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I am currently resisting the urge to write about the current state of our country’s political circus. The SDs, the live debate (shame on the foam foot in mouth blunder by the BN minister when he aimed below the belt), the 2-year power transition ‘agreement’ (which have since seen challenges from within the party), the arrest of the xDPM (not to mention the time before the deadline and oh, the force - 15 vehicles plus SWAT-style apprehension - that’s what you get for going “against the order of nature”! Whoa!), the arrest of RPK (who, btw, has quite a sizeable following himself), the mystery of the missing PI, the startling allegations, the obvious yet ignored new leads, all these and most of all, the ridiculous mockery of our country’s judiciary/legal system. No one is above the law you say? The ruling party, and everyone within, are making themselves look really bad. And whose fault is that?

Oops. Did I say I was trying not to write something?

I’m shy to say that I had never been to the Bon Odori festival before, even though I live just 15 minutes’ drive away from the event venue in Shah Alam. Last night was my first time, and obviously the first thing that amazed me was the super crowd.

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When I was in secondary three (that’s nine years ago), I remember we had a new teacher in our school. He was Mr Gunasegaran, who taught us English. He was probably in his early 30’s, and had a very charming, youthful character. We all loved him because he was close to us and always made us laugh. After several weeks of teaching us English, he also became our PE teacher.

I remember one day, during one of our PE sessions, my friends and I were talking about something funny when Mr Guna, upon hearing our jokes, said to us “Hey… *points to his feet*… even my toes are laughing… hahaha”. We always enjoyed his lessons. To many of us, he was more than just a teacher. He was a friend, in and out of the classroom. A few days ago, I learned that our beloved Mr Guna had passed away.

A friend told me that he had fallen from a roof a week earlier, and had been in coma since. My body went numb upon learning this. A group of (current) students attended his funeral wake, which I’m sure I’d have gone if I’d known. Many of my former classmates didn’t know about it either. But as my friends Sanjay and Anton put it, at least Mr Guna left us all with good memories. I’m sure he will be fondly missed.

God bless his soul.

Since returning home about a week ago, I noticed that the most-frequently spoken word among my friends and family members was “petrol”. My car’s full tank of fuel now costs a digit extra, and that’s something that cannot be ignored. Last week I took leave to exercise my right as a Malaysian citizen (even PRs who have been residing in the country for more than 50 years are not entitled to such right!). I went to the post office (the same one where I registered to be voter) to collect my RM625 petrol rebate.

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One fine morning, I decided do something about my pool of pending friend requests on Facebook. I had been trying to recall if I knew them, before approving the requests. I studied their profile but they rang no bell. I’d be more than happy to approve if we had at least something in common - like going to the same school or uni, or having met at some event before. But no, some of these requests appear to be very random. So I like to initiate a conversation in order to get to know that person better. And I like to do away with the ubiquitous “Hi, intro pls” one-liner. So I jump straight into something like this:
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This has got to be the most random entry ever. Haha. I saw the pictures I’ve watermarked and uploaded for my Bali trip in my flickr, which reminded me that I still have unfinished business! LOL.

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Before my blog turns into some kind of a photoblog, allow me to slot in an entry that’s actually focused more on thoughts than photos. It’s been a while since I did this. I’m sure you’d agree. Some people asked me how long have I been a photographer. Well you know, for me, I think I am more of a blogger than a photographer. I love to take photos, and when I’m at it, 70% of the time I have my blog in mind. As far as photography is concerned, I’d say I’m still very much learning. I bought my first SLR camera after some months of saving, and when I showed it to my parents, Mom wasn’t very happy with the way I spent my hard earned money.

Obviously I do not make a living out of taking photos. I don’t get paid for taking nice photos. Yet, I splurged more than RM3K for an entry-level SLR camera which I love dearly even til today. For those of you who may not know, I had been eyeing an SLR camera since my early days of blogging. It was because I didn’t have the means to get one, I had to wait til I joined the workforce. The burning desire (to get an SLR) peaked during my first working trip to Singapore. I bought my EOS 400D in less than a week after I got home, and I never looked back.
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I shared with you stories of living in Japan in my previous post, let me now take you back on the ‘tourist’ course.

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A couple of days ago I was informed of a possible delay in the project I’m working on. Yesterday it was confirmed and therefore I will be allowed to return KL. I have never been out overseas this long before, so it will be nice to go back, chill with friends and family, and recharge. Sure, I can chill in Japan too while waiting for all systems to be up again, but they wouldn’t like to pay me everyday just to ‘chill’, right? If the delay is substantial then it’s actually economically-wiser to fly me home, and send me here again when everything’s resolved. Unless of course during this period I’m assigned to another project.

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I want to thank you all for the kind birthday wishes last month. I got most of them one day late, even though they were sent between 0000hrs and 0100hrs on my birthday. That’s because I didn’t have telco coverage at that time. We were somewhere outside Tokyo Bay. I received a birthday cake from the company too, which was pretty cool. I and another American engineer both celebrated birthdays on board the vessel together.

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