Breakdown

The unthinkable happened!

After a glorious (but apparently not very long) six months of service, our Acer 3820tg completely broke down on us. The initial diagnosis is that the motherboard is fried (from what? We know not).

Since we’re kinda at the outskirts for now and won’t be in major cities long enough to get the laptop fixed, it looks like we would be lugging the deadweight with us for a little while longer.

We’ve lost a bulk of our photos and some of our notes.

I’m typing this entry using the WordPress app on my Samsung Galaxy SII. Typing on a virtual keyboard for long posts takes a bit of getting used to and a much longer time.

I guess entries till/if we get the laptop fixed, updates might take longer to come through.

Quam Minimum Credula Postero

It’s the little known follow-up phrase to it’s well known brother “Carpe Diem” (Seize the Day) and it means “Trusting as little as possible in the future”. Besides making me sound more atas than I really am, it more or less sums up my direction going into 2012.

I know… it’s not the cheeriest of New Year resolutions. But as we grow older, I think every New Year tends to put us in a more pensive mood.

We’re currently at a totally different place (figuratively and literally) than we were at at the end of 2010. And if you told 2010 TW what things would be like at the end of 2011, he’d probably ask you to, with all due respect, Suck it.

2011 was a year of great change for us (But then again, shouldn’t they all be?). Going into 2011, we had many unknowns we needed to face, many questions we needed answered as we stood at the brink of our grand adventures. We’ve known for a long time that we wanted to do it, but taking the leap is not easy. I’d be lying if I said that we never had any doubts about whether we were going to do it, because at the back of our minds, there was always that question:

“What about Tomorrow?”

If we don’t plan for it, what ARE we going to do about Tomorrow when she comes knocking? The story about the proverbial Grasshopper is deeply ingrained in us.

I suppose in some small ways, we’ve always known that Tomorrow is a fickle mistress and an unrelenting tease. She continually promises things to come and at the same time, she demands our unyielding worship to grant us her rewards.

Day after day, Tomorrow creeps up on us. Every second we spend unhappy, every minute we waste doing something we hate is a non-refundable sacrifice we place on her altar. And for better or worse, every day that passes is one less Tomorrow we need to/can worry about.

If anything, 2011 showed us that Tomorrow giveth in small doses, and yet she’ll do her “taketh away” quickly, silently, unexpectedly, thank you very much. She most certainly doesn’t give a damn about any of the grand plans that we’ve made.

I’m not saying don’t make any plans. It is always good to store grains for tomorrow. Just don’t do it at the expense of what you should be eating today. Always be aware that Tomorrow could just as likely bring a sunny day as it would a pink rhinoceros that would eat up everything that you’ve stored when you need them most.

Tomorrow is a bitch.

Afford Tomorrow the same trust you would the tout who approaches you at the side of a major train station.

If there’s something you’re dying to try, do it today. If there’s something you need to say to someone, tell it to them today. If there’s anything you’re not fully satisfied with, make a change today. Dance with that special someone today. Bury that grudge today. Live for today. Be happy today. Love today.

Today…. because, when you least expect it, Tomorrow just might not show up.

I guess what I want to say at the end of all this is…

Tomorrow is too damn unpredictable. Carpe Diem by the bloody Jagulum.*

Squeeze.

And don’t you dare let go.

And errr… Happy New Year and have a smashing 2012.

* yes… that is a Terry Pratchett reference

Home for the Holidays!!

Ok… maybe not THIS holiday.

We’ve just confirmed our plane tickets and should be home before 2012. We’re currently in Xishuangbanna (hur hur… yeah… Xishuangbanna…) (this doesn’t get old)  If you’ve been keeping track of our travels on our “First Impressions” page, you’ll know that we are more than a month behind for our blogging. Somewhere along the way, we decided that we should not let blogging get in the way of us looking at rocks, climbing steps and getting scammed.

We’ll continue with this blog even after we’re home (I still have a lot of little scraps of paper with squiggly notes that I need to go through). Hopefully, this China chapter will be completed before we go off again (target: after the Chinese New Year).

But I guess what we really want to say in this post is, with lots of love from us…

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

I know... Ha Ha... we have Christmas-colored clothes... tis the season!

Happy happy joy joy

Jo and I were asked to emcee a good friend’s wedding lunch last weekend. While we’ve hosted weddings before, it was the first time we are hosting one together. It was also one of those very rare opportunities when I am asked to be the mandarin speaking emcee. People normally have an aversion when it comes to asking someone to speak in a language they scored D7 in. For those of you who are not familiar with the GCE examination system, the grades consist of a range where “A1″ is the best possible score and “D7″ is a nice way of saying I am better off learning the sign language.

