the public is definitely frowned upon and cannot be condoned at all unless they are willing to take risks to bear all stares and finger-pointings. She gave me Queer As Folks DVD as she bought them in BKK. I had seen some of seasons at my ex's house before. It depicted quite a number of nude and sexual scenes which could be very titillating. See this image with sex scenes. However based on my inner sources, all these actors are straight.

" There's a big trend in Hollywood right now with straight actors portraying gay men. Mathieu Chatelois, host of SoGayTV, gave examples of Eric McCormack who plays Will Truman on Will and Grace, Michael Boatman who plays Carter Heywood on Spin City, and Kerr Smith, who plays Jack McPhee on Dawson's Creek. Mathieu's roommate Trevor (Tre) Smith, who is a ‘lofter' at U8TV.com, is a straight actor who played ‘hard-core gay' on Queer As Folk last season, as one of Brian's tricks from Woody's in episode 105 (he's actually credited as ‘Nasty Trick' on the performer index). SoGayTV spoke with Tre and Hal Sparks about this issue."

For example Hal Sparks with his cute doleful eyes is straight to the chagrin of gay men who fantasize of having sex with him. And his acting skill definitely earns him the most convincing role as a gay man and I was simply floored by his acting skill. So, better wise up to face reality that TV and Reality are 2 different worlds. Decide on one of them!

And it was rumored that there are 3 gay men alongside with the straight actors: Peter Paige, Bobby Gant, and Randy Harrison. You can google-image them.


Then I left Dhoby Ghaut to meet Gilbert for dinner at Holland Village. He looked much better as the colour has finally returned to his cheek and we ate hearty dinner at Crystal Jade Restaurant.

Then we went to his house to watch the Election Outcome but I was not too bothered about it. So, I watched the QAF in his laptop and it took around 30 to 45 minutes to complete one season. Then it was time for me to go home.

Then this morning, I copied my friend's japanese notes as I missed whole 1st semester and so far, I could remember most of the important japanese grammar and vocabulary. In fact, I was enjoying copying down the notes without much difficulty. Then I rushed out of the house for my dragon boat practice and took cab from City Hall MRT Station to the Kallang Basin...Wow, so many topless eye-candies with tanned beefcakes and ripped wakeboard abs walking up and down and making me more horny staring at them. As I was rushing down to the locker, I saw a cute topless guy and we stared at each other. He smiled at me first and being polite and quite interested in him as he is not a bad looking chinese guy, I smiled back and then walked past him. Quickly, I rushed to the toilet to change before locking my stuff in the locker. Then I joined my mates and I noticed the same guy at that corner. I cued Jane to look at that guy as he is sort of my type. That guy and I stared at each other for a while before we started our training. Perhaps, for the next training, if I see him, I would be more brazen to say Hi hoping that he would not be horrified by my brazen accost. I had a similar experience before when i brazenly said Hi to that guy whom I always get mistaken. He was not Gilbert's friend whom I always claim him to be and last few weeks, as I was rushing down to the Cali gym and I saw that guy, but he nonchalently walked in, pretending not to see me. Anyway, I did not bother as at least I said hi to him and it reflected what kind of person he is. Perhaps he is too shy...And I remembered that incident where Gilbert and I sat opposite the counter. That guy came down and he whipped out his handphone, appearing to be busy sms-ing for a long time. Gilbert and I gossiped that he was probably pretending to be busy cos he was probably feeling shy to walk past us with our stares burning at his back. So, we decided not to "torture" and let him go by going out of the gym first.

Then after tough training, I went to the changing room to change before meeting them outside the toilet. We took bus to the Suntec City to have dinner with 2 other suspected gay rowers. We had a dinner and I noticed that E*** was secretly taking photos of me. So, I pretended to act cool by turning my face frequently until E*** asked for my permission. I accepted his request to pose nicely for him and he showed me my photo. Then I took his handphone after asking him for permission to view photos. He took 2 other photos secretly at this same spot and I saw other photos which were taken with his friends at Maxwell Market. It already confirmed my suspicion. Anyway, i just pretended that it was just normal and finally we went home.

I finished up to 2/3 of the book "What is the colour of my parachute?" and I bought the workbook for me to work out the plan for my career switch. I feel much more clearer in my career search thank to the book and gilbert's advice.

