Solar eclipse - and I saw it!

I've never actually seen one nor cared very much. But this time it's most visible in North Asia - hey, I'm in Taiwan.

I couldn't sleep last night, eventually falling asleep at 4.30am. Slept badly and woke up at 8.30am only because there's an AMD meeting at 10am.

It appeared dark as I was leaving the house, so I grabbed an umbrella - thinking it's rain. I stopped for a latte at Ikari as usual, then decided to walk to work since it was kinda cloudy. Cloudy is wrong - I remembered the eclipse only when people were staring at the sun and pointing...

Tried to snap a pix of the sun with my cellphone - no luck. Staring at it hurts the eyes. So my office is truly geek-dom. I walked in and say, hey guys, eclipse outside. They coolly tell me to go the pantry where there're filters to see the full eclipse.

Picture taken by a colleague from our pantry window.

And tadah - the whole annular solar eclipse. Just a cresent light ring around the darkened sun at 9.50am. Truly amazing. God is great! What a spectacular sight!

Dream fulfilled - bagging tallest peaks of Taiwan

2 dreams carried over from last year - (1) visit 蘭嶼 Orchid Island, off Taitung & (2) climb 玉山Jade Mountain.

Last weekend, I visited Orchid Island. And now dream no. 2 fulfilled.

Almost didn't get to do this, a typhoon had blown in and Fri, the day before we were to leave, it was officially off - Jade Mountain national park was closed. I had dinner with my colleagues Friday night & ironically in the taxi going home after dinner, Emily pointed out the taxi driver's name - it was 王玉山or King Jade Mountain. Hmm...

9am on Sat morning, Honda called me to tell to get my stuff, the park's open and the trip's back on! Without applying leave (no time), I only had time to drop by the drugstore to get some anti-mountain sickness pills, and presto, we're off.

Sat it was road trip all the way to Nantou, and we stayed at the base lodge. I went right to bed, no shower. Sun morning, we rose early and started the long 5 hour walk up to the high camp 排雲山莊. Mon 2.30am we made our summit bid, first the main peak, then the eastern peak. By Mon 2.15pm, I was back at the base lodge where our bus was waiting.

I'm really thrilled that I got to summit Jade Mountain - in the process bagging the 2 tallest peaks in Northeast Asia, the main peak (3952m) and east peak (3940m). Taiwan being so mountainous, lists its 100 best peaks as 百岳.

My pix - http://www.flickr.com/photos/8062670@N07/sets/72157621764305588/

Now here's the funny part to the hike. I'm actually the youngest member of the team. Amazingly everyone else is in their 50s, 60s. Heck, Sandie who's perhaps 50+, brought her brother, now he's 70. And at every rest stop, they wait for... ME. Yes! Taiwanese people are really strong! A common refrain when I show up at each rest spot is, oh she's here, followed by, oh she's now lying flat again (她又躺平了). I was soooo beat.

My legs were so sore, 1st morning back, I contemplated jumping down my spilt level studio because my 39-yr-old legs are absolutely jello.

Last night no. 18 from 宫廷Massage just outside of Tunghua night market did her magic. I highly recommend this place if you need an excellent massage in Taipei. :)

Thank you God for dreams fulfilled.

Funny advertisement

You gotta give it to Taiwan - they're very creative. I love this ad. Cracks me up everytime.

A dream fulfilled - Orchid Island

This trip has been in the planning since mid of last year, canceled repeated due to typhoons. This time around, there is so little confidence that it'll happen and when it finally did, even I was surprised.

No excuses, but I was so sure it'll get canceled that I didn't pack til the day itself. I forgot my camera (brought the dive housing though) *slap forehead*, and I forgot clean tshirts. Well done, Felicia (kick myself).

The island is very beautiful.
The hotel is very sucky.
Our fellow guests are very loud, especially at 5am in the morning.
The diving was ok - similar to Green Island.
There are a lot of sea snakes in the waters off Orchid Island - we see at least 3 snakes per dive.

Still, I had great fun.

Take the photos off the Ah Guang :
http://www.flickr.com/photos/aniceday0101/sets/72157621290037189/

MJ's memorial service

On another conference call this Wed evening.

So here I am sitting here, watching TV, playing Zuma on Facebook, replying the occasional email and trying to listen to what the folks are saying on the call, yeah, all at the same time.

What am I really doing? Watching MJ's memorial service on TV mostly. They actually had MJ's casket at the memorial. And I was thinking, who is that Asian woman singer, she can sing! Googling reveals everyone asking the same question - she's some backup singer who used to work for MJ? Anyways... she did a great job singing We are the World.

That song brings back memories, think I sang it at some school dance with my class. Or rather I believe I lip-synced to it.

Yawn!

Diving 东北角 Taiwan's North Eastern Coastline

东北角 is the nearest dive spot for Taipei residents. It's a quick 45min getaway. Ironically, it is the same place for outdoor rockclimbing.

I had been to the exact same spot, almost 2 years ago, Nov 07, the area by Hemei primary school. Except I was there to rockclimb and the school was the entrance to the crag. We dive right off the carpark in front of the school. In summer, it was a frenzy of activity. Divers, snorkelers, people frolic-ing/cooling off the summer heat... and the occasionally rockclimber walking by. I yelled hello to a fellow climber I recognized.

