hello everyone...finally after inspirations and persuasions from friends...ive finally created a blog as well...hehe...but for the time being...there might not be any interesting postings...that is,if you define interesting postings as postings with pics...i do,tho :p ...anyway, im crossing my fingers and waiting to get a digi cam on 1 sept (see,ive even set the date to meet the target so that shows how determined i am, hiak hiak!)...why 1 sept...you may ask...cox my 2 other friends in singapore are also planning to get digi cams for themselves...so they suggested waiting for me...get 3 at one go...can get better bargains...hmmm...can expect more meaningful postings by then...for the time being, guess id post up a different meaningful story each day...for your reading pleasure and hopefully some of them can be sources of encouragement to you :p


A Sandpiper To Bring You Joy


She was six years old when I first met her on the beach near where I live. I drive to this beach, a distance of three or four miles, whenever the world begins to close in on me. She was building a sand castle or something and looked up, her eyes as blue as the sea. "Hello," she said. I answered with a nod, not really in the mood to bother with a small child.

"I'm building," she said.

"I see that. What is it?" I asked, not caring.

"Oh, I don't know, I just like the feel of sand." That sounds good, I thought, and slipped off my shoes. A sandpiper glided by.

"That's a joy," the child said.

"It's a what?"

"It's a joy. My mama says sandpipers come to bring us joy." The bird went gliding down the beach.

"Good-bye joy," I muttered to myself, "hello pain," and turned to walk on. I was depressed; my life seemed completely out of balance.

"What's your name?" She wouldn't give up.

"Ruth," I answered. "I'm Ruth Peterson."

"Mine's Wendy... I'm six."

"Hi, Wendy." She giggled.

"You're funny," she said. In spite of my gloom I laughed too and walked on. Her musical giggle followed me. "Come again, Mrs. P," she called. "We'll have another happy day."

The days and weeks that followed belong to others: a group of unruly Boy Scouts, PTA meetings, and ailing mother. The sun was shining one morning as I took my hands out of the dishwater. "I need a sandpiper," I said to myself, gathering up my coat. The ever-changing balm of the seashore awaited me. The breeze was chilly, but I strode along, trying to recapture the serenity I needed. I had forgotten the child and was startled when she appeared.

"Hello, Mrs. P," she said. "Do you want to play?"

"What did you have in mind?" I asked, with a twinge of annoyance.

"I don't know, you say."

"How about charades?" I asked sarcastically. The tinkling laughter burst forth again.

"I don't know what that is."

"Then let's just walk." Looking at her, I noticed the delicate fairness of her face. "Where do you live?" I asked.

"Over there." She pointed toward a row of summer cottages. Strange, I thought, in winter.

"Where do you go to school?"

"I don't go to school. Mommy says we're on vacation." She chattered little girl talk as we strolled up the beach, but my mind was on other things. When I left for home, Wendy said it had been a happy day. Feeling surprisingly better, I smiled at her and agreed.

Three weeks later, I rushed to my beach in a state of near panic. I was in no mood to even greet Wendy. I thought I saw her mother on the porch and felt like demanding she keep her child at home. "Look, if you don't mind," I said crossly when Wendy caught up with me, "I'd rather be alone today." She seems unusually pale and out of breath.

"Why?" she asked.

I turned to her and shouted, "Because my mother died!" and thought, my, why was I saying this to a little child?

"Oh," she said quietly, "then this is a bad day."

"Yes," I said, "and yesterday and the day before and-oh, go away!"

"Did it hurt? " she inquired.

"Did what hurt?" I was exasperated with her, with myself.

"When she died?"

"Of course it hurt!!!!" I snapped, misunderstanding, wrapped up in myself. I strode off.

A month or so after that, when I next went to the beach, she wasn't there. Feeling guilty, ashamed and admitting to myself I missed her, I went up to the cottage after my walk and knocked at the door. A drawn looking young woman with honey-colored hair opened the door. "Hello," I said. "I'm Ruth Peterson. I missed your little girl today and wondered where she was."

"Oh yes, Mrs. Peterson, please come in. Wendy spoke of you so much. I'm afraid I allowed her to bother you. If she was a nuisance, please, accept my apologies."

"Not at all-she's a delightful child," I said, suddenly realizing that I meant it. "Where is she?"

"Wendy died last week, Mrs. Peterson. She had leukemia. Maybe she didn't tell you." Struck dumb, I groped for a chair. My breath caught. "She loved this beach; so when she asked to come, we couldn't say no. She seemed so much better here and had a lot of what she called happy days. But the last few weeks, she declined rapidly..." her voice faltered. "She left something for you ... if only I can find it. Could you wait a moment while I look?" I nodded stupidly, my mind racing for something, anything, to say to this lovely young woman. She handed me a smeared envelope, with MRS. P printed in bold, childish letters.