Kidney Stones

Gilbert sms-ed me this morning that he will be going for the minor operation to remove the kidney stones. He complained of the pain at his lower back since Sunday and we thought that the pain would go away if he drank plenty of water to flush the stone out of the kidney. However, according to the CT scan, the 3.5mm stone was found to be lodged in his kidney and he has to go for the operation to have few stones surgically removed.

So, tonight I will be seeing him and I really hope that he will be released from constant pain that kept on plaguing him. Sigh..he has gone through a lot in life and he once told me that he had a near-death experience where the black guys mugged him and knocked on his head using the metal club. And he told me how he managed to fight back to be alive from the razor-thin between life and death.

What is a kidney stone?

A kidney stone is a hard mass developed from crystals that separate from the urine and build up on the inner surfaces of the kidney. Normally, urine contains chemicals that prevent or inhibit the crystals from forming. These inhibitors do not seem to work for everyone, however, so some people form stones. If the crystals remain tiny enough, they will travel through the urinary tract and pass out of the body in the urine without being noticed.

Kidney stones may contain various combinations of chemicals. The most common type of stone contains calcium in combination with either oxalate or phosphate. These chemicals are part of a person's normal diet and make up important parts of the body, such as bones and muscles.
A less common type of stone is caused by infection in the urinary tract. This type of stone is called a struvite or infection stone. A bit less common is the uric acid stone. Cystine stones are rare.

Who gets kidney stones?

For unknown reasons, the number of people in the United States with kidney stones has been increasing over the past 30 years. The prevalence of stone-forming disease rose from 3.8 percent in the late 1970s to 5.2 percent in the late 1980s and early 1990s. White Americans are more prone to develop kidney stones than African Americans. Stones occur more frequently in men. The prevalence of kidney stones rises dramatically as men enter their 40s and continues to rise into their 70s. For women, the prevalence of kidney stones peaks in their 50s. Once a person gets more than one stone, others are likely to develop.

What are the symptoms?

Kidney stones often do not cause any symptoms. Usually, the first symptom of a kidney stone is extreme pain, which occurs when a stone acutely blocks the flow of urine. The pain often begins suddenly when a stone moves in the urinary tract, causing irritation or blockage. Typically, a person feels a sharp, cramping pain in the back and side in the area of the kidney or in the lower abdomen. Sometimes nausea and vomiting occur. Later, pain may spread to the groin.

If the stone is too large to pass easily, pain continues as the muscles in the wall of the tiny ureter try to squeeze the stone along into the bladder. As a stone grows or moves, blood may appear in the urine. As the stone moves down the ureter closer to the bladder, you may feel the need to urinate more often or feel a burning sensation during urination.

If fever and chills accompany any of these symptoms, an infection may be present. In this case, you should contact a doctor immediately.

How are kidney stones treated?

Fortunately, surgery is not usually necessary. Most kidney stones can pass through the urinary system with plenty of water (2 to 3 quarts a day) to help move the stone along. Often, you can stay home during this process, drinking fluids and taking pain medication as needed. The doctor usually asks you to save the passed stone(s) for testing. (You can catch it in a cup or tea strainer used only for this purpose.)

The First Step: Prevention

If you've had more than one kidney stone, you are likely to form another; so prevention is very important. To prevent stones from forming, your doctor must determine their cause. He or she will order laboratory tests, including urine and blood tests. Your doctor will also ask about your medical history, occupation, and eating habits. If a stone has been removed, or if you've passed a stone and saved it, the laboratory should analyze it because its composition helps in planning treatment.

You may be asked to collect your urine for 24 hours after a stone has passed or been removed. The sample is used to measure urine volume and levels of acidity, calcium, sodium, uric acid, oxalate, citrate, and creatinine (a product of muscle metabolism). Your doctor will use this information to determine the cause of the stone. A second 24-hour urine collection may be needed to determine whether the prescribed treatment is working.

Lifestyle Changes

A simple and most important lifestyle change to prevent stones is to drink more liquids—water is best. If you tend to form stones, you should try to drink enough liquids throughout the day to produce at least 2 quarts of urine in every 24-hour period.

People who form calcium stones used to be told to avoid dairy products and other foods with high calcium content. But recent studies have shown that foods high in calcium, including dairy products, may help prevent calcium stones. Taking calcium in pill form, however, may increase the risk of developing stones.

You may be told to avoid food with added vitamin D and certain types of antacids that have a calcium base. If you have very acidic urine, you may need to eat less meat, fish, and poultry. These foods increase the amount of acid in the urine.

