Déjà vu

The term déjà vu is French and means, literally, "already seen." Those who have experienced the feeling describe it as an overwhelming sense of familiarity with something that shouldn't be familiar at all. Say, for example, you are traveling to England for the first time. You are touring a cathedral, and suddenly it seems as if you have been in that very spot before. Or maybe you are having dinner with a group of friends, discussing some current political topic, and you have the feeling that you've already experienced this very thing -- same friends, same dinner, same topic. (*source from http://science.howstuffworks.com/science-vs-myth/extrasensory-perceptions/question657.htm)

This is a word where is quite spooky and eerie to begin with. I heard this word before but only now that I understand the true meaning of this word.

Anyway, I now understand I have to put thoughts -> plans -> actions. I just need to perform ACTIONS before things get too late or before I get too fed up with myself. Thanks dear...

Tribute to my Papa

Papa....We miss you! It's been almost 8 weeks that you have left us. You had gone without saying any words. It's been heart broken for all of us. I hope you are doing OK (*wherever you are right now). Pa, I remember the last glance that we made. I asked you "pa, had you taken your lunch" and I cannot believe that is the last conversation that we will had. This is the destiny and everyone will go through this path. It's only a matter of time. Your time is up and we had to let you go.

I know pa you are always proud of your children and you had taught us well to be a good person. I remembered that you will always say about how good academically your child is and what they are doing etc. This is a testament that will stay with time and this is the results of your hard work. Thank you.

Even though, we might not had time to do things together, the memories of the things that we had do together will continue to stay in my mind. The time we had gone for a trip to Xiamen, the time when you called me out of no where you are in Penang and we had durian together in Balik Pulau, the time we had our small chat in your bedroom, the time we went shopping together to get your coat for ko's wedding....even though i regretted not spending more time with you.

Pa, you had thought us to live an honest life, you had taught us to work hard. Thank you. Even though you are someone not expressive, you had done your best as a father. We will not forget you.

Pa, I hope you find your peace and continue to bless us.

Pa, rest in peace.

* A tribute to my papa that passed away on 2-May-2012.

Chinese New Year

In less than one weeks time, Chinese around the world will usher the new coming of the lunar calender and celebrate the dragon year in an auspicious way. Its the time where families and friends get together to feast on all kinds of delicacies, rebuild long lost relationship and have a jolly good time with each others companies.

While the festivities mood is up in the air, its also a good time to reflect on the unfortunate ones. There are many people without food and a shelter to call home. I am sure the poor will enjoy a hot and savoury dish to go down with some nice cookies. It's good to do some charity in a time of abundance and don't forget the neglected ones like the orphanage and the old folks.

While enjoying oneself, don't forget to practice moderate. Spend moderately and have just enough meals for everyone and try not to waste food. Wishing everyone "年年有余" but in the context of wisdom, health and happiness. I hope 2012 will be a good year for everyone in everyway possible. Remember to pray for good health and prosperity.

p/s: I will try to catch up with friends and family and my dear :)

新年快乐，共喜发财，万事如意，身体建康。

Happy New Year 2012 :-)

It's time of the year again ... last day of the year for 2011. It seems only yesterday that I greet 2011 and now it is certain the sun will set today to end the year. It also means a beginning for 2012. What I would like to do at this time of the year is to reflect the past year and kind of do a wrap up before embarking on 2012 (the last human year according to Mayan calender).

2011 had been a good year. Let's start by reviewing my 2011 resolutions:

1. Restore back my relationship with my family and friends. - Done
2. Reading books that had been collecting dust. Still collecting dust
3. Run my first full marathon. - Register but did not run. Finnish 3 half marathon.
4. Climb the highest mountain in South East Asia (Mt. Kinabalu). - Done
5. Enrolling for a post graduate course (its always my dream to attend my own convocation).  - Not done

All in all, I am OK with what I had achieved for year 2011. Even though its nothing to brag about but certainly felt a sense of joy. In terms of working, its up and down. After completing a big project and moving to another product portfolio hasn't been easy. I did learn how to manage organization change and learning to deal with people with different personality.

For self, I think I do more exercise. Mountain biking,running and badminton had been my main exercise. One of the highlight was to complete the round Penang island bike event. It was one heck of an experience where biking in heavy rains can be exhilarating.

For self development, I did felt that I start to analyze more and can relate to people more. I still need to improve on my time management, interpersonal relationship and self discipline.

For relationship, well ..... thanks for giving me the opportunity.... I will do my best to sustain and continue to improve the relationship further. Any comments?

To sum it up, for 2011 I learned to live a sustainable life I need to eat well, exercise more and have a balance life (balancing between work and self).