Inside was a drawing in bright crayon hues-a yellow beach, a blue sea, and a brown bird. Underneath was carefully printed: A SANDPIPER TO BRING YOU JOY. Tears welled up in my eyes, and a heart that had almost forgotten to love opened wide. I took Wendy's mother in my arms. "I'm so sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," I muttered over and over, and we wept together. The precious little picture is framed now and hangs in my study. Six words -one for each year of her life - that speak to me of harmony, courage, undemanding love. A gift from a child with sea-blue eyes and hair the color of sand --who taught me the gift of love.

NOTE: The above is a true story sent out by Ruth Peterson. It serves as a reminder to all of us that we need to take time to enjoy living and life and each other. Life is so complicated, the hustle and bustle of everyday traumas, can make us lose focus about what is truly important or what is only a monetary setback or crisis. This weekend, be sure to give your love ones an extra hugs, and by all means, take a moment ... even if it is only ten seconds, and stop and smell the roses. "The price of hating other human beings is loving oneself less." "We love, because HE first loved us."

for the past one day,okay, to be more precise,starting from last night 11pm something till just now 8pm something, jehling, jackson, nelson and i have come across 3 weird incidents. they didnt happen in a row but then they werent happy cases either. first incident happened when the four of us and boon ping were having leng chee kang at the open-air stall near city bayview hotel. suddenly there was a loud 'bang' and we rushed to see a motorcyclist lying on the road after having knocked into a honda civic. i wasnt early enough to see the driver escaping but my friends did catch sight of him escaping through the side door though. i guess that was the best solution he could take cox he (chinese) ran over a malay man and if he stayed, i believe somebody would beat him up. the poor motorcyclist lied in pain on the ground, vomitted blood, but nobody dared to touch him because when such situation occurs, somehow its best to leave the victim untouched cox one might do more harm than help if he/she touches him. however, the weird thing was that nobody called the ambulance immediately! at least that was what my friends and i observed.so boon ping and jackson stopped the motorcyclists passer-bys and asked them to rush to southern hospital to get an ambulance to come. while waiting for the ambulance, the victim took off his helmet and i saw his face covered with blood. he tried to walk but couldnt really get up. i was so shocked then cox that was my 1st ever encounter with an accident before my eyes. he was seriously injured, could see a pool of blood on the ground and also stains of blood on the car as well. his right shoulder bone seemed to have stuck out of his right back, that was a gruesome sight, though. after about 10-15 minutes, both ambulances arrived. melaka hospital's ambulance arrived a few minutes earlier than southern hospital's ambulance, and both drivers negotiated before the melaka hospital's ambulance took the victim away. one thing i still dont quite understand is why the melaka hospital ambulance didnt place the victim's safety in first place, i mean he wouldnt be penalized if he drove the victim to southern hospital since it was much nearer and the victim was already in his ambulance, ah well, just pray that the victim didnt suffer internal injuries, and hope that the driver would come out and take appropriate actions that he should be liable for.

the second incident occurred this noon at 3pm something near the place i stayed, two roads away. well, this somehow sounded funny to me, okay, i dont mean to sound un-sympathetic, just that it's funny! okay, the story goes like this...there was this indian girl (still a student) who was reversing her 1 mth old (according to my friends) kelisa from her house. then she ended up ramming into her opposite neighbour's house, all the way into the living room! can you imagine how hard the impact was. the gate was locked, the house's gate was locked as well, but the car reversed all the way in and smashed the tv and its speakers. weird thing tho, the altar was spared though it was only a few cms away from the tv, maybe due to the power of their gods, hehe. my friends and i 'kepoh' and went to talk with the aunty,one of the residents of the house, and she asked us to go in and have a look. then she exclaimed 'luckily my grandson wasn't at home, if he's killed, i'll kill her!'. now that sounded scary. we didnt get to see the indian girl, heard that she was hiding in her house. poor girl, i believe that must have had a big impact on her and she might never dare to drive again. if im not mistaken, she might have placed both her legs on the pedals, one on the break the other on the petrol, and that's one thing one must never do when driving an auto car. anyway, when one of the car-tow-ers came, he asked my friend if he knew how to write a report, cox he said could publish this news and promote kelisa as a powerful car at the same time, hahaha..