Got my 2nd chance to practise my photography skills. There was very little currents, but visibility wasn't too great. 1st dive was ok, then it got progressive worse as the tide came in. Still, this place was pretty amazing - harlequin shrimps, a flamboyant cuttlefish changing colours in its attempt to free itself (we surrounded it all angles with our cameras ;0 ) and a peculiar winged fish that looks like a bat - is it a dragonfish? Need to ask the dive guide... Also I kept seeing tentacles from crevices that'd move if you approached. Tried to prod it and it retracted totally into the crevice, at that point, I was convinced : octopus! But Ah Guang says no, it's related to the sea cucumbers which incidentally moves and also has tentacles. Dang... wanted to pull the critter out of its hiding place, but was afraid I'd mis-member it, so er, be a good safe diver.

Key takeaways :
1. 东北角is pretty good diving
2. I still don't get this dive and shoot picture thing
3. My camera distracted me so much that I was down to 0 on air and didn't realize it! Ah Guang grabbed my gauge and pointed it with much consternation. Then he gave me his buddy air. Yeah, my first time using someone else's backup air.

My pictures. Of noteworthy mention, harleqin shrimp, flamboyant cuttlefish especially.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8062670@N07/sets/72157620992814002/

Neihu or Muzha?

I've started looking at apartments. Hoping to move to live by the riverside. The good thing is there're lots of apartments by riversides since there're lots of rivers/streams. I like Neihu neighbourhood but the apartments there cost more. Muzha is nestled against mountains and has less foreigners ie not so neat and orderly, but there're new developments that cost less for more.

Today I viewed 5 apartments over lunch. 3 in Neihu - they were all too small or were icky. 2 in Muzha - both were nice, 1 is a little over my budget, will see how the negotiations go. But in any case living in Muzha means no MRT, traveling via public buses or taxis. Nothing that screams 'rent me!' for now.

Taipei at a total standstill midday

The entire north Taiwan including Taipei grinding to a total standstill at midday?

We practiced an air-raid alert today. The sirens went off and between 1.30 to 2pm, all cars were not allowed to drive on roads, no human traffic along the roads. On the streets, life grounded to a total stop.

I had no clue, as is the general rule here, everything's in Chinese, those not so proficient in Chinese tend to miss too much.

I had gone to the gym over lunch. Then stopped by 7-11, bought a healthy salad lunch and was happily walking back to the office when I got stopped by policemen. They invited me to the police station and ignored my whines 'i have a meeting at 2pm'.. HP was just across the street and they insist I cannot 'just run back to the office' and that I had to 'cooperate with all of Taiwan'. Fine. Here's how close I got back to the office pictorially...

So I pulled out my salad lunch and ate it in a police station. :)

Back slightly late into the 2pm meeting. But this is really good. That Taiwan takes national defence very seriously.

Kinmen over the weekend

I finally made it to Kinmen this weekend. Kinmen is ironically closer geographical, 2km to Xiamen, China rather than to the main island of Taiwan.

So why is Kinmen, Taiwan and not PRC? Who knows.

Shortly after the war, before US stepped in to warn China off, there was fighting at Kinmen between the PRC and the KMT of Taiwan. Most of our touring were of the war remnants, like forts and bunkers.

The highlight was the closest point to Xiamen, China. We could literally see the talk buildings there!

Our tour came with free bus tours, there were 4 but our laidback style meant that we kept missing the start times of the bus tours and we'd take taxis to some midpoint and jump on the bus there. The Kinmen people - taxi drivers and the tour bus drivers seemed very bemused to have sudden additions to the tour midway through. And they never understood us - you want me to take you to bus tour stop where?! They kept muttering these Koreans... we ain't Koreans!

The 3 things people buy from Kinmen - knives, gaoliang wine and peanut candy. I bought a bottle of gaoliang - can't help myself. Will think about who to give it to when I bring it back to Singapore. The peanut candy was consumed in minutes. Whew!

Pix - http://www.flickr.com/photos/8062670@N07/sets/72157620723081736/

The Geek Transformation

I started out with a simple Yahoo email account, then I started a blog, added a Flickr account to park my pix, needed a Youtube account to hold my videos, along the way added a Yahoo ymail email account, on much cajoling from Yingzi, started a Facebook account. And now, my latest update on Twitter.

It's like Transformers, I am pretty geek-fied.

Speaking of Transformers, I got free tickets to the VIP premiere on Monday. Er.. it clashes with a regular conf call. This gets tricky - work or movie, conference call or entertainment, responsibility or relaxation. What am I saying? I'll be in the movies if you need me at 9pm Monday night. :)

Listen to the words

Happy Birthday Calvin!

La.. la.. la...

For the 3rd day in a row, my inbox was 0 when I left work.

Today I went to a Microsoft event for the Windows 7 launch. It ended at 4pm, I was home by 4.15pm. Cleared my emails back to 0 again by 5pm.

Now contemplating whether to do an evening run in the 29degrees C heat or just stay on my couch and rot on a Friday evening....

Day hike - 鹿角坑-阳明山

With the HP Mountain-Climbing society again, on a day hike to a waterfall in 阳明山.

It's basically rock-scrambling, hopping, jumping alongside a very clear stream until we hit the end-point, a nice cool waterfall.

Very few people make it out here, so the walk was really pleasant, cool under the shady trees. The trail smelled good, of flowers actually... All very pleasant Sunday hike.

We met at 6am, were down to eat a huge lunch together at 1pm and by 3pm, I was home napping.

More pix-
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8062670@N07/sets/72157619442079020/

Success

Was talking with a friend Sat night about success (material success as defined by the world today).

We were both in the same HP department in 2000, 2001 and comparing our team-mates today, 8-9 years later - people with qualities for success aren't high up the career ladder versus the ones everyone hated and disliked.

Which begs the questions, what parameters does success require?

Garin thinks it's because we're too nice - so the age old adage, do nice people really finish last?

