First weekend back...

It's amazing how the minute I'm back in Taipei, I snap back into the sluggish self I am.

I spent most of Sat lying in bed watching my favourite program - Sasake on JetTV. It's one of those telematch games where contestants jump through hoops (literally) and it's really hard! You need to be very strong athletically and a lot of people train all year for it. The muscle fest I really enjoy :)

Then I had dinner with Garin before we caught Inglorious Bastards. Been a long while since the last Tarantino movie and it didn't let me down. It was a blast! Great movie!

Woke up to morning mass on Sunday before climbing too hard - my arms are so sore now.... ow, ow...

Measurements

The Chinese Taipei running association had sent me an email asking me to verify if I indeed wanted my race tshirt size XS. Within the email, they also listed the tshirt size versus the dimensions.

This is for the upcoming Oct 24 Nike Human Run race.

XS would be 80cm, S is 87cm.... My first thought was, yeah, of course I'm still XS. And then I started to doubt myself...

Turning to Emily, I asked, so, would you know if I am 80cm? She looked at me nonchalantly and said, well, we could just measure.

Amazingly, we found a measuring tape (truly the office of geeks, remember we had filter blocks in the pantry on the day the huge lunar eclipse happened?) and stood in a corner of the office and measured myself.

Then, I replied the email to tell that I'd take size S afterall :p

And back to reality...

I had a really good trip back in Singapore this time around. Most of it from the first week of being on holiday in Krabi. For that, I am grateful to Zi, Fong & my uncle - so much fun!

Also this was the last of my miles on SQ too. From here on, it'll be Jetstarasia and budget travels. Sob!

Michelle asked me on Sunday why I like Taiwan. This is the same person who has not yet come to visit me since I moved here 2 years ago. :(

I was wondering to myself why too... In Singapore I get to indulge in my 2 biggest fave activities : RC & RC - rockclimbing and the Roman Catholic church, often on a daily basis. In Taiwan, these 2 activities are curtailed to weekends.

So why do I like Taiwan? Hmm...

Incidentally, I've been thinking of that hamburger place Michelle suggested : http://www.thehandburger.com/. It's in the basement of Raffles City, and it is VERY VERY good. Sigh...

Reality bites

I was just thinking and probably commented to a few friends that I was beginning to like being in Singapore again.

Then reality came along and socked me one in the jaw.

As usual, I met up with my financial advisor as I do whenever I am back. Afterwards, we were just making small talk, about property prices and trends etc and then he commented that Lim Hon now has 2 kids, the second new-born shares his birthday etc...

Even though there are songs about this, and I am well aware, heck, I even joke about it. But to realise that it's reality... at that moment. I felt like Darth Maul sliced in half by Obi-wan's lightsaber. Once I recovered, I was preoccupied with macabre time calculations, how much time does it take to get over someone, get married, have 2 kids...

Truth is, I'm over it, over him. Guess now, that remote tiniest of hope dies too.

Property pricing...

Expensive, expensive, expensive...

I should've returned to buy in Jun or Jul this year. Now it's all gone on a little peak. Will it continue to go up? Are we max-ed out?

All this talk about V-shaped recovery or W-shaped recovery confuses me.

How, how, how?

Oh, and last night I was viewing some apartments. This 1 unit at Symphony Heights, there as a little altar center of the living room. Feels different. I didn't look at it, avoided being too close as well. And I was in the apartment only 10mins max. Didn't like the apartment in any case. Last night I was sleeping and I was awoken to feel afraid - related to that apartment? I was tired, I prayed and fell back asleep. But then something fell in the room, and I was awakened for the second time. I looked around, saw nothing out of place, very sleep-laden, I prayed again and this time crossed myself for good measure, then fell back asleep. This morning while preparing for work, nothing was out of place. Nothing fell to floor. Hmm... and the creepy thing is, being able to attribute it to that apartment.

Sigh.

Perhaps Emily is right afterall. You need to be rich. If I'm rich, I'll be viewing brand-new expensive apartments. Sigh.

Yahoo questions...

All week we've been talking about Yahoo moments. A Yahoo moment is one where either Fong, Zi or Fel would ask a question that nobody would have the answer to. We'll all then yell 'ya-hooo' in unison, and still be none the wiser.

So I'm finally going to list out the questions. Alas my memory is no longer very good and I only can recall these.

1. Why do mosquitoes exist?
Answer - they pollinate flowers (after bees, they are the most prolific pollen distributors). And we all know how bees pollinate because we watched the Bee movie at least twice in 1 week. But that's another story altogether.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosquito

2. What's the difference between the monsoons in Krabi versus Singapore/Malaysia? Why are they different times of the year?
Answer - Krabi is affected by the south west monsoon rains which is now.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monsoon

3. What is SPF and what's the difference with PA?
Answer - PA is the Japanese standard and measures UVA rays. PA +++ is what we were using. Or rather what vain Fong had to apply daily.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunscreen

4. How would a cockatoo cycle? Or an Egyptian, for that matter?

does God hear you?

