Lovely Peggy as chairwoman of the Sarawak Music Society most kindly invited me to a concert “From West to South East Asia”, a guitar recital by Peter Korbel (an accomplished German guitarist) with Sons (Simfoni Orkestra Negeri Sarawak) String Orchestra at the MBKS Auditorium last night.

And guess who else was playing in the orchestra last night? It was none other than Ben, our ever smiling music student on the violin viola as Peter Korbel’s left hand man! (Actually Ben was on his left hand side!)

Conducted by Marcus Leong with an interesting repertoire; the performance was fine if not stirring. But what was really stirring (and grating) one’s temper were the handphones that kept going off throughout the evening’s musical performance. Perhaps the MC was 'deaf', as whilst she waxed lyrical about the performance, but made no mention of this annoyance after Part 1 of the concert nor was there any announcement that all handphones should be switched off or put on silent mode during the concert! Duh!

Despite the rude interruptions; it was a successful and enjoyable evening.

Do people really have no cow sense at all? This is one ‘other side of the story’ that I do not really care to listen. If you are attending a concert or movie – can you please just SWITCH OFF YOUR BLOODY HANDPHONES you inconsiderate morons! What’s a stupid cow doing in a concert anyway?

Stumble It!

In stark contrast to tuesday; it's bright and sunny today!

Stumble It!

Instead of just twiddling my thumbs (or smoking) like everyone else was while waiting; I took the opportunity to take some photos of the overhead glass entrance canopy much to their bewilderment; and I guessed these people would be even more so if they found out that I actually blog about kayaking! My secret life or rather a part of my life most of whom I deal with on a daily basis has little idea about. Hmmm.

Anyway here are the photos taken in colour and not manipulated by Photoshop (other than the rotation and 'drop shadow'); and feel the wetness!

So what do you do when you are caught in the rain?

Stumble It!

We were invited to little Aaron’s Big One Year Old birthday celebration at Tom’s on Saturday night, 25^th March 2006 by his lovely mum Juliana. The last similar invitation was for Anselm’s (Aaron’s bigger cheeky brother) one year old birthday party too at Lok Thian. Eldest sister Sineado was there too with the rest of Juliana’s big extended family members but unfortunately daddy’s in Calgary, Alberta, Canada – so this is for you Antonio, and all the other family members who are overseas to let you know what you had missed out in sunny and warm Kuching!

The food from Tom’s was great as usual and supplemented by Juliana’s mum famous “kah char mar” – Kuching’s famous ‘drunken herbal chicken’ (traditionally taken during the confinement period but consumed at all other times nowadays!); my all time favourite. Yummy! Oh! And the 'sinful' cheese/chocolate birthday cake is really something worth paddling for!

Thank you Juliana for inviting us and to answer your question when I asked you whether I could ‘blog this’ or not, and you consented after 'consulting' Sineado; this here is what you called a blog!

Stumble It!

Law (indefatigable inflatable kayaker) sent me this cute pic and at first I thought it was a painting but it's actually a knitted soft toy! Something to rival ducky right?

Now you know what I would like for my birthday or christmas! BTW I happened to be a 'monkey' under the chinese animals sign (and I also have a yellow kayak as well!).

Stumble It!

As I slide open the patio doors this morning and looked out, I saw a stunning red morning sky and I promptly went in to get my digital camera to capture this glorious scene. I went outside the house to get a better view and there I met my neighbour, Simon who was already dressed for work while I was still in my pajamas! He was also enjoying this glorious sunrise. Spectacular as it already was, Simon told me that it was even more amazing a few moments ago. So while we chatted, I quickly clicked away at this fleeting scene, with the rich deep colours of the sky dissipating in a couple of short minutes later. These are for you Simon, Wallace and all the wonderful neighbours on our street!

What a beautiful start to the week!

Stumble It!

And so they make you wait. And waited we did for a aweful long time until the cars behind that we were holding up lost their patience and started honking. I resisted hitting the horn too and not wanting to hold up the traffic in the rain; I moved on rather than to wait any longer for this awful and mean person who's obviously relishing this. And just as I moved away, I could see from my rear view mirror that they finally decided to move; ‘happy’ that they had denied me the parking space! Amazing isn't it about the kind of unfathomable mentality of such people?

Anyway enjoy the awesome sunset that I took which I noticed when I got out of the car after letting my family out and finding another parking lot further down the road.

Come to think of it, I should and easily could have taken a photo of these selfish and dreadful people and shame them here but I didn’t. But then again small people like that are just not worth it.

Stumble It!

Along for the kayaking river run down Sg Sarawak Kanan were office colleagues Gilbert and Aady (twice baptised!), Hii and Ong (last minute baptisim) and 'expert' paddlers Roland and Iing! A team that paddles together, stays together! (And tandem paddlers swim together!)

Believe me; they had a 'splashing' good time! Hehe!

Stumble It!

The difference being that the dog's swim was intentional! Ouch!

And one taken of yours truly by Joe in the water mucking around with his new waterproof casing for the canon ixus.

Stumble It!

My folding kayak – a Folbot ‘Cooper’ has been sitting, since the Chiangmai Expedition, neglected in the store until the arrival of our unwelcome guest; so I took her out last night to make sure that all her parts are intact and in good order. I also needed some practice in assembling her even though the Cooper is one of the easiest folding kayaks to assemble.