To prevent cystine stones, you should drink enough water each day to dilute the concentration of cystine that escapes into the urine, which may be difficult. More than a gallon of water may be needed every 24 hours, and a third of that must be drunk during the night.
Foods and Drinks Containing Oxalate

People prone to forming calcium oxalate stones may be asked by their doctor to cut back on certain foods if their urine contains an excess of oxalate:

• beets
• chocolate
• coffee
• cola
• nuts
• rhubarb
• spinach
• strawberries
• tea
• wheat bran
  

People should not give up or avoid eating these foods without talking to their doctor first. In most cases, these foods can be eaten in limited amounts.

Medical Therapy

The doctor may prescribe certain medications to prevent calcium and uric acid stones. These drugs control the amount of acid or alkali in the urine, key factors in crystal formation. The drug allopurinol may also be useful in some cases of hyperuricosuria.

Doctors usually try to control hypercalciuria, and thus prevent calcium stones, by prescribing certain diuretics, such as hydrochlorothiazide. These drugs decrease the amount of calcium released by the kidneys into the urine by favoring calcium retention in bone. They work best when sodium intake is low.

Very rarely, patients with hypercalciuria may be given the drug sodium cellulose phosphate, which binds calcium in the intestines and prevents it from leaking into the urine.
If cystine stones cannot be controlled by drinking more fluids, your doctor may prescribe drugs such as Thiola and Cuprimine, which help reduce the amount of cystine in the urine.

For struvite stones that have been totally removed, the first line of prevention is to keep the urine free of bacteria that can cause infection. Your urine will be tested regularly to be sure that no bacteria are present.

If struvite stones cannot be removed, your doctor may prescribe a drug called acetohydroxamic acid (AHA). AHA is used with long-term antibiotic drugs to prevent the infection that leads to stone growth.

People with hyperparathyroidism sometimes develop calcium stones. Treatment in these cases is usually surgery to remove the parathyroid glands (located in the neck). In most cases, only one of the glands is enlarged. Removing the glands cures the patient's problem with hyperparathyroidism and with kidney stones as well.

Prevention Points to Remember

If you have a family history of stones or have had more than one stone, you are likely to develop more stones.

A good first step to prevent the formation of any type of stone is to drink plenty of liquids—water is best.

If you are at risk for developing stones, your doctor may perform certain blood and urine tests to determine which factors can best be altered to reduce that risk.

Some people will need medicines to prevent stones from forming.

People with chronic urinary tract infections and stones will often need the stone removed if the doctor determines that the infection results from the stone's presence. Patients must receive careful followup to be sure that the infection has cleared.

Continuing my conversation with Stefen Chow

After sharing my experience with Stefen during my expedition, we decided to move to a quiet area to discuss more on his work.

When we shifted to the new area, I enquired about his work and what exactly he was doing as a freelancer. He told me that last 2 months ago, he went to Cambodia to do photographing of the village children and he wanted to develop a portfolio on these village children in Cambodia. Wow, i mumbled to myself as there are really few people who can give up their luxury for their pursuit of their dreams. I quipped to him, what made him go there to take photography of those childre, trying to play a little devil's advocate. He showed me those photos taken in Cambodia and these photos depicted all these children in the poor and rustic village. I asked where the place exactly was and he replied that this village was miles away from the Phnom Pen and I wondered how he could communicate with them. He told me that the NGO provided him a translator and he was able to interview these children. He told me that he was hoping to raise the profile of these villagers and encouraged more corporate companies to donate books and reading materials to enhance their knowledge about the world. He showed me one photo capturing those children who were hungrily devouring their coveted colourful story books. I could see the real and innocent happiness being lit up on their faces. And he showed me another photo of the run-down classroom. I told him that this classroom was very similar to the classroon in Wenchang, Hainan Island during my volunteering stint with SIF.

He told me in his sms before that he would be away for a few days. Arousing my curiosity, I asked him where he would be going over the weekend. He explained that he would be away to attend wedding in Phuket.

Then I shared my real purpose of meeting him that I am thinking seriously to change my career to what I really like and want to do, not for the sake of job security. I fished out my book which I borrowed from the library and showed this book titled "How to escape lifetime security and pursue your impossible dreams - Kenneath Atchity". This title was already self-explanatory for those people who really cares to listen to their hearts telling them that they must do something what they love to and ought to. He took this book and made a cursory flip through this book, So I told him that my bond with my company will expire in September 2006 while he was listening intensely. And it is really a wake-up call for me to really think about what I should do about after bond expires.