There was an article in IHT today about IQ and success, and the conclusion they arrived at was, success depends less on intellectual endowment than on perseverance and drive.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/07/opinion/07kristof.html?_r=1&em

What if you had perseverance & drive, but also a nice person? Why should your niceness work against you as it seems to, based on track records of so many...

And then today's gospel, Mt 5:1-12 had the answer. Eternal success over material world success.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the land.
Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.
Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the clean of heart, for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you falsely because of me.
Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven.

Stop the world, I wanna get off...

I'm in another one of those moods. I want out of the world for a bit.

It's funny, every couple of months I get the blues. Where everyone annoys me, every little selfish act against me grates. And being alone intensifies it. Strangely, unhappy when left alone, still unhappy with not left alone.

Obviously my goals towards amiability are falling short. Perhaps I am not amiable afterall. Gasp!

Ecclesiastes Chapter 1

The words of David's son, Qoheleth, king in Jerusalem:
Vanity of vanities, says Qoheleth, vanity of vanities! All things are vanity!
What profit has man from all the labor which he toils at under the sun?
One generation passes and another comes, but the world forever stays.
The sun rises and the sun goes down; then it presses on to the place where it rises.
Blowing now toward the south, then toward the north, the wind turns again and again, resuming its rounds.
All rivers go to the sea, yet never does the sea become full. To the place where they go, the rivers keep on going.
All speech is labored; there is nothing man can say. The eye is not satisfied with seeing nor is the ear filled with hearing.
What has been, that will be; what has been done, that will be done. Nothing is new under the sun.
Even the thing of which we say, "See, this is new!" has already existed in the ages that preceded us.
There is no remembrance of the men of old; nor of those to come will there be any remembrance among those who come after them.
I, Qoheleth, was king over Israel in Jerusalem, and I applied my mind to search and investigate in wisdom all things that are done under the sun. A thankless task God has appointed for men to be busied about.
I have seen all things that are done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a chase after wind.
What is crooked cannot be made straight, and what is missing cannot be supplied.
Though I said to myself, "Behold, I have become great and stored up wisdom beyond all who were before me in Jerusalem, and my mind has broad experience of wisdom and knowledge"; yet when I applied my mind to know wisdom and knowledge, madness and folly, I learned that this also is a chase after wind.
For in much wisdom there is much sorrow, and he who stores up knowledge stores up grief.

Footnote to my pilgrimage

I was asked to provide a write up of the pilgrimage. It was a nice santatised version, none of my usual sarcasm and wit. If it publishes intact, I'll stick it up here.

More of my pix -
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8062670@N07/sets/72157619139260130/

My Long Weekend - it was great!

What to do over a 4 day long weekend?

It was a toss-up between diving Green Island with Rae and perfecting my non-existent underwater photographic skills or, a Marian pilgrimage to Hualien.

Guilt won.

The pilgrimage took me to
- 2 churches. The main church of Hualien and the tiny chapel in the mountain of Hualien where we spent the night.

Main church in Hualien City

Tiny chapel in the mountains of Hualien

The view of Hualien city as I walked up the mountain to the tiny chapel where we spent the night.

- 2 tourist spots. Taroko Gorge where we marveled the beautiful marble cliffs created by God and, the Promised Land resort where we all sat around, bored.

Me in Taroko Gorge - after some China tourist got hurt by falling rocks, everyone needs to wear a hard hat now.

- 2 good meals out of the whole weekend. The seafood meal at Nan-Ao, I think I learnt this from 小川, steamed prawns with wasabe is just heavenly ; and a decent Chinese lunch at the Promised Land resort.
- 2 takeaways. I learnt about our Lady of Banneux - Virgin of the Poor. Our Lady appeared in apparition to an 11 year old kid in a remote village in Belgium. And the other message which was repeated again by a different priest over Sunday's sermon on Pentecost Sunday, free your mind.
You know, I've never been very much of a Marian person despite coming to know Jesus through Saturday Novenas. But reading the little booklet (provided by the church on a hill), thankfully they had the English version, actually sent shivers up my spine. Hey, I live alone u know... and I was reading it at 1am before falling asleep.

I gotta repeat our Lady's message at Banneux, nontheless.
- she called herself "Virgin of the Poor."
- she said she "come to alleviate suffering."
- she promised "believe in me, I will believe in you," repeating John 20:29 to believe in Jesus.
- and she admonished, on 2 occasions "Pray hard."

My other takeaway, the priest up in the mountains mentioned we have freedom to believe. God granted us free will. The freedom to choose to believe in Jesus. And on Pentecost Sunday at St John Bosco church, Fr Cary's sermon had a common refrain. He said that we need to free our minds to accept God's word. That same term - freedom. We were free, we had choice, we should choose Jesus, not the other stuff that we today choose (all the materials things we cling to). hmm...

On a lighter note, being on a weekend trip as a total stranger amidst people who all knew one another quite well was rough in the beginning. But once they realised I wasn't Filippino (as in, I speak Chinese), they were nicer, actually really very much nicer. It was mostly elderly women - a couple had husbands in tow, all Chinese speaking. From the English mass, it was 3 overseas Chinese from India (is there no escaping the Ah-Neh accent? Clearly Jesus has a GREAT sense of humour) and 3 Filippinas - yes they were maids. And then, there was me! Mostly I was the loner - I don't care really, I was there to grew closer to God.

My new exercise regime

Xinyi Sports Complex just opened, and it's right behind HP. From now til next week (I think), everything's on free trial.

http://www.cyc.org.tw/xysc/intro/intro.html

There's even an itsy-bitsy wall, worth bouldering for fun.