It all started because Francis mentioned he needs a test-subject for his psychology course. Zi agreed to be it and she was going to talk about bad friends. I have had more than my fair share of bad friends and it all came back to me last night - about Moo, maybe cos I saw her at the climbing wall Tuesday night.

Last night, I was bothered enough to pull this book from my bookshelf titled - When Friendship Hurts. I flipped through it again and started to feel all indignant & huffy again.

Came into office this morning, and was reading this morning's readings. Guess what...

Col 3:12-17
Brothers and sisters:Put on, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved,heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience,bearing with one another and forgiving one another,if one has a grievance against another;as the Lord has forgiven you, so must you also do.And over all these put on love,that is, the bond of perfection.And let the peace of Christ control your hearts,the peace into which you were also called in one Body.And be thankful.Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly,as in all wisdom you teach and admonish one another,singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songswith gratitude in your hearts to God.And whatever you do, in word or in deed,do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus,giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Sigh...

And the psalm of the day was the same song ringing in my head as it was the last song on my MP3 player riding the bus into office. 'Let everything that has breath, praise the Lord!'.

So yeah, I guess the good Lord hears everything... and Amen for that.

Bunnie Edwards

Bunnie was the admin at Houston. I remember when I first transferred to the consumer Notebook team, and had to travel to Houston to meet the extended team there. I had lunch with Bunnie - you'll like her. She's quick to laugh and just has an easy word for everyone. Start to tell a joke and she'll be roaring with laughter before you hit the punchline.

I got into Singapore this week and Monday morning, I had a really bad feeling when I saw an email titled 'Bunnie's update'. Last night, I was trying to call someone in Taiwan to get a conference call going and I saw Bunnie's name on my phone show up.

Sigh...

It was supposed to be removal of a growth on her face, which turned out to be cancer and within 3 weeks of diagnosis, she was gone.

I remember how she was really helpful when I was trying to organize the later canceled marketing summit. We spoke almost every night, working out hotel/food/event arrangements.

I will miss you Bunnie. Play an extra heavenly song on your harp for me as you sit by Jesus.

Ecclesiastes
Chapter 3
There is an appointed time for everything, and a time for every affair under the heavens.
A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to uproot the plant.
A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to tear down, and a time to build.
A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance.
A time to scatter stones, and a time to gather them; a time to embrace, and a time to be far from embraces.
A time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away.
A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to be silent, and a time to speak.
A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

Krabi magic

Thank you Zi & Fong, I had a great week climbing/eating excessively at Railay, Krabi.

As a 3rd trip there, and being much older compared to my earlier trips, I surprised myself by being able to still climb 6b+ routes.

Climbing log :

Day 1 - 123 wall

Make a Way - 6a+

King's Cobra - 5 (top roped this)

We Sad - 6a+

Day 2 - Wee's Present Wall

A man can tell a 1000 lies - 6a

Hello Christine - 6a+

Same same but different - 6b+

Day 3 - Thaiwand Wall

Circus Oz - 6a+

Monkey's Bum - 6b

Day 5 - Eagle Wall

Totem Pole - 6a

Where Eagles don't dare - 6a+

Sea Monkey - 6b+

Speaking out loud - 6b (Fong only)

The climbs in orange colour are classic climbs as highlighted by the climbing guidebook.

Other than the excellent climbing, the companionship was really nice. I really enjoyed all the easy bantering and laughter.

Evidence of the really good holiday :

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8062670@N07/sets/72157622177621203/

Reminder - how to lead our lives

In the excitement of being home and being with old friends again... a timely reminder.

Col 3:1-11

Brothers and sisters:If you were raised with Christ, seek what is above,where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.Think of what is above, not of what is on earth.For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.When Christ your life appears,then you too will appear with him in glory.

Put to death, then, the parts of you that are earthly:immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire,and the greed that is idolatry.Because of these the wrath of God is coming upon the disobedient.By these you too once conducted yourselves, when you lived in that way.But now you must put them all away:anger, fury, malice, slander,and obscene language out of your mouths.

Stop lying to one another,since you have taken off the old self with its practicesand have put on the new self,which is being renewed, for knowledge,in the image of its creator.Here there is not Greek and Jew,circumcision and uncircumcision,barbarian, Scythian, slave, free;but Christ is all and in all.

On being poor...

