Amazing and Blessed

Saturday was a good day for me. It was good reconnecting with some friends. It was good being a spiritual day. It was good being in the presence of really sincere and wholesome people. It was good being in the presence of people who only wants the best to happen. It was good to be the catalyst that put the factors together to get all those people to get together. It was good to have family and friends who helped get the event in shape.

The house dana turned out amazing. I had worries aplenty before the event. Would there be enough food? enough plates? enough utensils? enough cups? enough room? Would I get the events to go smoothly? Would everyone come? Would they be on time? Would they have a place to park their cars? Find my place? All in all, everything went smoothly. The number of people who turned out was just nice to fill my house but not too many that it was crowded and uncomfortable. The kids tended to get rowdy but I thought it was not too bad. At the very least, they were entertaining.

I think everyone got a dose of spirituality and hopefully left, after the talk, with a sense of what would be good to do to make their lives happier. I am very glad that Bhante agreed to grace this event and gave a thought-provoking talk. The responses he gave to the questions raised were really impressive. They really gave some points to ponder without being patronizing. I felt that he has really progressed exponentially since I last attended lessons with him. He really has a way of presenting his views in a way that is subtle but halfway through hit us with the realization that 'omg! that's it! that's so true! that might just be the way!'.

What a day!

Another good day...

What would I call a good day, hmmm.... Not necessary a free day. As a matter of fact, today was one of the busiest day for me at work. Not necessary a day filled with life changing conclusions. As a matter of fact, I didn't manage to finish any reports, oh, except for one early in the morning from results I received late yesterday. But somehow, the hours the just past so quickly. I did get a lot of things done but just not all to its completion yet. For that I need more time. But for today, I felt I have used up my time well. To cap off the day, a great dinner at a lovely Italian restaurant with good friends. More like a treat for my birthday yesterday.

What more could a gal ask for?

A Good Friday...

Things went quite close to plan last Friday. Left work about 5.30 pm to rush home to change and got myself to the squash courts by 6 pm, although the in-campus traffic was quite bad.

When I got there, Clement was playing with Mr Lim. Megat was jogging. I had a few strokes with Mr Lim before playing a game or maybe two with Clement. Then a game with Megat. What a surprise that KengLong appeared with CheeHoe! But then, they seemed to be busy together - talking and playing - and not much time for others. Weird!

Anyhow, I left and tried to get hold of PS and Pauline to confirm the plans for the later part of the night, but failed. Seemed like everybody had their phones off (or rather their batts were dead). Pauline, called me back later to firm up the plans and off we went to hang out... with Wai...

It was a good night of ribbing and laughing...

Where friends come together...

Friday night saw me hosting a get-together-cum-house-warming for a dear group of old friends. Fridays are typically not a my favorite day or rather night for a lot of things after work, as, fridays usually would turned out to be a rather busy day for me. Work to finish before the week ends, etc. etc. (the king n i?)

There were ChongSing & HwaSiew & their 2 sons, Angie & CK & their 2 daughters, Kenny (with his arm sling) & MuiKeok, Jonathan and WeiNien. This was easiest the biggest group I have ever hosted, other than the gathering of aunts, uncles & cousins during the school hols. Being such a big group, we ended up sitting and chitchat-ing on the floor.

OK, I was a bit apprehensive about hosting the event due to the size, but it turned out alright. I had fun catching up, and I think everybody had fun just fooling around. I'm not sure about MuiKeok, though. She seemed kind of quiet. Anyhow, hope she wasn't too bored.

We had the birthday cake for ChongSing, CK and Kenny to blow candles but it turned out that Kenny lied about his birth date!!!

And they got me an IRON! Exactly what I needed....

New Year 2009 BBQ

Yay! BBQ at Goy's. For year 2009. Surprisingly, I had fun. The food was good. The few good friends were there. Since there were there, I was sure the night would be good.

The night started off drizzling. Everybody were kind of worried about the rain. Soon and Goy had to re-assure many ppl who called that the event was still a GO. We were early and hung out at Goy's place. While we were there, he aired Mamma Mia, high def, on his big big Plasma TV. It was incredibly cool. The songs were still very nice and exciting.

Note to all: The food was still too much!

The day YP came to town...

I haven't seen friend YP for a while. Say a few years, except for facebook. It looked like he had a ball of a life travelling all over. And he has a new job too! For the past 2 months. And a new car too, for the past 2 years. All this I found out on Friday night.

Friday evening, after dinner with LP and CW, I went home looking forward to pack for my whirlwind trip on Saturday and Sunday. As I was locking up my doors, my phone rang. It was a surprise to see CA calling (caller ID). He hasn't called me for like, ages. And yes, the news was that YP was coming to town! [A bit like Santa coz he did bring a big melon for me from Cameron. Although I still expect a house warming gift that he still owes me...] And that, he would like to meet us for supper. My answer was OK, since if I didn't see him that night, I wouldn't be seeing him for another few years at the very least (based on our track record).

After a couple of hours, YP finally reached the island and then, he said that he would like to visit my house and check out my xmas tree... So no supper for me!

YP came and he looked the same as he did many years ago. Still as loopy as ever. (Although he is a m.a.n.a.g.e.r now). He commented that although my house looks nice, it doesn't seem like 'me'. Hmmm... and it looks like a bar. [BC's response:??] And that my furniture does not match my walls. [BC's response: haha] Funny guy!

It used to bother me quite a bit that people think they know my taste or 'me' better than 'moi', or that they have some unpleasant comments about my place. My immediate mental reaction would be that those commentss or statements are reflections of myself. After settling in for more than two months now, I'm able to look at it more impersonally, take it less personally, and now, those comments bothered me less.

I don't know why people would make statements that make other people uncomfortable for no particularly beneficial purpose. And since it is not beneficial, I am able to just let it slide...

This is when the lessons from the Abhayarajakumara Sutta come in handy... and for the record, I enjoyed YP's visit tremendously. It's fun to catch up and crack up over silly stuff from yesteryears...