I: "My bond with PSC will expire in Sept and I think I have to move on to search for more enriching career. It is not like those people who follow the crowd for the sake of security and iron rice bowl. I am thinking of possible careers like camera man, photographer or others. But I have discussed with my friend who has some knowledge about camera man. She said that it would be an onus on me as it involves a lot of hearing while filming a subject. Unless I strike out to be a film-maker, making a documentary, it could be a possible."

Stefen" I agree that being a film-maker is not a easy task for you cos it also involves a lot of hearing. You may not be able to catch fast. As for the photographer, I think you could be in a better position as you are hearing impaired. And moreover you are even more unique in this sense."

Adrian "Hmm, what do you mean by more unique in this sense?"

Stefen"You see, you have travelled extensively which is like me or even more than I travelled. And you have encountered so many incidents and you managed to handle those tough situations single-handedly without any help. You have travelled to all those places alone and as a deaf person, it definitely is not an easy task. Like at Manila Airport, I can easily call my friends to solve the problem but as for you, how you could solve the problem since the staff refused to help you to call for you."

Adrian" I remembered my incident when I took British Airway. At that time, there was a strike by catering department for better working condition. So, I checked in the counter at Changi Airport and was told that the meals would not be provided. They gave me vouchers for me to "da bao" food to the BA. All throughout the journey, when i alighted at the airport, I sms-ed my friends that I landed in London safely. The moment I came out of the airplane, I saw a bus waiting for me. There was a sign written in French."

Stefen"French?" as he could not understand my pronunication and I wrote the word "French".

Adrian " Then I did not let it bother me. The majority of them are french-speaking. So, when the bus moved away from the airplane to the airport, I saw more signs written in French and I was very puzzled. How can the road signs be written in French since this airport is in London?"

Stefen seemed to know what exactly it had happened,

Adrian " I turned out and asked a woman. I told her that I have a hearing problem and I could not hear well. Can you tell me where I am now? That woman said, 'Oh, you are now in PARIS! You cannot go to London because there is a strike at the London airport'. Oh my god, I did not know that I was in Paris. I sms-ed my friends and family that I am now in Paris. I am the last one to know that I am in Paris."

Stefen laughed at me and he shared his similar incident with me.

Stefen "One time in Paris, i was on my way to the train station, The train was supposed to leave for Madrid at 12:30pm and I arrived at the Paris Train Station at 12:00pm. I thought to myself that I have plenty of time and I checked in the counter. The counter staff said, Sorry you came to the wrong station. There are 3 train stations being located far away. I have to run all the way with my luggages to the train station. That train was almost pulling away from the station. And then I had to run all the way to get into the train. Finally I arrived in Madrid and later I was robbed!"

Adrian "Oh my god. Look at me..Because of my white lie, it caused me so much distress and if I stayed in Philippines for a little longer, I would be probably issued an air ticket."

We all laughed together

Stefen "See, you have all these kind of experiences and you must write down. One day, you can send these articles with the photos to the magazines. I am sure that your story will be sought after as it offers interesting perspective of the deaf person.

I took note of it.

Stefen "Being a photographer is not easy as u have to package yourself as a different person. I can differentiate myself a s person who conquered Mount Everest, fitness level and technical expertise. Very few photographers have their excellent technical expertise and if the company asked me to climb the mountains, I can do that. It is something that we have to project our unique skills that put us in a better advantage."

Stefen "However, I do not want the experience as a mountain climber who conquered Mount Everst as a wholly advantage as even if I pushed myself to the public that I conquered Mount Everst. So what? It does not tell me anything about yourself as a real photographer. I have to do really more than just showing people that I climb Mount Everst. I have approached National Geographic Channel magazine for the job opportunities. You know what he said. You can be very few mountain climbers who climb Mount Everest but you are not the only one who climbed Mount Everst from NGC. So what is so special about your achievement?"

Adrian "Yeah, I understand. Since you are so sure about your possible career path to be a photographer. What is your greatest fear?"

Stefen "I think my greatest fear is that when I produce work, i fear that this work may not be good as before. I mean that I can produce good work now but later on, the same idea or techniques that I put in may not be good. So, I have to try to adjust my techniques in order to meet people's expectation or demands."