3rd incident, considered the least minor of all 3 incidents, happened when the four of us were on our way back from mahkota parade to bukit beruang. as we advanced towards the semabok traffic light, we saw a car run over a black and white spotted cat. the cat hasnt died, and it was kicking in pain. poor cat, unfortunately we couldnt possibly stop there as there were so many cars driving fast along the road.

well...the four of us are still questioning ourselves whether these signs mean anything? however, not trying to be superstitious, i pray that bad things wont happen to any of us and hopefully we wont have to witness any of these terrifying incidents anymore.

anyway, talking about more pleasant stuffs, ive completed my presentation! yuppie, finally can bid farewell to this project which has been haunting me for two semesters. both the lecturer and moderator seemed quite impressed with the demo carried out by my partners and i, hopefully there's a good sign after all...

yet another hot day, nothing much happens. this morning i wrote a letter to reject the job offer of another company that earlier on offered me a job as a r&d trainee engineer in bluetooth. i tried to make it sound as polite and apologetic as possible so that the lady boss would not bombard me. actually ive called in a few times as i thought it might be better to get over with the 'bombing' sooner, but nobody answered the call, i was directed to the operator, she directed me back to the line and the same process occurred for the 4-5 times i called, so ah well, gave up and decided to write instead. the lady boss made it clear to me during our 2nd interview that she didnt want me to just say 'yes' if i was offered a job by that company and then on the other hand hunted for other better offers. now i seem to have broken my promise, feel somewhat guilty though. thats why i'd rather she 'bombs' me on the phone and then leaves me alone, hehe. pray that she would be willing to accept my apologies and explanation...

thought of sharing this story about the wonders a prayer does have a nice day, and God bless ya all

Louise Redden, a poorly dressed lady with a look of defeat on her face, walked into a grocery store. She approached the owner of the store in a most humble manner and asked if he would let her charge a few groceries. She softly explained that her husband was very ill and unable to work, they had seven children and they needed food.
John Longhouse, the grocer, scoffed at her and requested that she leave his store. Visualizing the family needs, she said: "Please, sir! I will bring you the money just as soon as I can." John told her he could not give her credit, as she did not have a charge account at his store.

Standing beside the counter was a customer who overheard the conversation between the two. The customer walked forward and told the grocer that he would stand good for whatever she needed for her family. The grocer said in a very reluctant voice, "Do you have a grocery list? Louise replied, "Yes sir" "O.K." he said, "put your grocery list on the scales and whatever your grocery list weighs, I will give you that amount in groceries." Louise, hesitated a moment with a bowed head, then she reached into her purse and took out a piece of paper and scribbled something on it. She then laid the piece of paper on the scale carefully with her head still bowed.

The eyes of the grocer and the customer showed amazement when the scales went down and stayed down. The grocer, staring at the scales, turned slowly to the customer and said begrudgingly, "I can't believe it." The customer smiled and the grocer started putting the groceries on the other side of the scales. The scale did not balance so he continued to put more and more groceries on them until the scales would hold no more. The grocer stood there in utter disgust.

Finally, he grabbed the piece of paper from the scales and looked at it with greater amazement. It was not a grocery list, it was a prayer which said: "Dear Lord, you know my needs and I am leaving this in your hands."

there's this frog which has been crawling into the kitchen of my rented house almost every night. obviously it crept in from beneath the kitchen door, but so far none of my housemates including i have seen it doing so. weird tho, the gap between the door end and the floor is just like 2-3 cms, its a wonder that it, the fat ugly frog, manages to squeeze through! but no thanks, i dont like its presence since it has scared me several times especially on occasions when i didnt realize its presence. it also likes to hide in the toilet, lol, both jackson and nelson have to chase it out whenever they want to use the toilet. there was once when i even had the thought of slaughtering it and cooking it for 'tian ji' porridge (of course its not the edible typa frog), haha, must be 'siao' to even think of that!

ah well, enough about the frog. nothing much happens today, i started my revision for EMI, there wasnt much progress, went to tesco with housemates and another friend this noon. wanted to go jogging in uni this evening but was too lazy to do so after i woke up from nap at 6:30pm. i havent jogged for more than a week already, seems sorta unmotivated lately, most probably because there're no upcoming runs that i am able to join, so the what-the-heck-of-training-when-theres-no-running concept drags me down. but cant laze for too long cox im afraid my stamina would wear out like it did after form 3.

yawn...guess its time to knock off. good night everyone, sweet dreams!

sien arr these few days, nothing much happened, wanted to do revision but only ended up studying a bit. progress's super slow. the only thought that drives me to study is the countdown of number of days left before i can declare myself free. haih, today's the 13th already, not really in the mood to blog these few days either, partly also because i'm not sure what i should blah about, hehe.