I feel poor. I wanted to buy my mom a watch - perhaps Christmas or her birthday next year. Mentioned this in passing to Emily and she dragged me to the Taipei 101 to look at Rolexes.

That's when I started feeling poor. The classic Rolex Oyster Perpetual DateJust looks great and it's also greatly out of my league. Try 230,000nt. Ouch!

Sorry mom, one day I will be able to buy that for you. That day unfortunately isn't going to be today.

Then I came home and ate more of my cheesesticks and I feel fine again.

Floods in Taiwan

The last 14 days or so.. I lie awake at nights watching the disaster scene replied on our tv channels over and over again.

The full extent of the floods are really quite horrible. 2 entire villages were washed away by the mudslides. In the worse of the 2 : Xiaoling village, some 400 people out of 1000+ were buried alive. They still lie there, under 4 storeys of mud. Soldiers are digging - initially by hand, now by bulldozers in a recovery process of pure pain, dragged out pain to the surviving familes and even the rescue workers - mostly 20year old conscripts.

Everyone in Taiwan's hurting from this. The Taiwan president and his government has faced widespread criticism on being slow and ambivalent about its efforts.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/24/world/asia/24taiwan.html?ref=asia

Initially I was thinking we can't fault the government since in Taipei, the typhoon effects were mild. In fact, Saturday, the day Xiaoling village was wiped-out, I had gone out to climb at my usual climbing gym because it wasn't even raining. Taiwan has basically gone on a witchhunt, demanding the resignation of the president (for being slow and cold about his reaction), premier (for going for a haircut & then dinner on Saturday evening - even though he had on Saturday morning gone to the affected area), secretary-general of the cabinet (for eating a Father's day dinner at a 5-star hotel). Saturday 8 Aug, was celebrated by Taiwan as Father's Day (88 sounds like Papa).

My colleagues later explained to me that if you were a public servant, your salary comes from the people. More is expected of you.

I suppose that makes sense.

Please send your prayers to Taiwan, it's leadership for wisdom and speedy recovery of the affected areas. That the survivors are re-settled and their future taken care of by the government or by any necessary aid agency.

Wet and shaken

And the earth shoke again. I was shaken awake again this morning by another earthquake at 8.05am 6.5magnitude. And just a moment ago, another one.

It's a very unnerving experience when you're sleeping and you get shaken awake - not sure if you're dreaming or it's for real and you should get up, get dressed and run for safety.

Emily & I are convinced it's linked to the recent eclipse. Not good omen. Hmm...

I spent last weekend splashing about in a stream off Yilan. It's called 溯溪 or river tracing. You literally walk up a stream to the source - a big waterfall, then turn around and in parts, slide downstream.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8062670@N07/sets/72157622064718634/

The company we used this time around was pretty professional - Cloud9.

Luca, our Italian colleague who spends most of his time eating/drinking and picking up cute nubile Taiwanese women, was totally out of his league. Most of the time... except when he tried to pick up one of our instructors - she's this really totally cool person. Awesome in the water. Glad he was around to provide the laughs cos after a while, when you're wet and cold and tired.. watching Luca makes you laugh.

We thought this event would be cancelled initially - because the terrible floods we have in central/southern parts of Taiwan. But it continued. On day 2, the 2nd stream, the initial part involved crossing this muddy river with fast-moving waters - it really looks like a scene on TV, and us roped up trying to cross it. Made us all feel guilty and sad. May God bless the recovery/continued rescue process, give us all strength/wisdom in the rebuilding process and most of all, bless the souls of those who lost their lives. Amen.

Floods in central/southern Taiwan

It has been pretty horrific and the pictures continue... It's day 7 since the typhoon hit us last Friday, but on TV we're still getting pleas for help from villages in the mountains.

HP has a website for donations to help these villagers but the aid agency they chose, er.. nobody around me has heard of it. Not good... Hmmm...

President Ma has been really slow to react to the crisis. Move quicker, declare a state of emergency if you have to! Accept assistance from other countries! Do something quicker. I cannot even start to imagine not having a hot meal for 7 days, not to mention what these villagers must be enduring and for the for last 7 days.

Whole villages have been swept away, thousands are missing.

While Taiwan has typhoon recovery experience - it is afterall a very mountainous country and typhoons are a yearly occurrence. However, the scale of this typhoon has been something Taiwan has not seen in the last 50 years. It's simply not able to do enough, quickly enough.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/13/world/asia/13taiwan.html?_r=1&ref=global-home

Majulah Singapura!

Majulah Singapura!

For a long time I had not sung our national anthem. It felt somehow natural that we sang it as 1 people again at the Howard Hotel over lunch.

The Singapore Trade Commission (that's what they call all embassies in Taiwan since everyone recognises PRC as China), had organised a national day party for all Singaporeans here.