Adrian "I would like to share with you. I think your fear could be unfounded as if you continue to do that way, you could lose your individualism and originality which is very essence of the photography."

Stefen "I admit that I am very much affected by people's opinions. Whatever people comments, I tend to change my style to suit their requirement. Maybe for now, I am a newbie and I had to start from the scratch and do everything."

Adrian "Yeap perhaps as you became more experienced later on, you may not even modify your style as it is your own style that remains unrivalled."

Adrian"Since you have mentioned to me that money is still important and why dun you work in the big company to save money to fund your dream?"

Stefen "I have thought over many times and I did not want to be in the corporate world as my heart told me. It is a really difficult decision that I alone have to make and really decide on what path I would take."

Adrian "Yeah, gone the days where there used to be a lifetime security and we worry for the next rice bowl. We ought to listen to our hearts and take unconventional path."

Stefen "For your case, I think you shld not quit immediately after your bond expires. Effectively you can explore and spend more time on what you want to do. Perhaps spend lesser time on your work and find out what you want to do. You sort of know what you want but still you need to find out more about the paths that you want. At least you are making a step rather than not making any single step."

Adrian "But I still think that you have made a right decision to take this off-beaten track and whereas I wasted my 4 years doing something that greatly bores me. How do I wish to jump into that field that i want to 4 years ago?"

Stefen "No, I dun agree. I think during 4 years of working in civil service gives you an advantage as you have steady incomes to fund your travelling and adventures and you have seen so much things over there. It is a matter of time when u really decide to leave your current job. For me, I have already started on my foundation so I can ride on top of my past achievements. For example, there is a job vacancy as a photographer for the New Paper and there are so many people vying for that post. Because of my past achievement and drive to get this job, I get this job."

Adrian "How about your parents and your gf? Are they supportive of your cause?"

Stefen "They are. Without their support, I will never make it and in fact, my parents expect me to stay on with the stable jobs with steady income. But when I realised that that is not what i wanted to do in life, I have to really convince them that I am sure that I am able to do well in this unconventional path."

Adrian "My parents also think the same way as yours and it is really hard to convince them."

Stefen "It is not hard to convince provided you really convince that you know what to do and where you will be heading for. They will gradually accept and support you all the way. They have already supported my quest to conquer Mt Everest."

Adrian "What do you expect to see yourself down the road?"

Stefen "I hope to be one of the world-class photographers. And I do not want to be those people who happen to be at the mid-life crisis searching for jobs. I want to start from young, building up the expertise and experiences and then from there, you will be more stabilised after years in this similar line that you are passionate about."

Adrian "I agree. Hey let's walk out of the Food Republic as it is late. It is almost 10:30pm."

Both of us left Food Republic and strolled down the Orchard Road. I could not remember what we discussed. When we reached the bus-stop, my bus came and I told him to keep in contact. I rushed off to catch my bus home.

After quite some time, I sms-ed "Hey pal, it is really enlightening and heart-lifting to share each other's insights. It is really a frank conversation for both of us. As we know that the society tends to classify those who are bohemian or maverick as insane, weird and mad dogs. But we know that we are not mad but we follow our hearts to unlock our dreams with key of courage. Thank you coming to meet and let's keep each other in contact."

He replied "The pleasure is certainly mutual! I think you are on the right track, and whatever you do, don't let your enthusiasm and yearing to learn to diminish. It is the greatest strength you will have, and up to yourself to fulill that potential."

A conversation with my good friend, Stefen

Yesterday, I asked my friend, Stefen Chow whom I know him through "Make-It-Real Programme" which is organised by NUS and SMF (Singapore Mountaineering Federation). This programme encouraged NUS students regardless of sex, races or fitness level to join in this challenging programme which requires them to scale 14th highest mountain in the world, Xixabangma.

Stefen has scaled Xixabangma and the world tallest mountain Mount Everest successfully. It was such a lauded achievement that Stefen has ever achieved at his young age of 24. He is one of the 3 team members who successfully scaled the Mount Everest. It is definitely once-in-a-lifetime moment that should be relished with the full ounce of energy that no one from Singapore at this young age has ever conquered the Mount Everest. As for myself, I was being dwarfed by his great achievement and yet when we met each other, I was simply bowled over by his great humility that he is just an ordinary mortal who has his big dream.