What's in store for 2012:

1. To spend more time with family and friends. To spend more time with my dad.
2. Sustaining a healthy life style. To exercise more and eat healthily.
3. To sustain a healthy relationship with my dear.
4. To define my next career move.
5. To read more books.

I hope I can go for a family trip this year. All in all, I hope to spend my time and money wisely.

Happy New Year 2012. Stay healthy and stay happy. Good bye 2011 and Hello 2012.

Bless with simplicity....

I cannot feel more bless, no words can describe my feeling but to feel appreciative and grateful. I am more focus in my work, have a simple lifestyle that combine excersizing with loads of weekend spending with people that I care much. I want to remind myself to keep things easy and also there are rooms for improvements:

• time management
• more focus in my current task
• put in more effort to do planning
• financial planning
• communication skills
• "karaoke"

I would like to have simplicity blend in my lifestyle.

What's in my mind?

I had a good weekend. Yes, it's a very good weekend. I spent the weekend without internet connection to my emails and access to my company's network. Besides the much talked about yellow t-shirt rally in the hearts of KL, everything else is calm. I wanted to continue remind myself about trust, honesty, sincerity and responsibility. This is what in my mind. No matter it's personal or non-personal, I felt the need to be sincere in whatever things that we do. I constantly remind myself to stay in the middle path. I want to love with responsibility, to talk with honesty, to act with sincerity, to pray hard with faith and to constantly remind myself I am not perfect after all. Thanks for everything !

Resolution # 4 - DONE

4. Climb the highest mountain in South East Asia (Mt. Kinabalu).

Yesssss! Strike through one of my resolutions in 2011 is such a great feeling. I had climbed up to the submit of Mt Kinabalu which is Low's Peak (highest peak in South East Asia). The feeling is indescribable. It's the toughest climb I have attempted. I am glad that all my teamates made it to the submit. We did the climb safely and everyone descend safely as well.

The climb from Kinabalu park entrance to Laban Rata took me 6 and half hours. Its challenging due to:

1. The air gets thinner as we ascend upwards (from ~1900m to 3300m)
2. The trail is made of steps and rocky path, at some point need to hold on to ropes
3. The chill wind occasionally blew on us
4. The bag packs that I carry weigh roughly 6kg
5. My tired legs

We stayed one night at Pendant Huts. Its the accommodation that is provided to those who enroll in Via Ferrata (world's highest via ferrata is located in Mt KK). After had our buffet dinner we rest for tomorrow's ascend up to the submit.

Everyone woke up at 1.30am gear up for the climb to the submit. After had our breakfast all are ready for the final climb (another 2.5km) to Low's Peak. We are lucky because the rain the night before stop before our climb started. We started to climb at 2.30am.

It's all dark and we only rely on our headlamps to guide us through the path. Along the path, we had to climb through some steep rocks. With assistance of the rope, we had to carefully maneuver ourselves through this dangerous cliff. It's definitely end of the world if at any one time, I let go my hands. The most dangerous cliff is at km 6.0 where we need to climb up the rock using just the rope.

All of us had to register ourselve at Sayat Sayat hut before continue our climb to the submit. From km7 to km8.5 is all rock (as Mt KK used to be a volcano but its now dead). Along the way, I manage to catch a glimpse of South Peak (the one on the RM1 note), Donkey's ear, Sister ugly etc. Low's peak is the submit.

The final climb up the submit was a bit torturous as its made of rocks and its steep. So we had to be extremely careful.

Finally when I reached the submit, all the sweat and toil was forgotten momentarily. While I stood there to enjoy the marvellous view, my thought is WOW such a magnificent place no earth. I felt I am tiny. It's such a great feeling.

After spending about 15 minutes on the top, I descend down the mountain to embark on another adventure. Fia Verrata (Work the Torq circuit) is where we want to go. It's an adventure where the climber hook on harness will ascend down Mt KK alike rock climbing style. 5 all us plus the trainer went down together. I was made the leader. I was kind of nervous in the beginning as I need to climb down first and having only one time experience rock climb, I slowly build my courage to go down. I have to find my way down and also guiding my team members down safely. It's such a good experience.

It took us 1 hour 45 minutes to complete the circuit. What a relief.

From there we adjunct to our hut where we had our deserved breakfast. After breakfast we packed and ready to climb down Mt KK. It started to rain quite heavily when we started our descend down the mountain. We had to put on our rain coat.

The descend was all wet, slippery and rocky. Finally after 6 hours of hiking, we reach our park HQ. It's such a good feeling to finally made it. Although I am tired, its still a good experience for me. All in all I enjoyed the climb.

Even though I enjoyed the climb, I still felt something is missing. Yes, I miss my dear ! Sorry for making my dear sob sob, you're definitely in my mind and I can feel your motivation.