anyway, something pleasant to share about, a lovely cat has been 'appearing' occasionally inside and outside of my house these 2 days. sometimes it would just pop out of the window or quietly sneaks into the house when nobody's aware of it. it is cute, though, and i think this cat is intelligent in the sense that it has eye contacts with you when you talk to it i couldnt resist playing with it (its not scared of humans as well) and feeding it when i hear its adorable 'miao'. right now its sleeping on the pillar beside the gate... good night, cat, make sure you dont catch a cold okay well, when i ask it not to enter the house, it would just sit on the floor 10 cms away from the door for 10-15 minutes, after that when nobody's watching it, it could slowly 'tiptoe' into the house, haha. i even introduced it to the bad frog which never fails to report its attendance between 8-9pm every night (what to do, sien ler,so find something interesting to kill time), but both are not interested to communicate, so link cannot be established :p

yawn...wanna zZz liao. night night, till we meet again...

He met her on a party. She was so outstanding, many guys chasing after her, while he was so normal, nobody paid attention to him. At the end of the party, he invited her to have coffee with him, she was surprised, but due to being polite, she promised.

They sat in a nice coffee shop, he was too nervous to say anything, she felt uncomfortable, she thought, please, let me go home..
suddenly he asked the waiter: "Would you please give me some salt? I'd like to put it in my coffee."

Everybody stared at him, so strange! His face turned red, but, still, he put the salt in his coffee and drank it. She asked him curiously: Why do you have this hobby?

He replied: "When I was a little boy, I lived near the sea, I liked playing in the sea, I could feel the taste of the sea , just like the taste of the salty coffee. Now every time I have the salty coffee, I always think of my childhood, think of my hometown, I miss my hometown so much, I miss my parents who are still living there". While saying that tears filled his eyes. She was deeply touched.

That's his true feeling, from the bottom of his heart. A man who can tell out his homesickness, he must be a man who loves home, cares about home, has responsibility of home.. Then she also started to speak, spoke about her faraway hometown, her childhood, her family. That was a really nice talk, also a beautiful beginning of their story.

They continued to date. She found that actually he was a man who meets all her demands; he had tolerance, was kind hearted, warm, careful. He was such a good person but she almost missed him!

Thanks to his salty coffee! Then the story was just like every beautiful
love story, the princess married to the prince, then they were living the happy life... And, every time she made coffee for him, she put some salt in the coffee, as she knew that's the way he liked it.

After 40 years, he passed away, left her a letter which said: "My dearest, please forgive me, forgive my whole life lie. This was the only lie I said to you---the salty coffee. Remember the first time we dated? I was so nervous at that time, actually I wanted some sugar, but I said salt. It was hard for me to change so I just went ahead. I never thought that could be the start of our communication! I tried to tell you the truth many times in my
life, but I was too afraid to do that, as I have promised not to lie to you for
anything..

Now I'm dying, I afraid of nothing so I tell you the truth: I don't like the salty coffee, what a strange bad taste.. But I have had the salty coffee for my whole life! Since I knew you, I never feel sorry for anything I do for you. Having you with me is my biggest happiness for my whole life. If I can live for the second time, still want to know you and have you for my whole life, even though I have to drink the salty coffee again". Her tears made the
letter totally wet.

Someday, someone asked her: what's the taste of salty coffee?

It's sweet. She replied.

it's been quite a while since i last blogged. after reading batu2pahat, bingbing, jacylenne, and chin's blogs, im also filled with emotions of having to part with my dear friends soon. hopefully most of us will still keep in touch. i'm going to work in melaka, and will be shifting to batu berendam where its nearer to my working place. please feel free to find me ive 2 more papers left, one next tues and the other on 30th, so im expecting to see most of my uni-mates 'merdeka'-ing before me, tsk tsk. anyway, all the best to those who still have papers to sit for, for those heading to penang or elsewhere for holidays, play hard hard ah, hehe! take care everyone..

yuppie, ive finally realized my dream of owning a digital camera, hehe. succumbed to the temptation after seeing fotokem's advertisements in the papers lately, so decided to go to mp last night with my housemates and double confirmed the bargains they are offering for this merdeka sales. unexpectedly, pakard photo offered a better deal then fotokem, hence i got my sony dsc-p10/s from them at a price of rm2020 including rm200 digital prints coupons, 128mb memory stick, and a sony original casing im not into diving, though this camera can actually be utilized for marine use, however, have to buy a special casing and that casing along together with the colour filter costs almost rm1k, tsk tsk!!

i will start taking pics when final's over, most probably next week, hopefully can have a more interesting blog by then, hehe. hmm...less than 3 more days to go before i can kiss communication network goodbye, been war-ring with it these few days. this subject really sucks, theres no short cut to studying it except to memorize, memorize and memorize, haih..setakat can pass enoughlah for me.

looking for a reason, roaming through the night to find my place in this world...