Emily & I went over and signed up for 4 classes of Pilates - Mondays over lunch from Jun 1.

I figured I'll bring my rock shoes into the office and perhaps go bouldering over lunch - since it's soooo convenient and it's free for the next couple of days!

Gasp! I saw Vanness of F4!

Seriously, I saw Vanness of F4 - i was waiting for the lift which was taking forever. Then the lift opened and right there, Vanness! He looked really good. Sigh. Truthfully, I only know a couple of things about him -

1. He's hot - look at his abs!

2. From many years ago, CY (our planner then) thought Terry Teng looked like Vanness of F4. CY while she's a great person, doesn't have very good eyesight. Terry Teng is NOT Vanness.

3. Vanness was on TV a couple of nights ago, and he quietly talked about no premarital sex until marriage. That he wanted to put God first. I respect this guy, to say that on Taiwan tv where he's a big star.

How to count calories

Ok, so I realise that my really inactive lifestyle in Taipei is not doing my health much good.

I eat erratic meals, I don't work out enough and there's way too much junk food consumed.

Counting calories, I realise I only need 1600 calories a day. I think a single biantang costs me close to that already *gasp*

Gotta get an exercise routine going. This ain't good.

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/calorie-calculator/NU00598

Sick

Yes, I caught the dreaded flu and no, it's not swine flu.

Yes, I'm ok now and no, I did not have a good weekend.

Yes, I slept it off all day Sat & Sun and no, I did not go to the exciting and free Turtle Island cruise nor, did I manage to RUN UP THE 101!!! Which I trained 2 weeks for!!! Arrggh.

Yes, my emotions are ok now and no, I am not totally over missing the vertical marathon.. it's the 101 *whine*

Yes, I've forgiven Rae for passing me the flu and no, er.. I lost my train of thought.. I need more sleep - my head hurts.

Reminiscing Australia

Watched the movie Australia on my HDD - my colleague Emily er.. acquired the movie.

It was nice hearing the accent again. And watching the red dusty soil of the outback.

That plus the weekend in the cypress woods which smelt of Australia.

Hmm... reminds me of 15yrs ago when I was out at Geelong.

Sigh.

Happy mother's day

1 day belated. Hey, better late than never - as mom would say :)

I can't believe this, but seriously my mom used quite a few of these words...



So I called her a while ago...

Another weekend, another mountain...

First trip with HP Mountaineering society to 太平山 and a visit to Kavalan whisky distillery (the only one in Taiwan). The hikes we did smell fantastic - the cypress woods I guess. It smelt like spas most of the time. Really enjoyed it, except it was mostly steps - like being on a stairmaster all weekend. My calves ache like hell now.

And the other highlight was the whisky distillery. It's recent, into it's 3rd year and as the whisky distillation process takes 2 years, technically it is the first year of producing whisky. I bought 2 bottles back for Michelle/Ian & Calvin. We got to sample a small sip - it's nice. Rae and I clink glasses and downed it, much to the consternation of everyone else at our table, we got dirty looks of 'you alcoholics'...

Our overall itineary

5/23(六) 第一天(午餐自理)
6:50 am 台北集合出發=== 8:20 太平山入口(土場)，停車購票=== 9:15 太平山莊下車，整裝
9:30 搭09:30 分蹦蹦車去走三疊瀑布...每一小時一班，若沒搭上09:30 分蹦蹦車，就先遊走
鐵杉林自然步道全長1.7km，再搭10:30 分蹦蹦車去走三疊瀑布～～步行
三疊瀑布2.7km 下切3 百公尺，若不想走這麼累的人，建議可以走茂興懷舊步道
14:00 搭14:00 分蹦蹦車回太平山莊，Check In，自由活動，下列步道依個人體力作選擇，
於當日再召集有興趣者共同出遊，
1) 鐵杉林自然步道全長1.7km
2) 鳩之澤自然步道全長2km
3) 見晴懷古步道全長2.35km
18:20~19:20 太平山莊用晚餐，夜空數星星太平山莊(宿)

5/24(日) 第二天
5:30 起床...看日出，不看日出者可繼續見周公
6:30~7:20 太平山莊早餐，
7: 20 集合，7:30 搭接駁車往翠峰湖===8:20 抵翠峰湖～～8: 30 台灣山毛櫸步道入口
8: 30 台灣山毛櫸步道～～3.8 km * 2 來回約需220 分鐘(普通腳)，若不想走這麼累的人
中途折返，建議可以走翠峰湖環山(湖)步道
12:00 回程往太平山莊===12:50 抵太平山莊
12:50~13:50 太平山莊午餐
13:50 集合上車，14:00 開車前往金車KAVALAN Whisky 酒莊===14:50 底達酒莊
14:50~17:50 金車酒莊參觀，品酒，喝咖啡
17:50 集合上車===18:30~19:30 礁溪用晚餐(Option:礁溪洗溫泉，不包含於費用中)
19:30 上車回台北===20:30 底台北

IRAS - truly blood sucking

I realized last night that I was still getting monthly GIRO deductions made out of my SGP bank account.

I have been working in Taiwan since Aug 2007!

You'd think IRAS would realize that when my net income in 2008 was a big fat 0!

So much Singaporeans being global citizens, IRAS needs to get with it!

I called this morning, spoke to a Puvana who told me I still need to write in either email or via fax - "black and white", ironically what Jack Neo's movies always say. Not so funny when it happens to you in real life.

IRAS! Stop deducting my $ and I want a full refund with interest! You blood sucking vampires!

Steph, call IRAS today and tell them you work overseas or they might do to you what they did to me!

