Standard Chartered Marathon 2009

so every year, i set aside three goals for myself. i completed one during the middle of the year. and i just finished another one yesterday.
honestly, i thought it was impossible. throughout my run/walk/stretches, i felt like it was impossible. sure, i wanted to give up. sure, i thought i was too weak to go on. but faith kept me alive. i finally realized that when you hit long distances,its your own race that you’re running. just keep on keeping on.
my first marathon. definitely not my last. pushing myself to the next level again come 2010!

this one’s dedicated to all those who believed in me.

Jay chou

i reallly wasnt into him until only recently.
jams was driving me back and his stereo started playing this song. i guess he does have very good songs on falling in and out of love. hey! dont ask if i know what he’s singing about. i am chinese. i can make out at least 50% to 60% of it. tsk. besides, the music arrangement is really good. emo jay songs FTW. AND, his videos usually have got eye candy in them. ok, maybe just one video.

anyways, works cool. people are nice. clients, well, its areally an experience working with different clients. its funny how people work. i think im beginning to understand the meaning of what is it like to cannot wait to go to work. david ogilvy once said, “pay your workers well, you will reap your benefits” i totally agree.

on a more serious and spiritual note, poh told us something really cool during lessons. he mentioned about musicians being too familiar with songs that they take it for granted, which actually gives God to ground to work through them during P&W and if God doesnt flow through them during P&W, how then is the congregation going to experience the presence of God. there always will be something special happening even though we keep singing the same songs. its just whether you want to let go and let God or not.

Peace out. here’s a jaychou for everyone.

goodbye india.

i’m waiting for my parents to finish their yoga lesson before they bring me out for one last dinner around.
this trip has been an awesome one. i did a lot of firsts here in new delhi. it is the first time i met up with a friend overseas and he brought me around delhi. first time i met my cousin after a period of 8 years, she told me a lot about working abroad and life as an asian in canada. the grass always seems to be greener on the other side because you dont see the sad part of their story.
i think india is rising up and i hope they rise up. some singaporeans i met here told me something very negative about their opinion of india. they told me about the flaws of the way how indians work, and how they hope these people remain that way (indians take their time to do stuff), because if the indians rise up, they will overtake Singapore. its just typical singaporean mentality, the “dont steal my ricebowl mentality”. it disappoints me to see that even when one is given a chance to go abroad, he or she does not want to expand his horizons and break into the city’s social circle. i hope that sickening mentality ends at that generation. i hope my generation will want the world to develop into the next level.
i love india, the food. their curry is the best curry i have ever tried. i am not a curry person, or so i thought. in singapore, the curry is so spicy that it numbs your tongue. but the curry here, although its spicy, you can taste the flavour of the spices. the palek paneer is the sex, its a whole new way to make spinach. i love spinach now.
the people here are friendly, i see people driving beside me and they wave at me, smile at me. the people here should stop making eyes and winking at my cousin though. its rude and awkward. the waiters here provide such lovely service. they are proud of their service and i must say they put their heart and soul into everything they do. one such example is my driver. he’s patient when he drives around the busy streets and he is very polite. he still calls me “sir” even though i tell him to call me andy. i will miss him a lot.
well, now its back to singapore. there are several things waiting for me, but i am looking forward to two most important things. i look forward to seeing you!

am i in danger of becoming less racist?

i hope i am.
now whenever people talk about indians/india and they started saying how dirty it is, how horrible the place is, the first questions that pops in my mind is that of whether they have actually set foot here. i think i’m falling in love with india. its food, i had some spinach mixed with cottage cheese paneer today, AWESOME STUFF. and the Chai, sickeningly nice, i wonder how they do it. thanks jams! it people, my driver is a very diligent worker. he drives us around and he is always safe. he doesnt earn a lot, but he takes pride in what he does. very polite guy.

if ever i want to start my campaign of clothing a child and such, i would start with india. i love india so much that i feel that i want to give back to india. i get annoyed when i start discussing with people about the standards of living here, and they just brush it off. i always feel that what we are given, our talents, we can use it to bless the needy and then the world will be a happier place. i want to go on and impact the world like that. but sometimes its real difficult when the world thinks you wont make a difference.

its really difficult to tell you or explain to you how or why i like this place. its more of an experience for one to jump into.

stand by me

i was watching VH1 last night and this MV appeared. very cool cover of a song.

anyways, india has been awesome. i’ve seen parts of india where it is indeed poor but i also see parts of india where skyscrapers fight to reach the sky. yes, there are certain rude people in india, but indians work diligently. my driver is the most patient man ever, if it were me driving in the streets of delhi, i think i would have already killed a few people.

really looking forward to the next couple of days. tomorrow, i’ll be hanging out with Jams. sunday, my cousin from canada would be flying here for a month.

can’t wait to fly back to singapore too. i’ve got this feeling that something great is going to happen. i know whats about to come, but i just cannot wait to announce to everyone. i’m still in talks with the people.