So, we arranged to meet up at the Food Republic at 7:30pm and I tapped on his shoulder, saying Сайн байна уу "Sain Ba Nu". Then I asked him whether he could catch what I am whispering to his ear. He shook his head while keeping his cheerful disposition. I repeated "Сайн байна уу" and I explained it means "Hello" in Mongolian. His face lit up with his bushy eyebrows pulling backwards from his eyes as he tried to pronounced this word. And then I added 2 more Mongolian phrase words "Баярлалаа"(Bayarla), Thank you and "Баяртай" (Bayartai) Goodbye. He seemed to be awed by new linguisitic vocabularies as I always am so keen to learn different foreign languages. Then he said "नमस्ते" (Namaste) with his both hands clasped together. I immediately clapsed my hands and said "नमस्ते" (Hello in Nepali). We both laughed together as we had been to Nepal before. I went to Nepal to scale Annapurna Circuit for 1 month on my solo expedition.


We ordered our food and I started my conversation with him. I asked what he was doing for past few months. His hair seemed to be longer than before when I met him before I departed on my second half clipper race from Singapore to Qingdao. He told me that he is now working as a SPH photographer for 3 mths. He is doing his photography assignment for the New Paper and containing my excitment to interrupt, I said "Wow, that is good as you always want to be a photgrapher".Then I shared my personal odyssey from Singapore to Qingdao. He listened intensely while eating his mee poh. I shared that when we left Singapore, the wind speed had picked up and the boat sliced through the sea at higher speed unlike the first half of the leg. However, after 1 week out on the sea, the Glasgow Clipper ran into the technical problem with the rudder. I posed a question to him whether he knew what the rudder was. He nodded and I further explained that the rudder had been severely damaged and there was a big hole on the hull of the boat. The Glasgow crew had to abort its plan to continue the leg to Qingdao and went to Subic Bay in Philippines. The news of Glasgow's abort of the journey, has prompted the rest of the boats to double check with their hulls and it turned out that 7 out of 10 boats had the same problems. Only Singapore and other 2 boats were not affected but still all 10 boats must go to Subic Bay for their thorough investigation of the technical problems. Stefen quipped that what would happen to the rest of the leg. I explained that whilst we travelled to Subic Bay, the repairmen found out that these affected boats had to remain in Subic Bay for more than 1 month affecting many crew members' plans including mine. Many of them were, of course, disappointed and given 2 options : Clipper would pay them to fly home and when the boats were ready to sail, the Clipper would pay for their return trip. For the rest, the Clipper would foot the air-fare ticket to fly from Manila to Qingdao. So, I opted for the second option as I had my travel plans. So, I arranged with the Clipper management that I needed to go to HK the day after. So, the Clipper reverted to me that they could only get the air ticket next monday. Refusing to give in to their alternatives, I made a white lie to them that I had a Hong Kong friend who had a major heart operation and I had to be there in HK. The Clipper, on hearing my believable pleas, relented and tried her best to negotiate to get the early flight. Within 2 hours, the Clipper confirmed my flight out of Manilia to HK. Brimming with delight that the Clipper was fooled by my lie, I quickly packed my stuff and hailed the taxi to Manila which was 5 hours' away. Stefen rolled his eyes with his smile, thinking that I dared to make a childish white lie. I continued to share with him about my bad experience in Manila Airport.