So when I received a timely sms from Gette that “she’ll be at Chilax and all idlers are invited. BYO, jokers”, I knew where I'm headed! Assembling a folding kayaks in our weather is hot and sweaty work and it dawned on me that why not do it at Chilax – a truly ‘chilling’ place with Mavis preference for sub-zeros temperature setting with her air conditioning! Polar bears would feel right at home.

When I got there lugging my Folder; Gette and Peggy were already there and Mavis and gang must be wondering what bag of tricks I’m up to this time!

Peggy, a fellow architect, chipped in to help while Gette was busy taking photos of us. Half way through, Hendrix (not Jimi but Lau!), another fellow architect walked in and he also chipped in to help. Before too long the kayak was fully “unfolded” with the final inflation of the side sponsons by ‘expert blower’, Peggy!

Being the creative architects that we were (*ahem*), some creative poses were in order with Peggy flexing her muscles much to the amusement of azzi Azreen and other bemused patrons of Chilax watching from the comforts of their sofa.

Stumble It!

I walked over to the riverbank as that’s where the smoke seems to be coming from and the few people who were also watching this informed me that one of the kampong houses has caught fire and the smell of kerosene seems to confirm it. If you live in a wooden hut by the river bank with no road access and when it catches fire; there is nothing really much you can do but to salvage what you can.

The smokes thicken as it blows over to where I was standing. And as I started to take photographs of the surreal atmosphere it dawned on me that I am appreciating this beautiful scene while some poor person’s house is burning to the ground! How detached can one get? I’d stopped watching TV news for a long time now with the endless cycle of negative images of violence and horrors that does nothing but numb our senses to feel anything. But I was not the only detached observer as there were a few anglers on the old jetty.

Written by Jerome Kern (music) and Otto Harbach (lyrics) for the musical "Roberta" in 1933
Recording by The Platters was a # 1 hit in 1959
Remade in 1973 by Blue Haze, it hit # 27

They, asked me how I knew,
My true love was true,
I of course replied, something here inside,
Can not be denied.

They, said some day you'll find,
All who love are blind,
When you heart's on fire, you must realize,
Smoke gets in your eyes.

So I chaffed them, and I gaily laughed,
To think they would doubt our love,
And yet today, my love has gone away,
I am without my love.

Now laughing friends deride,
Tears I cannot hide,
So I smile and say, when a lovely flame dies,
Smoke gets in your eyes,

Smoke gets in your eyes.

Stumble It!

However to save you folks from such unnecessarily self-inflicted pains, here is what I’d learned from this episode:-

• Never shoot off your mouth (or email) when you’re feeling down in the dumps. Bad moods tend to cloud your good judgments and senses. Wrong choices of words can be hurtful.
• Realise that you’ll never get to know or understand a person fully irregardless of how long you’ve known them. It’s always the people who are closest to us that we know the least.
• Never argue with a fool or someone with thicker skin than you. They are prepared to humiliate/embarrass themselves publicly – but are you?
• Maturity and grace has nothing to do with age, position or educational levels. Age may in fact make certain people bitter, arrogant and intolerant of opposing views.
  
• People have big and more importantly fragile EGOS at that. Some are powder keg just waiting to be ignited! You do not want them to explode in your face. So tread carefully.
  
• Some people take themselves way too seriously and have no sense of humour. So do not assume that they'll take anything in a lighthearted manner that you may. Be sensitive of people's feelings.
  
• If you must send off a sensitive email to a group – please do NOT disclose their names on the list. Do it as “Undisclosed Recipients”. This is an important lesson.
  
• It may not be wise sometimes to be truthful about your feelings. Keep it bottled or risk getting it off your chest and be prepared for the repercussions.
  
• Expect the unexpected. While the majority of the people will dwell on what you have written and response to you in a calm and thoughtful manner; there will be the odd one or two who would impulsively react negatively in a knee-jerk manner. Spastic!
  
• Some people do not accept apologies. They'd rather hate than forgive and move on.
• I'm not perfect - no way! Hopefully I learn from my mistakes.
• It may be time to burn some bridges as some 'friends' are probably not worth having.
• No one is right or wrong and it's not important. Keeping a friendship may be more important.
  
• Let sleeping dogs lie.

So for whoever I had inadvertently offended I offer my unreserved apologies as that’s the last thing I would do. I’d rather go kayaking anytime!

But for those who get offended irregardless of whatever I may say or write; you know where to find the nearest body of water to jump in! I'm just kidding! Be well irregardless!

“Do not brood over your past mistakes and failures as this will only fill your mind with grief, regret and depression. Do not repeat them in the future.”
Swami Sivananda

“Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.”
Albert Einstein

“All men make mistakes, but only wise men learn from their mistakes.”
Winston Churchill

“There are no mistakes. The events we bring upon ourselves, no matter how unpleasant, are necessary in order to learn what we need to learn; whatever steps we take, they're necessary to reach the places we've chosen to go.”
Richard Bach

“Learn from the mistakes of others-you can never live long enough to make them all yourself.”
John Luther

Stumble It!