olddog-samesame

31 December 2005 1. Stay healthy by maintaining a healthy lifestyle. 2. Eat moderately and keep weight below 66kg. 3. Join a gym and continue with Yoga class. 4. Keep golf handicap below 20. 5. Be proficient in Autocad. 6. Talk less and listen more. 7. Be more sensitive and nicer to people. 8. Be more proactive. 9. Maintain a happy family environment. 10. To persist with the above resolutions until 31.12.06

28 December 2005 This conversation with my then 8 year old daughter happened some time back. It regards an incident while the family was holidaying in Taiwan end of last year. We were waiting to check into a hotel after a very long day. There were more than 20 of us in the group comprising the extended Ng family and our Taiwanese host and families. A 3 year old toddler walked up and snatched a toy / trinket my daughter was fiddling with and broke it the process. She grabbed back the thing and pushed the boy onto the floor. The boy was shocked rather than hurt and started to wail. It all happened in a matter of seconds and before any of us could intervene. Her bad behavior was a major embarrassment to the parents. When we scolded her in the privacy of our hotel room, she too wailed loudly and started for the door saying she wanted to tell grandma that we scolded her. That was when I grabbed her and threw her onto the bed and told her to shut up. It was the first time I did that and the ...

22 December 2005 It was more than a decade ago when I hit my first golf ball at the driving range. You would not believe that I had been playing the game for 10 long years if you watch me play. It is UGLY. Just last weekend, my divots were flying further than the ball that went scuttering across the fairway in a nasty hook into the bunkers. You let fly a slew of expletives - at yourself of course. Yes, you get to hear very colorful language at the golf course besides seeing guys peeing (sic) all over the place. Yet they call it a gentleman's game. Head of states, presidents, ministers, CEOs and ordinary Joes play the game. So, why is the game so facinating and addictive yet at the same time so frustrating. That is the beguling nature of golf. It is a game of irony. For weekend hackers like yours truly, the feeling of hitting an occasional perfect shot is difficult to describe. It is just exhilirating, seeing your ball swooshing high through the air and landing a few feet from the h...

Tuesday, 13 December 2005 "Same-same" - the most useful and used English phrase in Thailand. Every other road side traders dealing with the farangs (foreigners) can communicate fairly effectively using just that one word, (Scene: Chiangmai Night Market) Farang: "How much is this T-shirt?" T seller: "200B" Farang: "How much is that Hard Rock Cafe T-shirt?" T seller: "Same same" Farang: " But quality is different." T-seller: " No, same same." Farang: "Too expensive, are you try to rip me off?" T-seller: "No, same same." Farang: " You think I am a big sucker, don't you?" T-seller: "Same same." ( meaning: I'm no sucker too ) Farang: " #@//% !!!" T-seller: " Same same." ( meaning: #@//% !!! to you too ) Tourism is big in Thailand. So is the promotion of the English language. You can also buy T-shirt proudly embossed with SAME SAME.

Sunday, 11 December 2005 We were traveling up to the hill station Doi Mae Salong in north-east Thailand recently. On the way we passed by a community "show village" where a group of the long neck Karen hill tribe are settled. The village looks pretty basic and poverty stricken. Some corn and vegetable were planted on tiny tracts of land on the steep terrain. A few of the women (another tribe) were selling small souvenirs by the roadside stalls. Whatever subsidy given by the Thai authority is probably insignificant. Their shelters are very basic and living conditions squalid. As were passing by, we thought we will stop by to have a look-see and we were in for a nasty shock. S ome unscrupulous character at the entrance to the village wanted to charge us 500B per head entrance fee!!!!!!!!!!!! That was simply outrageous if not daylight robbery. For our party of eight that is 4,000B (RM400). I have not heard of anything more ridiculous. We had intended a 5-10 minutes stop cum pho...

11 DECEMBER 2005 Hello out there, This will be my first venture into the blog sphere. I feel like a hermit crab crawling out of a hole. The fact is it feels a bit weird, writing your journal and posting it to on the world notice board. Well that may sound conceited, cos t he truth is no one would even give a damn. Yeah, there are millions of blogs out there. Adding another grain of sand in the desert is a more accurate analogy. There will probably be alot of technical pit holes I am going to fall into cos I am not really computer savvy. Well, I hope it will be a good learning process. Nothing venture, nothing gain. We have to live in the present world to connect with the new generation.