I made it to morning mass!

It's a first time since arriving on Taiwanese soil. Yes, it was all in Chinese, but for what it's worth, I'm happy.

I was walking home last night and thinking about my Catholicness - I couldn't explain to Emily (my co-worker) how many archangels there are, and why Michael is an archangel. And I felt so guilty. I suppose I could've taken that moment to explain about Jesus.. but I let that moment go by. And in the morning, I woke up at 6am (having slept like perhaps 3.5hours) and could not fall back to sleep.

Guess it was a sign, to go to church, to receive Communion and to take an active stand as Catholic, as Christian.

Dame!

I've been saying that a lot lately.. dame means 'very bad' in Japanese.

Esp now. I finally made it back into the gym after 2 months. It was dame! I was seeing stars after getting off the treadmill, after running 30mins really slowly. Had to sit to recover. And the stars returned after 20 chin-ups (assisted of cos!).

Dame! I either gotta work out more or that age is catching up on me and I gotta ease off. Hmm...

Long weekends are the best!

Labour day fell on a Friday giving us a long weekend. I had intended it to be a slug weekend - sleep-in and watch movies/tv etc...

As it turns out, I did labour a little - cleaning the house, stocking the fridge up with food/drinks, doing laundry and ironing my clothes. The day to day errands that I've neglected since I started working til late nights the last 2 weeks.

Also I had dinner with Sharon who was in town - we had mala hotpot which gave me the runs. I hate eating mala hotpot with the inexperienced. They kept throwing in raw food and not letting things cook thoroughly... Kinda negated the otherwise excellent mala hotpot dinner.

Saturday, Garin called me and made me go down to Zhongli - 45mins away by train out of Taipei to race each other silly on go-carts. Go-carts here are 270cc, pretty powerful lawnmover engines ;0 Then we came back to Taipei and ate ourselves silly.

As we sat there talking over dinner.. it felt like old times all over again. Not too long ago, it was just me and Garin, exploring Taiwan. Then Vinny and Kuansie arrived here and the dynamics changed... for the worse. We spent some time discussing it, and wondering what exactly happened and how it could've avoided - we put it down to just personalities and differences.

In any case, it was nice having Garin to hang out with again. We met up again Sunday to catch X-men Wolverine.

And just like that, the slug weekend came and went.

Diving pictures - my 1st!

My top 3 (personal favourites). I esp like the cuttlefish that didn't go away and actually tried to frighten us away by assuming a larger personna. Interesting!

Diving with a camera is kinda fun. It gets a little hard to balance and hold still regardless of currents. But otherwise, I try not to turn completely into photography mode, ie I dive per my normal self and the camera comes into play only when something is really interesting.

The full lot is parked at my flickr -

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8062670@N07/sets/72157617298444301/

And of cos the selected lot on FB.

Busy and tired of it all...

Been busy for a bit now... after a row of working til midnight, it's all starting to get to me. I'm tired of working 13hrs in a day and still not feeling I'm in control of things. I hate the feeling of people asking you for something and you do your best 'deer caught in headlight' look.

Walked into office bitching to Emily about wanting a job switch. She in turn has BGR issues, so it was me bitch to her, she bitching to me... Sigh.

The good thing is the weekend's finally almost here.

And, I'm going to Kenting to dive.

Plus, I have a new underwater housing (thanks to Francis!) for underwater photography!

Expect some underwater pix here shortly.

Cycling in Taipei

Woke up early on Sat to go cycling with Rae & Xinhan from the nearby National Taiwan University (NTU) grounds to 和平公园cycling trail by the river.

Me with my sunscreen..

Rae. See our foldies? I just realized our bikes aren't the same models! Her's is Dahon Vitesse, mine's Dahon Roo. What's the difference? Who knows...

Rae - she was folding her bike back up.. yelled at me, no pix! Xinhan in the background.

I used to begrudge the cyclists in Taipei, how they ride so carelessly on pavements and through pedestrian crossings.. so dangerous!

As a cyclist & a scaddy-cat Singaporean, when I approach a crowd, I freak out and try to avoid them all. But Rae and Xinhan just plows straight through into the crowd and magically sail along. I tend to swerve to avoid people and do circles about the crowd only to eventually lose my balance and then stop and walk my bike through the crowds. Sigh.

Seriously, the best thing to do is plow straight through... Also perhaps safer as it's a predictable path and people know how to avoid you.

In any case, NTU grounds are big and very little cars/traffic. Can head back here later.

Of cos after cycling, I went home to take a long afternoon nap til dinner time. Being a slug on weekends feels great.

Stop the world, I wanna get off...

It's been an insane week. I had taken a couple of days off as I had Francis then Yz & Drea visit me in the last weeks. That plus the new platforms are being RFQ-ed right now, a lot of discussions/conf calls of late.

By the time I waved a teary bye-bye to Yz, my ignored work had snowballed out of control and I was buried under an avalanche of emails/undone tasks.

In a valiant attempt at regaining lost control, I worked til almost midnight in the office before giving up.

It's truly, thank Jesus it's Friday and end of week!

Nice song!

Saw Miley Cyrus perform this on American Idol last night. Pretty cool song!

