Houston trip

The yearly face to face marketing summit is to be held in Houston next week.

Because of the way things are, I told my managers politely that I did not want to go, especially since I am not presenting.

They insisted. So I am going, very reluctantly until I found out that,
1. I can't rent a car, only managers get a car. Rest of us slaves, car pool.
2. I can't fly out on a Saturday, cost is higher, only managers get that priviledge. So I am flying Friday evening.
3. Everyone else is in a more expensive hotel where the managers are placed - but because I didn't insist, I am not there.

Now you understand why I hate this department. It's full of bullshxx.

I need a new job.

Tragedy on the highway

After the entire mountain slid off onto the highway, they dug 4 days non-stop 24/7 with up to 30 exacavators, an endless line of trucks to cart away the earth, and finally last night, they reached metal.

It was car debris.

According to experts, it all happened and ended within 5 seconds. The impact was so great cars were mangled so bad, in 1 car, the 2 bodies were mangled together.

As of this morning, the operation went from rescue to road clearance.

To the folks working their guts out - thank you.
To the families grieving their dead - may God bless you and the souls.
To the rest of us - let us give God thanks and be joyful always, because you never know when everything will end, abruptly.

Landslides in Taiwan

The rainy season hasn't even started yet and there's already a horrible landslide. In Chinese, the term used is 走山, or the mountain shifted. Based on the pictures, it looks like the entire mountainside fell over and dumped tons of soil all over the No. 3 Freeway between Taipei and Keelung.

This happened Sunday night, and reports have it that, 3 cars appears to be buried underneath.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2010/04/27/2003471589

And a TV reporter said that between Mar/Apr last year and this year compared, the no. of earthquakes big enough to be felt went up from 58 to 116 (or something like that, I can't quite remember). But close to double.

Truly, man is changing the earth. In ways that is not good.

Pain pain...

Against the grain of lazy Saturdays, I took a 20min jog before dinner. Then on Sunday I went for a good session of lap climbing - skipped 3 weekends in a row due to being out in the mountains...


Monday I woke up to a familiar ache - arms and legs. So I lay in bed whimpering to myself until 10am until finally God got so disgusted at my malaise, he threw me out of bed with an earthquake, 6.6 magnitude centered in Lanyu island - dived there once :)

It's 6.30pm on a Monday evening, I am contemplating a McDonald's dinner ahead of tonight's conf call. Hmm...

5th Anniversary

As the church celebrates the 5th anniversary of the pontificate of Pope Benedict XVI, I pause to think... has it been 5 years? Wow... I remember watching the entire new pope election process on TV totally captivated.

Issues remain, paedophiles priests in our midst and such. I pray that we all guard against evilness, darkness. The church of God will prevail, there is no doubt, we need to watch each and every heart. It begins with the first step for everyone.

I know what my first steps are, I just wish I can do it! Endure Felicia!

The things over and beyond...

Just because I tend to ignore the mysteries in life/unexplained/strange stuff, like how do the huge status get to where they are on Easter Island, or how were the Pyramids built etc... Does it mean they don't exist?

Because of my firm belief in my soverign Lord and God who reigns over everything on and above earth, I'm usually annoyed to talk about other gods/alien beings.. whatever. I find the lack of respect to my God very hard to stomach.

BUT...

If you think about it, it does not mean it does not exist...

Hmmm...

I think I sleep too little and play too much BubbleTown late into the nights.

Good nite.

Weekends in the mountains...

I spent the last 2 weekends in the mountains...

First it was Alishan for fireflies
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8062670@N07/sets/72157623722672971/

Then Hualien, where we tackled 2 trails very breathtaking views
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8062670@N07/sets/72157623758252739/

The first trip was relatively easy - almost no walking except for a 1-hr hike that turned out to be a 3-hr strenous walk within a thick bamboo forest so green and lush that I felt like a panda taking a walk. And it prepared us for the next trip which was 11k of steep ups and downs day 1 and 28k on day 2 that cost us a long time to complete.

Excellent views and absolutely fantastic companionship. Kudos to the organizers.

Now I need to recover - both in terms of work/emails and also in terms of my aged legs.

Plus my uncle is in town and I've been neglecting him.

So who says lizards are good climbers?

At the rock gym on Wednesday, there was a helpless gecko/house lizard running helter-skelter all over the floor in search of cover.

Obviously it has fallen from the rock wall - methinks the roof... (because Honda was there and yelling at something).

In short, it was a lousy climber. I would grade it a 5a free-solo. It's saving grace is that it's got very pretty tiger like stripes on its body. Kinda creepy, was too scared to go closer for a better shot.

Made belayers a little apprehensive all night, we'll belay, then nervously look around our feet.

Happy Maundy Thursday

And into the final triduum.

Tonight over mass, Father washed the feet of 12 people (men symbolising the 12 disciples). Technically he only washed 1 foot each to save time :)

Father Cary is an awesome preacher, he is very technical plus a dry wit, so his sermons are really good. Part of what makes him good is that he is very particular about details - things have to be done right.