so, tim if you are reading this, tell me, when are you free for your birthday lunch/dinner with me?

so helpful!

indians are a helpful bunch of people. i think singaporeans have got far more things to learn. we were looking for a local tour agency that would bring us to nepal. we got lost in the maze of buildings and as soon as my mum pulled out her hand written address of the agency, a guy came up to direct us with his limited english. i think a total of seven people help us find out way there.

i am pretty certain that if i see a tourist in singapore lost and has his map out, i wont go over to help him/her. but after experiencing how is it like to be helped, i will want to help these tourists next time too.

i think singaporeans do need to climb out of their walls and stop thinking about india as a backward country. yes, they do have backward towns and people do beg for money. but indians men are gentlemanly, the offer to buy the food for the ladies after the ladies sit down. they ladies are lady-like, come to think of it, i haven’t seen any indian lady smoking.

but i still love singapore. the guy beside me the other day told me Singapore is a great city to live in. the food, the people, everything. come on singaporeans, lets take one step further to make singapore a better place for us and foreigners to live in!

video post!

i still youtube in india. youtube is the bestest ever!

talk about scaling. this “poor tortilla seller” is very good!

perceptions.

i encountered a little incident today at sarojini. its this place where people sell clothes and stuff, a place more for commoners. well, there were still beautiful people there. i realized indians are not afraid to have their photos taken, they POSE for you. no kidding.

so anyway, i was about to climb into the car, this kid from behind screamed at me, i got startled and tried to make a hasty entry into the car. the kid caught up with me, said something i coudnt quite figure out and reached out for my chest. i was holding on to my D200 and a bottle of pepsi, he touched my camera, i thought he was about to snatch my D200 away from me. my hands were already drawn, about to knock the teeth out of the kid. then he grabbed my pepsi and ran off, feeling as if he found gold at the end of a rainbow.

naturally, i was pissed, how could he snatch my drink and run off. thoughts were running through my mind like a train speeding towards the next station (well, if its any train thats speeding, dont think of the MRT please, it demeans the word “speed”). but then i began to sympathize the kid, no one wants to start out begging on the street. and to have to snatch someone else’s bottle of pepsi to taste how is it like, its really quite heart wrenching. im always going to enjoy my coke next time, because people out there have not tasted how is it like.

it just makes me want to get better in my finances even quicker, i have this notion that money i earn is to be used for the less fortunate. let us bring the world closer… the how God intended it to be.

D-Day H-hour

(the below entry is going to be read by quite a number of people, so, i might have to introduce the who’s who in my life. haha.)

Hi guys!

i’ve officially touched down in new delhi. travelling alone the first is really an experience. i sat beside and engineer, who happened to work as an engineer in Caterpillar Singapore. he’s an indian too, so he sorta reminded me of Jamshed, a very close indian friend of mine i met in church. he flying down to new delhi for a meeting this month so i’m meeting him! jams, my mum says the i.t village is very near our place, so dinner… at my house? heehee.
so, anyways, i touched down the airport and my parents was there to pick me up. they had this special pass which allowed them all the way to the check in counter.
anyways, i spent my first day going around the “i.t village” of the Delhi. real eye opener. i managed to catch a protest! my first protest. i took a photo of it but i havent really got down to seeing it yet. the driver (yes! i got my own chauffeur!) then brought us to Ambience Shopping mall, its somewhere around the outskirts of Delhi. i was floored by what they saw. First store i saw, BMW SHOWROOM, then EDHARDY, then ALDO, then UNITED COLORS OF BENETTON , BODY SHOP, ADIDAS… and SO MUCH MORE. people should stop thinking about india as a backward country! i can safely say their fashion trend is way ahea than Singaporeans. no kidding.
dinner was awesome. i had authentic briyani. REAL AUTHENTIC briyani the rice was fluffy, fragrant, nice. the chicken was fantastubulous, and they even gave us local mints to eat. it tasted like hacks candy but it really soothed a tummy that was fighting a battle with the curry warriors. their Chai is is For The Win. Apparently, they boil the tea together with fresh milk. sickeningly good.
im really floored by the people here. whenever i am in jams, and i turnmy head out to see the neighbouring car beside me, they would smile and wave, one even gave me the thumbs up signal (for my hair, i hope, haha)! Singaporeans usually give you the, “you siao ah?!” face. come on people, we may be a cosmopolitan state, lets learn from others and learn to be like our indian compatriates.

loves,
Andy

one.

there was a period of time the radio kept airing this song. i got so tired of it, but i chanced upon this today and all i have to say is. M.J blige’s vocals are A W E S O M E. she reminds me of princess leia of star wars in this video though, i wonder why.

i think legends like U2 are always breaking barriers. MJ blige was always considered an r&b artiste and before they collaborated, there wasnt such thing as rock and R&B coming together. power.