The Climb - Miley Cyrus

I can almost see it
That dream I’m dreaming but
There’s a voice inside my head sayin,
You’ll never reach it,
Every step I’m taking,
Every move I make feels
Lost with no direction
My faith is shaking but I
Got to keep trying
Got to keep my head held high

There’s always going to be another mountain
I’m always going to want to make it move
Always going to be an uphill battle,
Sometimes I’m going to have to lose,
Ain’t about how fast I get there,
Ain’t about what’s waiting on the other side
It’s the climb

The struggles I’m facing,
The chances I’m taking
Sometimes they might knock me down but
No I’m not breaking
I may not know it
But these are the moments that
I’m going to remember most yeah
Just got to keep going
And I,
I got to be strong
Just keep pushing on,
cause

There’s always going to be another mountain
I’m always going to want to make it move
Always going to be an uphill battle,
Sometimes I’m going to have to lose,
Ain’t about how fast I get there,
Ain’t about what’s waiting on the other side
It’s the climb

There’s always going to be another mountain
I’m always going to want to make it move
Always going to be an uphill battle,
Sometimes you’re going to have to lose,
Ain’t about how fast I get there,
Ain’t about what’s waiting on the other side
It’s the climb

Keep on moving
Keep climbing
Keep the faith baby
It’s all about
It’s all about
The climb
Keep the faith
Keep your faith

He hears...

He hears... our risen Lord hears.

I whinged about how He asks me to give all the time. But then in return I received a dive housing for my camera and a pretty little 5 leaf plant.

I whinged about He sends me demanding strangers from out of the blue and asks me to be nice to them. But then I get an unexpected thank you email and that was nice.

I whinge about how I feel so stuck in my career. But then I get a call from a head-hunter offering me a regional director role. Ok, it's just talk for now, but I get it the sweet gesture.

On this Easter week, I wish you all the intimacy of our Risen Lord.

What's in a holiday?

I realise everyone has a different concept of a holiday, my experience of having people crashing at my little apartment here a lot.

So when I read this comic in today's papers, it really made me laugh.

Must life be so action-packed then even our holidays represent our work life? I do recall some years back when I still had a bf (*sob*) he complained that I didn't know how to chill out. Well, yeah, we were lying on a beach on beach chairs reading our books and I got bored after 1 hour.

Guess this confirms me as being a type A character. Great, destined to die the same way my pa did - can't overcome genetics I suppose.

Happy Palm Sunday!

With Palm Sunday, we're into Holy Week. I really can't wait for Easter, I love Easter.

Oh and Yz arrives Thu thru to Tue. Yay! Time to head out to the 1st hot spring :)

Francis here last week, then a couple of days to recover at work (oh the backlog of emails.. argh) then Yz!

It was nice having Francis here - together we explored Tainan (the historical part of Taiwan as it's the 1st capital city) and also climbed at Longdong again (a much better experience this time around vs that eventful trip with the hardcores when I first arrived). Going to Longdong was much easier this time around - we hired a van! And the driver Mr Xie mobile no. 092896928 used to be a climber! What're the odds? He happily took pix of us while we climbed. Thanks Mr Xie, you made the climb trip much more comfortable and convenient.

Me on a nice long climb... ah...

too much holidaying... my head hurts

Normally I'm sluggish while in Taiwan. I make unambitious plans for holiday - I hit 1 city 1 day.

In the last couple of days, I've dragged Francis along to Hualien/Taroko Gorge for the weekend, taken him to various night markets, eaten various taiwanese fare. Yesterday it was Tainan for the day. Tomorrow it'll be outdoor climbing at Longdong, off Keelung and the northern coast.

I'm kinda tired right now. My throat is not feeling too good and my head feels heavy. I had 150 emails today and I'm down to 50 and I need to get my weekly report out as well. It's 7.30pm and I'm a bad host - asked Francis to go explore Shilin night market on his own.

Sigh!

While I love exploring Taiwan and I'm glad Francis is here to do it with me, I think it's too much of a good thing. My mind's exploding with glee, my body's too old to cope!

Wish me luck climbing tomorrow - will need to double down on the anti-inflammatory drugs tonight.

Francis in town

Francis finally visited! We went to Hualien + Taroko Gorge over the weekend. We spent half a day in Hualien - basically just following Rae's list of to-eats : from dumplings to dessert to pancakes. Then we rented a car and drove ourselves into Taroko Gorge. It was great! Our pix are being parked.

Yeah, Francis helped me buy (an English speaking) digital camera to replace the one that was stolen from me - boo you thief! Mostly he has control over it, so please, no comments about the photographic skills on my Flickr.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8062670@N07/sets/72157616127698862/

We just got back from beef noodles + ice monster at Yongkang Street, and I'm sitting at my favourite time of the week - the marketing meeting conference call. :( I hate these late night conf calls!

Planning to take Wed (go climb at Longdong) and Fri (climb 7stars peak at Beitou, followed by visit to Tainan). At least that's the plan!

Management of Change

My new manager Edward who came from supply chain has been most helpful. Today he got someone from supply chain, a project manager to come give us a lesson on Mangement of Change.

I thought it might be interesting, plus it offered free lunch since it was scheduled between 12 to 1.30pm.

The guy starts to talk and then I realized he literally was talking about a management of change project.

WTF?

Our whole life's a change! I'm in IT - for goodness sakes!

We're talking about Moore's law and Chaos theory here and he's coaching us about getting a sponser + project manager for a change?

It was too rude to leave after 15mins of him talking, so I ate my free sandwich, complained to Ghee Hwee via MSN, then starting clearing my emails. Tried to type as quietly as I could but I bet that guy was silently cursing me.

So this post is dedicated to Ghee Hwee - she suggested I blogged about it. On hindsight, I think she was trying to get me off her back. Hmm...

Weekend amongst the trees

The good thing about living in Taiwan is that the mountains surround you. In just 2 hours, we went from urban Taipei into the mountains around Hsinchu.