Knowing this and knowing him, I didn't dare step forward to snap this picture. I think it is ok, I should think it is ok, but you never know... I took it from my seat :)

St Rita of Cascia

As part of my lenten preparation, I attend mass/stations of the cross Friday nights.

The good folks at St Bosco are screening movies on the life of the saints after stations of the cross. I got to learn about St Rita. She lies incorrupt, ie her body is still intact and on on display in a glass case in the Basilica of St. Rita in Cascia, Italy even though she died in 1457.

By today's standards, the movie moves at a slow pace and has a lot of war/killing scenes/death scenes. There were many times I wanted to just go home :)

Why am I talking about St Rita in my blog? Because
- she persisted in an atmosphere of violence/warring. Her husband was a knight, ie he went around killing people.
- she used love to win people around her back to God.
- she never gave up, even in the face of impossible circumstances
- she trusted God and stayed in constant communication, ie she kept praying.

Alamak, sounds like what my mom always says to me, you must pray you know, prayers are very important...

Happy Palm Sunday

Happy Palm Sunday everyone! Now we're into the last lap of Lent - Holy Week.

At St Bosco, we start Palm Sunday by assembling outside the church, or so I guess : because I was 10mins late and made it just as everyone was walking into chuch. As I entered church, someone handed me a palm. Perfect timing.

After mass, we had a short briefing by Father Cary, while waiting for him, I casually waved my palm in the air, turned to my fellow-lectors and asked - so what are we supposed to do with our palms? All these cradle catholics start to mutter : my mom puts it over a window/door, stick it on the wall...

I know it's significance, in fact, I explained it to the guys in the climbing gym when I went over, still holding my palm. But really, I still don't know what to do with it! So I left it in the vase of pussy-willows. At least it's blessed - it'll do its thing there.

The gym was empty - as it usually is on Sundays... see all the ropes hanging there forlorn.

So I got busy climbing and earned my first flapper in a realllly long time! I can't believe my eyes when I felt pain washing my hands after. Ow ow... Note the almost blister on the next finger as well. Clearly the weeks after leaving my hardcore friends behind in Singapore has taken its toil - got nice soft tender skin now :)
Almost the end of the weekend, I had dinner with Vincent at Justin Quek's bistro - Just In Bistro. You know, the Justin Quek of Les Amis. He moved to Taipei and has 3 restaurants now - the bistro is newly opened and the most affordable. The food, to my surprise, was not great. It was good, but nothing extraordinary. Not sure I'll return.

Wine & conference call... perfect!

As with all Monday evenings, we have the regular MMM conf call with our Houston counterparts.

Except, Luca, Elmo and myself decided to grab a nice dinner together. Luca as usual, suggests his favorite Italian restaurants, but Emily wanted to try something new. So we went to Bocco, a Spanish tapas place.

Luca brought along this Brit guy who works from some organization in HP which I do not quite understand. Nontheless, Luca said he'll pick up dinner tab, so we just need to play along. Ok.. free dinners are nice :)

So Emily and I swung by in a taxi and picked them up, headed over to the restaurant.

It was a great night, the Brit guy - Ivan, had a wicked sense of humour + his British accent, he had us in stiches all night! We had 2 bottles of wine, excellent stuff that the guys chose. I drank a small portion and was flush and happy by the time we left, rushed home to be 10mins late for the call. And food was good too.

Thanks guy, for making Monday night a great night for once.

Taipei Freeway Marathon 2010

Always a first time,

First time I...
- ran in a sandstorm
- ran against a 16knots headwind for half the race
- ran with an arsenal of a total 8km of training mileage
- ran a personal worst time of 2.49 from my watch (boo hoo, turning 40 this year has implications)
- saw Kenyan runners run with pain on their faces against the headwind. Made me feel that I am not all that crappy afterall!

Here's the article from Yahoo -

AFP/Chinese Taipei Road Running Assoc. Sun Mar 21, 6:43 am ET
TAIPEI (AFP) – Kenyan runners defied a severe sandstorm to win both the men's and women's titles in the Taipei Express Marathon Sunday, organisers said.

Henry Cherono crossed the line in two hours, 24 minutes and seven seconds, ahead of Taiwan's Chiang Chieh-wen, who clocked 2:27:37.

Cherono's compatriot Evelyne Kimuria won the women's title in 2:53:06.

Cherono's time was slower than his personal best of 2:12:11 and the Taipei Express's record of 2:16:41, set in 2005 by his compatriot David Kariuki.

Cherono said his run was hampered by strong winds that covered northern Taiwan in clouds of yellow dust, according to a statement released by the Chinese Taipei Road Running Association.

More than 1,500 people competed in the 42.2 kilometres (26.2 miles) event, while nearly 7,500 others took part in the half-marathon and other events.

Woo hoo!

On hindsight, I think I didn't run a 21k all 2009 (not sure), so this race felt good. Managed to get home, shower and make 10.30am morning mass (early too!). I am satisfied.

Wandering and wondering...

Yeah, I'm still on the same theme. Wandering and tired of doing so. Essentially, I want a new job, want out of Taiwan. But my efforts at finding a new job have met with zero success inspite of my valiant efforts. And prayers gone unanswered. A difficult time indeed. Last night, I went to mass - it was the feast of St Joseph. I was reading again at mass - prayers of the faithful, not Scripture.