They served chilli crab and satay, it felt nice to be able to mill around and speak Singlish loudly without anyone saying 'so Singaporeans don't speak good english...'.

As a special touch, I turned on my computer and went to google and they've gone patriotic as well...

工欲善其事 必先利其器

Emily taught me this over dinner just now...
工欲善其事 必先利其器

She told me if I could repeat this just once in my lifetime, I would impress everyone. I think if I did this in Singapore, everyone would go, eh, lu gong simi?

We left office leisurely (except the part where we had to run in/out of taxis cos of the rain and wind), because... TOMORROW'S HOLIDAY! YAY!

Thank you typhoon Morakot! It's heading directly for Taipei - eye of the storm aimed directly Taipei. Packing 144km/h winds, it's enough for all of Taiwan to declare a typhoon holiday - so everyone in Taiwan gets Friday off! Cool! For the first time we were actually wanting this typhoon to hit Taiwan, it's been a pretty dry season and the water levels in Shimen reservoir which feeds most of Taipei has been dangerously low. We were going to face water rationing measures when this typhoon appeared as a God sent.

Storm!

Thanks to the kind people who forwarded me this news.

They named a hurricane after me.

Ha! I always knew I would make a big influence on people's lives.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32284375/ns/weather/

The unbearable ease of taxis

Year 1 of arrival into Taipei summer of 2007 - that year, I walked to work daily even in the worst of the summer heat.

Summer of 2008, I started taking taxis to work most days in summer, too hot to walk, too uncomfortable to start sweating so early in the day.

Summer of 2009, I started to call for a taxi. So when I step out of my lift lobby, I jump right into the waiting taxi. Save the 1min walk out to the street.

Transformation to being more and more Taiwanese.

Losing Father Renckens

Mom told me about Father Rencken's passing last week. To the end, he was praying to be healed and discharged from hospital because he wanted to finish planning some trip. And that is Fr Renckens - Mr Efficiency to a fault.

This morning's reading about Jesus feeling sad on hearing the news about John the Baptist's death.. made me think about Father Renckens.

I remember the first time I met him was at my Pa's wake. Pa had just passed away, we were still in shock, I recall seeing this very tall man with a strange accent show up day 1 of Pa's wake. I remember he stayed with us until Pa's body arrived from the embalmers. Not long after, mom took all 3 of us to Blessed Sacrament church where Fr Reckens was parish priest, and signed us up for cathecism classes. It took a further half year before I understood Fr Rencken's accent completely ;)

I realize he was always there. Cathecism classes, baptism, confirmation and much later, theology classes. I can still see him (in my mind) walking his dog on a long raffia string. Incidentally, his dog doesn't have have the most pleasant of dispositions, he barks and then bites you.

I will miss you Father Renckens. Blessed Sacrament will not feel the same without you around.

Singapore also lost Father Tom O'Neil from St Ignatius church. 2 priests overnight, I would imagine our priest to congregation ratio must take a big hit.

Let's keep their souls in prayers.

http://www.catholicnews.sg/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3063:father-renckens-a-father-tom-oneill-called-home-to-the-lord&catid=184:information

Presidential Palace of Taiwan from the inside

After Sunday mass today, I visited the Taiwan Presidential Palace and the nearby Taipei Guest House, 台北賓館 - which wasn't planned. The taxi had dropped by right in front of it, since security does not allow cars nearer to the Presidential Palace. The security guards by the road, suggested I see it. Since I was being tourist for the day, why not.... Built in 1899 it was the official home of the Japanese governor of Taiwan during Japanese rule. Just a nice classy house with a lot of chandeliers, used today by the Taiwanese heads of states and their guests.

Now, I've seen the Presidential Palace ttp://www.president.gov.tw/en/ from afar, and also on TV, but it's my first time inside it. Security was real strict, guards every couple of meters and most of the rooms are blocked off, understandably. But still a big eye opener. Pity the President wasn't home...

More pix - http://www.flickr.com/photos/8062670@N07/sets/72157621928661704/

My 3rd and last stop - the Smiling Kingdom exhibition at the National History Museum. There was a 2nd part to the terracotta warriors of Xi-An, China. Some 70 years later, in the tombs of Emperors Wen & Jing, more terracotta warriors were found. Since these Han dynasty emperors ruled in a time of peace, unlike the Qin Emperor and his terracotta warriors, the terracotta warriors were different. They had peaceful, even smiling faces, they were nude with movable arms and parts and even er.. genitals. They were men, women and even eunuchs. They are known as the Terracotta Warriors of Han Yang Ling.

3 museums on a Sunday afternoon in the 38degrees of summer heat made me sleepy. Time for bed.