It was a weekend of 霞客羅古道 and 鎮西堡巨木群. Translated, it means I walked amongst trees :)

Honda said it'll be an easy weekend of easy walks. He brought his family including his 2 kids. Others brought their 3 year olds along. Frank brought his 2 year old Scottish terrier. It can't be all that difficult a walk right? So Rae and I happily joined.

Day 1 (霞客羅古道) was nice, a nice flat 10km route through the mountains. This is an old Japanese built trail and we were literally amongst the tribal villages of the Ayatal people (aborigines of Taiwan).

Day 2 (鎮西堡巨木群), we woke up at 6am, over breakfast it started to rain. In the rain, we rode a van to the trail head - loaded up like cargo, our bruised butts bumped around for that painful half an hour ride over a dirt/rocky path. By the time we walked into the cypress forest, it was raining even harder. Thankfully my new Mammut goretex jacket & that 200NT rain pants + my goretex hiking boots kept me dry. Technically, I was wet - from perspiration. The elevation was crazy - we kept climbing until we saw our first cypress trees. Then you feel it is all worthwhile.

More pix here - http://tw.myblog.yahoo.com/9718picture-9718picture/gallery?fid=105&page=1

The rise of China

Over lunch, I had this argument with my co-workers (who're Taiwanese) on the use of Simplified Chinese. As with most Taiwanese, they feel they are the main protectors of the Chinese history, culture and language. And while I do agree to a large extent (China went through the cultural revolution afterall), on language I beg to differ.

Language is supposed to evolve with people - if it doesn't evolve, it dies, like Latin did and such.

Simplified Chinese will one day be the no.1 language - whether Taiwan likes it or not.

Just purely on the backs of China as a new superpower.

I was in Palau 2 weeks ago and if you spoke English or Japanese, you're easily understood. There will come a day when speaking Chinese will get you understood all over the world.

When we, the descendants of the dragon 龙的传人 (the Chinese race) will be as widely welcomed and accepted worldwide.

Don't believe me, here's a hint of things to come...
http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/03/16/business/compete16.php

My best diving ever in Palau

Palau is just a short 3 hour flight away from Taipei. And in that 3 hours, we went from 17degrees to 27degrees. Ah.. paradise in the sea.

We set off Friday night, arrived in Koror, Palau early morning, took a 1hour nap and then the diving started.

Altogether we did 9 dives : German Channel, Blue Corner (twice), Blue Hole, St Cardinal, Chandelier Cave, New Dropoff, Big Dropoff. Snorkeled Shark City where sharks swam right by you, huge remora fishes swam minus their host shark - one of which tried to stick to Blues when he was showing off his free diving skills :) And the highlight was swimming with jellyfishes who have evolved to lose their stinging abilities.

I was a little spooked initially - been stung bad before. But these ones are really harmless.

The huge schools of fish, the sharks that swam lazily by you without fear of humans, turtles that ignore the harassment of divers. I grew so blase that I found myself stroking a manta ray (yikes!). It swirled around and bared its teeth at me. Tsk tsk!

Pix of me coping a feel of the Napolean wrasse after it gobbled my hardboiled egg.

We stayed at the Palau Hotel which is Taiwanese owned (naturally since I was in the company of a Taiwanese dive group) - it's a little old and smelt a little musky, but otherwise was clean and comfortable enough. The location is very convenient, right smack center of town.

I really enjoyed every bit of it. Kudos to Blues for pulling it all together.

Coco's pix - http://picasaweb.google.com.tw/cocoislandphoto/98030610palau#

Jack's pix - http://cid-4febe688e58ae2dd.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/20090306%20%e5%b8%9b%e7%90%89%e6%bd%9b%e6%b0%b4%e8%a1%8c

Blue's pix - http://www.flickr.com/photos/aniceday0101/

good weekend

Saturday - Culture Day!
I visited first the Taiwan National History Museum where the Silk Road/Xinjiang treasures were on display. The centerpiece was the Loulan Beauty, a Tarim mummy preserved in the arid/dry conditions of the silk road sands. It was super crowded, which took a little off the enjoyment of the place, but otherwise, very good exhibits.

Next stop : CKS memorial hall where Andy Warhol - king of pop art was on display. After Xinjiang, somehow the light-weightness of pop art really sank in. But the vivid colors and the cheeriness almost outlandish styles was pretty uplifting. While it was also crowded, the real crowds were in the gift shop! There was Andy Warhol everything, from the standard mugs and tshirts to stationery, fridge magnets etc. The queue to pay snaked all the way out, seems like 50 people long. While I would've liked to get a poster or 2, the queues put me off. Perhaps another day or not all all.

Sunday - Sports Day!
Since I was still nursing an achy middle finger tendon (not sure if it's from over-climbing while in SGP or washing my electric blanket out after winter - perhaps both!), so no climbing for a little bit more...

Cycling - I finally bought a bike! I went to the Giant shop nearby chuch in Minsheng E Road. Original intent was a simple mountain bike but those cost up to 8k, and are ugly! So I got a Dahon foldie in pretty red for 12.5k. Then I cycled it home the 4k distance. It really surprised me, it's speedy and I could hit speeds of 17-20k quite effortlessly despite of its tiny wheels. The only unfortunate was I picked a really cold day - it was 16degrees and cloudy. It was a little cold for me.

Gyming - and then I hit the gym in the late evening instead of cycling my little foldie around. Just too cold today.

Guess what I'll be doing next weekend? I am diving Palau! Whale sharks, hammer-head sharks, manta rays, here I come!

Happy Ash Wednesday!

To further reinforce the depressed mood everyone is in of late (with the added pain of a 5% salary cut), Lent is suddenly dumped upon us.