I knew St Joseph as the patron saint for the worker. And was thinking, perfect, perhaps he will help my cause. You know, go whisper in Jesus' ear for me to get a new job or something. Guess what the sermon was... (yeah Fr Cary was preaching last night, I love his sermons). The theme was divinity of obscurity. St Joseph is literally obscure - no teaching, no wise words, even nothing much on him in the bible. The sermon was basically that you carried on, kept the faith, even if it makes you totally obscure, you keep going, doing the right thing.

Sigh... Alright alright. I'll endure.

Oh, BTW, on a brighter note. I got published. Straits Times forum page. My 2nd letter. Well, I've only written twice, come to think of it and, both times got published. Straits Times is really careful, they actually called me to verify that I was indeed the author.

Younger brother sent me a text message Saturday morning to say I am famous. I love family - they get impressed over very little.

What an honour...

So I'm a lector at mass this year.

I figured how hard is it to read the scripture readings, right? We all can read :) Well, if you want to do a good job, it involves a little more than ability to read. I'm still yo-yoing between reading too loud/energetically into the mike (too much!) and reading too fast (my usual nervous self).

Just checked emails and saw I'm scheduled for 2nd reading on Good Friday. What an honour! Thank you Lord, on the feast of your most holy salvavic act of dying for us all.

Eating in a A380?

This weekend, we ate in a A380. It's a themed restaurant that Vincent suggested.

Interesting, where the waiter/waitresses greet you with a "welcome onboard!". And they were all dressed in stewardess like uniform, wheeled drinks in a trolley ala being in the air.

Food was passable, but overall quite a novelty.

When we stepped in, I asked for business class seats and the captain stared blankly at me, then he stammered out a 'we're all 1 class of seating here'. No sense of humour.

After dinner we walked over to the nearby dessert place that I really like - 台一牛奶大王. I got to stop ordering the same thing and try something different next time!

Oh and yeah, I did start running. Ran a total of 8km over 2 days - Sat & Sun. Hopefully that's enough training for my lungs. Hope I don't die over the half marathon this Sunday.

I am COLD!

This winter has been mild due to the El Nino effect, plus I had gone back to sunny Singapore for Christmas into the New year and again for Chinese New year when it was the coldest.

So the worst I endured was probably low teens celsius.

It's mid March and probably the last (i hope!) cold snap hit us and the thermometers dip to 7 degrees celsius in Taipei and I froze!

So glad I bought an electric blanket and so wanted to sleep with it switched on thru the night! (not good advice due to fire concerns). Last 2 nights, I actually fell asleep with the blanket still on, couldn't bring myself to switch it off, but I woke again sometime in the night to flick it off before falling back asleep.

Today the sun is back out, a beautiful cloudless day, a nice 20degrees. Ahh...

Mid-lenten reminder

Great reminder!

Mk 12:28
One of the scribes came to Jesus and asked him,
“Which is the first of all the commandments?”
Jesus replied, “The first is this:
Hear, O Israel!
The Lord our God is Lord alone!
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
with all your soul,
with all your mind,
and with all your strength.
The second is this:
You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
There is no other commandment greater than these.”

Lent this year

Somehow Lent crept up on me. Partly because it started while still chinese new year and while I was still back in Singapore.

After returning to Taipei and settling down (I had a lot of work to clear plus Aunty May and Adolfo both came to Taipei), half of Lent has gone me by.

It was sometime last week that I was moaning via MSN to Zi about how God doesn't answer prayers no more... Afterall, He's been ignoring my earnest prayers for years! And the kid in all her 24 years of wisdom says 'aiyah, you need to wander in the desert'. I had forgotten that Lent was modeled upon Jesus' 40 days of wandering in the desert, and of cos, the key message is to refocus, repent and turn back to God.

Zi isn't even catholic!

So yes God, I hear you thru Zi. I will wander and repent, return to God. Just that I feel I've wandered until I'm dusty... *whine* Yet, I will obey, repent and return to God *mumbles to self*

Chinese New Year Holidays

I wished I had booked a longer trip back. It just felt so rushed. Good thing was, I got to enjoy Michelle & Ian's new place longer. Played with Kino more too - he's cute.


Being back with family always feels good. Nibbling on the 'minimal pineapple' pineapple tarts (thankfully I didn't have to be around to help out), dozing in the tropical heat, well perhaps not quite the heat.


Then there was the annual climb trip to KL. This time we did a longer trip, from Thu to Sun and managed to hit 2 climbing gyms : Camp 5 & the new Putra gym. Climbing, it was excellent as both gyms were designed/built/operated by Blocx and these guys are really good. Truly world class climbing. Suffice to say, it was very satisfying, climbing wise. I wished things were smoother in all aspects.

And before I knew it, I am back in Taipei, back to work. Back to being lazy, the weather this weekend was unbelievably beautiful, sunny yet cool 25degrees and couldn't make myself go out for a run. Sigh... Oh well, as I've told everyone, my diet starts in March, and it ain't March til tomorrow. I need to eat a steak now, excuse me...