Attending mass back in Sunny Singapore

1st Sunday back and we chose to go to St Mary of the Angels where Pa's niche rests, plus they have 12.30pm mass which helps Ian/Michelle a lot - 2 sleepy heads.

After we lit our tea-lights for Pa and saying a short prayer, while walking out, we saw a new niche to the other side of Pa's. It's Lo Hwei Yen - Singapore's 1st terrorist victim who was murdered in Mumbai, India. It was kinda sad as she had 2 chocolate squares + a very long stem lily lovingly stuck around her niche - probably by her grieving husband.

St Mary of the Angels' columbariam has some pretty famous people in it :)

Afterwards, we headed for Adam Road hawker where I had nasi-lemak, satay, kuih lopez... BURP!

Being RC

I was being RC all day Saturday.

Rock Climber - climbing with the old gang is hard work!

Roman Catholic - going for Novena after climbing just like old times...

Nice being back.

Home for the Chinese New Year holidays

I thought I was prepared this time around. I shopped early, got my gifts for family early, dragged luggage out and put stuff inside early...

Then life threw me a spanner, at our year end party at the Sheraton Taipei no less, my handbag was stolen from my chair. All of us had our bags on our chairs. My bag was still there as I was snapping pictures of my colleagues. Last I saw my bag, I'd put my camera back into my bag just before going on stage to pick up our prize (marketing team performed a little song+skit as part of the celebrations). And during that half hour of madness when we were celebrating our win, my bag was snitched. Within it, my wallet, digital camera, mobile phone and house keys.

Thankfully it was Emily again (from the Citibank/Alexander gym fiasco) who started demanding/yelling at the hotel staff before an official search was done. We did everything we could, searched the ballroom, searched employee lockers, reviewed their very poor quality grainy security surveilance cameras, finally lodging a police report at close to midnight. Finally calling a 24hour locksmith to break into my home and to change my locks.

Grateful to Emily for taking charge, GH for being with me through it all until almost 2am after the locksmith changed my locks, Jason my realtor who drove by at midnight to see if he had backup keys to my building main door (he did!), Rae (furiously surfed the web for 24hr locksmiths), & the EWC committee who were most sympathetic and kept checking back for news from Sheraton.

Actually the whole department sympathetic. People see me and ask me with concern in their tone if I've recovered my bag yet. Senior management came by to express their regrets etc. Taipei is really safe, where everyone leaves their bags unattended (not the wisest perhaps, but it's done all the time), perhaps there's still hope. Please pray with me.

Yeah, my current team is making a lot of difference - everyone's nice. Guess that's the silver lining in this whole icky mess.

I'll be home later tonight and it's going to be 2 weeks of fun & games. As a friend once told me, it's going to be 'sports day' everyday! Yay1

Moaning during a massage

** think straight - massage as in the swedish (or rather taiwanese) type **

Question - is it socially acceptable to moan over a massage?

Emily does this all the time - she says it validates a masseur's skill. Hmmm... We occasionally rub each other's shoulders and I used to cringe each time she moans on me, I'd freeze up for a bit.

No, I have not started to do the same yet - although sometimes I am really tempted to ;)
Anyhow since I like my massages bone-crunchingly hard, usually I want to scream in pain rather than moan. The typical Chinese pressure point massages are what I'd prefer and I found a new joint at the end of the street, 10mins walk from home. Just the right place to take guests after a long plane ride, anti-DVT exercise.

Sporting exploits in winter

In my earlier exploits, I have discovered that going up a mountain in a scooter over winter can be bone-numbingly cold. Next discovery was scuba-diving in winter. Which was freezing despite my new 5mm wetsuit plus gore-tex jacket to block the wind after you surface.

Today I would like to add a new lesson - rockclimbing in winter.

Yes, I climbed outdoors last night, it was 6 degrees and windy. Honda 'jio' me out of blue to go to 内湖 to lead scary climbs. Since I had climb gear + rope here in the office, off we went.

How cold was it? I climbed with my polartec fleece on and midway through, my fingers were numb and icy! Ok ok, partly from fear! Ultra scary for me cos I haven't been climbing regularly not to mention leading!

I led the leftmost lane - the purple route. And no, I did not complete. Attempted 3x and fail just shy of the last overhang.

Thank you God for this day!

The whole week has been cold & dreary... Last night was the coldest all winter - 6 degrees in Taipei and it registered 14 degrees inside my apartment. Brr...

This morning I woke up to sunny skies. Bought my usual rose latte (see pic of empty cup). It's fantastic to walk in and they already know what I want. I just wordlessly nod and pay $. Sigh.. if only Singapore has half the service levels of Taipei.

Walking to work, feeling the warmth of the sun against the cool air of winter, with Jay Chou playing in my iPOD, sipping my rose latte... It's one of those days you feel Taiwan is a great place.

After Jay Chou's rapping, I switched to play P&W songs and really really felt God's everlasting faithful love. Thank you Jesus!

Nice start to 2009!

Guess what, I won a place to run in the Boston Marathon! Wowee...

I was so excited I really wanted to go.

Then 2 days later, it hit me that I didn't really want to run another full marathon. I don't enjoy running ALL that much! I like the idea of running to keep slim and fit and blah blah...

Guess in April, I'm free to still try to see Tibet.

Nontheless, it's nice to win, and this early into the year.

Thanks Jesus, I appreciate the vote of confidence.

Happy New Year!

Right after the countdown, Ah Guang picked me up to go to Green Island for a dive with the hammerheads. When the waters off Green Island are cold, the hammerheads circle. Alas there were no hammerheads, there were plenty of cold and puking - the winds were like typhoon levels, the temperature was 17degrees, the waves were rolling in so hard it was all frothy white.

I had a lot of time to lie in bed in between diving/freezing - mostly I slept, but half the time I lay there thinking of new year hopes, dreams and of God. My biggest hope & dream for 2008 was obviously marriage - and my internal struggle in coming to terms with the idea of possibly being alone rest of my life. This slowly led to doubt, whether God really loves me. I know I know, He loved me to death and all, I know that all.. but still...

And early this morning, 1st day at work in 2009, I read my usual blog updates including Father Aloysious' http://www.alongcorner.blogspot.com/ and his new year entry had this bible passage,
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom 8: 38 - 39)

To the depressed/melancholy/unhappy in the new year, chin up, our Lord loves us.