The morning of the wedding did not start out well for us. We woke up slightly later than we intended to… In fact, we woke to a morning call from one of the groom’s helper informing us that we need to be at the hotel within the hour for the rehearsal. Much hilarity ensued as I scrambled to wash up and get my shirts ironed. Meanwhile, Jo calmly informed me that there really is no need to rush. As I frantically rummage through the wardrobe looking for my belt-that-refuse-to-be-found, she mumbled out the words that would strike fear into every married man’s heart. She was almost good to go, she just “needed to pick out what to wear and put her make up on”

As you can tell, while Jo and I are similar in many ways, we have some fundamental differences.

I was a nervous wreck on the taxi ride to the hotel. When I am nervous, my body, the wonderful machine that it is, automatically tries to help out by excreting an obscene amount of perspiration. Meanwhile Jo sits, cool as a cucumber, reasoning that there is nothing we can do anymore that could could get us to the hotel any earlier. You could only imagine how that made me feel.

So, we (by we, of course I mean “I”) were not exactly the picture of confidence when we finally met up with the groom. To be fair, we were not extremely late for the rehearsal (10 minutes), but I guess having an emcee who looked like he just stepped out of the shower and who was constantly tugging at his belt-less pants did not really inspire confidence.

Not surprisingly, the only person he could look to for assurance was actually Jo. Cool, calm looking Jo… and then she whipped out pieces of paper and started writing down the script…

True story…

Despite our best efforts, the wedding was almost perfect. The proceedings went without a hitch. And the mandarin emcee did NOT stubbornly stick to the script he got off Google Translate and keep telling the guests to have a pleasant evening at the lunch reception.

So…. Great Success!

Goodbye, Ah Gong

It’s not been a good two months for the two of us.

We came back from Prague because Jo lost her Dad. And last week, I lost my Grand Dad.

Up till today, I did not really have a chance to think about what all this actually meant nor a chance to properly grief. It was easy to keep busy with the funeral arrangements since Ah Gong passed away Last Sunday. At the same time, I guess, all of us had to put on a brave front in front of my Grand Ma. Ah Gong and Ah Ma had been married for more than 60 years, and they had been almost inseparable since. I cannot even imagine how this must have been for her.

The funeral is finally over, and now that I have some time alone, it is slowly beginning to sink in that Ah Gong is gone. I know this because I caught myself repeatedly singing the chorus of Bon Jovi’s “Never Say Goodbye”. I know it’s not an appropriate song, but it has an appropriate chorus, damnit…

Earlier this year, Ah Gong was diagnosed with lung cancer. He had been a heavy smoker for most of his adult life. But he kicked the habit overnight (literally) when he went for a religious retreat 20 years ago (Pretty Bad Ass, huh?). Due to his age and the advance stage of the cancer when it was diagnosed, most forms of treatments were ruled out. It came to a point where the best the doctors could do was to manage his pain and for us to pray for a miracle.

The thing about cancer is that it is slow. The sickness ate at him, and the medication made him drowsy and irritable at times. Caring for him was not always easy, but at least we all had the opportunity to say our goodbyes in our own ways.

To be honest, there was a lot to be thankful for. He lived to a relatively ripe old age. He managed to see all his children and grandchildren grow up (I got to have him around for 30 awesome years). I was even fortunate enough for him to watch me get married.

Deep inside, I know that it is probably better this way too. At the very least, he’s not in pain anymore. And the way he had lived his life, I am sure that he is in a much better place.

But all this does little to numb the pain that he’s not here anymore. He was always there to listen to us when nobody will. He’ll shield us from rampaging parents and even pretended to spank us by shielding our buttocks with his thighs and hitting that instead. At 82, he’ll lug loads of durians home from the other end of the island just so he could share them with us.

Ah Gong loved all of us unconditionally. As life brought on more obligations, distractions and responsibilities, the frequency of my visits to Ah Gong’s place dropped drastically. Yet, he never demanded for my company. Instead, he’ll just be there waiting whenever we visited. Once in a while, he will try to entice me over with promises of durians and coffee.Even towards the end when he must have been in pain, he’ll still smile and grab our hands strongly when we went around.

So I guess this is farewell. A goodbyes to all the conversations yet to have, and all the durians yet to be eaten.

Goodbye Ah Gong…