Went to Ash Wednesday bilingual mass (only the sermon) at St John Bosco.

I was happily singing in Chinese until the part where it goes, Lord grant me peace or, 主赐我平安. Unfortunately I sang it as 主踢我平安 or, Lord kick me into peace. You will not believe how much restraint it took, not bursting into laughter in a very solemn mass.

After mass, I took a bus home, stopping by the nearby 7-11 to buy milk. I forgot that I did not clean off the ash cross mark on my forehead. And the Vietnamese priest drew me an ultra thick and black one for added effect. Great, all of Taipei now knows what Catholics do during Ash Wednesday mass.

Buzz

I visit Maggie's new place, it's way out in Hsindian (south Taipei) plus it's on top of a hill. Yeah, it took forever to get there, but it's really nice once you get into her estate. It's brand new 3 storey houses (yeah, landed property in Taipei). And gives you an awesome view of the nearby mountain range. Simply breathtaking. Her house is very nicely done up too.

We had some BBQ, then Emily & I left early to meet up with Ghee Hwee for KTV. The taxi ride back into the city district costs us 500NT. (Indicator of distance!)

KTV started out really fun. Cos there's only 3 of us singing, it was nice wholesome fun. Emily sang some Taiwanese songs (Taiyu), we did some rock numbers, it was hilarious. Then someone suggested alcohol.. We thought GaoLiang sounds interesting, plus we giggled at the listing "Yushan Gaoliang Chiewh".. chiewh is wine literally spelt.

So we ordered that. And we toasted the first glass to each other. And Emily & I were drunk.

Somehow Ghee Hwee single-handedly got us both home. Emily was worse off, she was sleeping on the couch and we had to walk her up 5 floors to her apartment.

It's all the blasted 5% paycut.... (easy excuse for all our sins).

Gaoliang incidentally is 38 to 63 percent alcohol content. My personal advice, do not ganbei with it.

Let the bad times begin

1 week ahead of Lent, we were informed of a 5% paycut for all HP employees. Boo!

Considering that our increments are like, 1 or 2% annually, 5% takes me back a couple of years. Double Boo!

Just last weekend, I went to Iris' new place for a housewarming party. It was nice, brand new building, 10mins walk to Ximenting, overall almost 40pings. You know, it made me want a new apartment. Even though I did at one point in time own a new apartment, I never had the experience of furnishing it, living in it. I was toying with the idea of moving. Seeing how I am in a rental place anyways, I could always move to a nicer place, today's economic climate it's possible to find a brand new apartment for roughly what I pay today in rent.

But with that 5% pay cut, perhaps I should be more prudent. Triple Boo!

Spring time!

Strangely it got warm a little earlier this year. It got as warm as 28degrees on Friday! The flowers - cherry blossoms in particular, are starting to bloom!

Here're some pictures on my walk in to work of the gorgeous cherry blossoms,

Not all the trees/flowers bloom though, some still think it's winter,

Spent the weekend putting away winter clothes, removing my heating blanket and washing it all.

The Chinese New Year latern festival is held at the Sunyatsen Memorial Hall, GH & I wandered through the park after work on Friday night. I remember last year (my 1st time), it was cold, crowded and I was really impressed with the displays. This year, it kinda lacked atmosphere.. or I'm just getting jaded, or I'm really rueing the fact that I have no camera to take pictures with cos some thief (my handbag was stolen in early Jan at the Sheraton Taipei hotel) is happily using it. Here's my 1 picture of the night - it had Singapore in it!

Please excuse me while I practise my forgiveness exercise again... ommm!

Back in Taipei

Back at Taipei.

Had to reapply for new phone SIM card, new ATM card, everything was froze after my handbag was stolen just before going back to Singapore. Now I have to reinstate stuff. Tedious, plus costly as everyone wanted a replacement fee. It sux.

Today's Thu and I've hit the gym once, the rockgym once, and 1 super-duper heavenly massage. Quite proud of my self discipline.. for now.

Last week I was gushing to my best friends about Wall-E being the best movie of 2008 - IMHO. And he commented that it's cos I'm lonely so I can relate to Wall-E (the sole robot left on Earth). Now that I'm back in Taipei, and back to er.. being lonely, just sets me thinking....

Hello God?

The Cheng Dinner

It occured to me that I have never taken my beloved aunties out for a good meal before... After Bay-Deh (eldest uncle)'s recent death, it is good to seize the day, never know what tomorrow holds. So, we all had dinner last night at Imperial Treasure Teochew restaurant in Ngee Ann City.

It was a great meal and set me back $650, averaging out to $66 per pax! Ouch! In Michelle's words, 'you had gold in your meal'? No, no gold, just a good expensive meal with the Chengs.

New running shoes

I bought a new pair of runners, Asics Nimbus to replace the Saucony pair that I've had from 2005. Perhaps this'll help me run faster... (or so I think)

The one about being home and being Singaporean

I'm starting to get what Steph meant when she said it's hard to blog when FaceBook basically says it all...

But at least blogging, you get to tell long story :)

Being back week 2 in Singapore, I slowly start to re-emerge as myself. Yeah, initially I felt kinda lost, out of place. When Ian/Michelle took me to breakfast at Dempsey, I remember thinking, wow, this place is great. It felt like Australia. When the hardcores ask me to do various climbs, I remember thinking, wow these guys climbing really hard stuff these days!

Now I feel I'm back. My Singlish is good again (hee hee). And I'm starting to climb hard again...

Me climbing outdoors at Volleyball Court (KL, Malaysia)

Me climbing indoors at Camp 5 (KL, Malaysia)

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.