When I arrived at Manila Airport, I checked in the Cathay Pacific counter with the hand-written paper with the air flight information and booking reference number. I explained to the Filippino staff that I had a hearing problem and I did not have an air ticket. I only just booked the air ticket a couple of hours ago and I, therefore, had a booking reference. She refused to accept the e-ticket booking and the airport only accepted the air ticket. She said "No air ticket, no boarding pass" with an air of arrogance and averted glaze. I was furious at her vile customer-service being rendered to me without any tinge of consideration and respect. I wished to yell at her for being rude to me but I held myself. I persuaded her to call the Clipper for me as I could not hear. She snapped "No" with no suggestions without even saying a simple word "Sorry" which is always used when we cannot fulful customers' satisfaction. I simply could not understand her behavious as if I had owed her a big thing in my previous life or we were arch enemies. Stefen raised his eyebrows as if he could not believe his eyes. Exactly, if anyone hears this story about these insolent CATHAY PACIFIC STAFF which is consistently rated one the best in the world, it is really disappointing to note that the customer service rendered by these staff is far below my expectation. Then I approached the other staff and I was horrifed that she also behaved the same thing as that horrid girl. Giving up on those staff, I went to the end of the counter row and I tried to rake through my brain. Surely, I could not just stay there and do nothing. I had to do something to salvage this situation and saw a staff who seemed not to be busy. I accosted her and explained my situation to her in a gentle voice. Luckily, she responded to my desparate help very well and she managed to get the boarding pass after confirmation with the tour agency in India. After being issued a boarding pass, I realised that I had only 5 minutes before the gate closed. I had to rush to the check in area and I was stopped by the immigration custom officer that I must pay the airport tax. Realising that I had no Filippino money as I used up all the money to pay for the taxi fare, I rushed to the bank nearly. To my deep chagrin, the bank was closed because it was only opened from 8am. I had to rush outside to draw money from ATM machine and I had only 2 minutes left. It was really time-bomb situation which anytime threatened with a menacing thought that my flight would dump me here in this dreary airport. I rushed through the immigration counter and finally the gate closed just before I dashed into the aerobridge. Stefen concurred with me that I had a very harrowing experience at Manila Airport and then I flew to HK to meet my mother who was there for taiji competition. Then I flew to Qingdao alone then to Beijing and then took Trans Siberia Railway from Beijing to Ulaanbatar, crossing the Gobi Desert. When I came out of the train, Siberian wind slapped me hard with icy biting cold sensation that my ears nearly went red. I asked Stefen what the coldest temperature he had ever experienced. He replied "-60 degree celsius" whilst over there, Ulaanbatar is a open-spaced city with few mountains to break the wind. So that is why the temperature could dip to -30 or -40 degree celsius.Then I shared my experience living in ger camp and he was amazed by interesting anecdotes.

[Later on, I will continue my story cos I need to go for my running training. Come back again to read my story...Hee] Byee!!!!

Busy weekend plus holiday

A few days, I have a fruitful weekend including Labour Public Holiday to spend. Last Saturday, I did my housework, cleaning the toilet, mopping the floor and bathing my dogs. Then I went out late afternoon to meet Gilbert to watch late show korean movie: "You are my sunshine." This movie depicts a unruly Korean cattle herder who fell in love with a pretty Korean hostess at the KTV. Initially, that Korean girl did not really fall in love with him until she was moved by his sincerity. Finally, they got married and painful past started to haunt both of them. The husband realised that his wife actually ran away from his first husband and later on he found out that his wife was infected with HIV virus. Unable to accept these painful facts, he tried to avoid by staying out late and one day, he came home, discovering that his wife had left his house while waiting for him to come home. Feeling despaired, he went out of his house to search for his wife. And yet, his wife went missing for more than 1 year and he had not gotten over the disappearance of his wife. One day, he heard the news of his wife being held in custody at the police station for prostituting illegally. Unable to control his emotion, he made a commotion among police officers, in his trying to wrestle his wife from the policemen. Then, he tried to see her in the jail but his wife refused to see him after his mother and brother threatened her that if they discovered that the husband continued to see her in the jail, they would severe their ties with him. Out of her love for him, she had to succumb to their threat not to see him until she relented to meet him for the last time. When they met each other, they did not say anything to each other but to lock into their eyes. Finally his wife yelled at him to get out of her sight forever, and the husband could not voice out his response. When she tried to walk towards the door, the husband tried to call her but his voice was coarse and not the same as before. On hearing her husband's voice, she rushed towards the glass barricade and asked him what happened to his voice. The female prison warden tried to bring her back to the cell and the husband unfurled his uncontrollable emotion by climbing to the top of the glass barricade and broke something so that he could reach out to his wife. It was such a melodramatic scene that brought deluge of tears from many cinema goers except me and gilbert hee..

Then after watching the movie, we went off for the short tea before going home. The next day, it was a normal dragon boat training session. But in the morning, I decided to have a short swim and saw 2 cute guys suntanning by the poolside. Then I went off home to get ready for the dragon boat training.

The next day, i was late, rushing to meet Lucas as we arranged to have outdoor photography session together, taking shots of many places until 8pm. While I was taking pictures, Gilbert sms-ed me that he had kidney stones and his urine contained blood. I was so worried and enquired about his health condition as I do not have much knowledge about it.

After the photography session, I went off to Gilbert's auntie's house for dinner and he looked quite tired. He assured me that he was fine and needed to take painkillers to stop the pain. He has to take plenty of water to flush out the kidney stones.