New Cheese

Today is officially my last day being involved with the building I'm very familiar with since September 2005. The irony of the entire situation is that my signature was the final action (signing as a witness) for the handover of the building to another property manager.

Yea, yea, like little kid's handwriting.

How do I feel then, at 5:30pm when I signed?? Concerned actually, coz' I have another meeting to rush to (which I did at 7:00pm) and also on the staff we left to the building that was rejected by the new company. These 6 staffs are now considered on a one month termination as they have no place in my HQ, being security, maintenance and admin staff.

How do I feel now, at 11:30pm same day? Rather sad, but thankful. I was fortunate to be able to step on the rooftop of a 30++ storey building and enjoy the city view without being escorted by security. I was fortunate to observe how a lift motor room looks like on Level 34, how the cable works carrying the lifts from Ground Floor to upper floors. I was fortunate to be able to view and explore huge generator set room and huge MDF room. I was fortunate to be walking about the building always being waved by or waved at tenants who knows me by name. I was fortunate to easily be invited into tenant offices to view renovations which tenants are proud of. I was fortunate to be a part of a building's management team, a close-knit family that has now grown apart.

Now, a new cheese. Under another Director. It's like starting in a new company again. I'm ready for the challenge. Wish me luck.

We'll Meet Again

Darren was watching a girl across the street, very pretty, very alluring. He'd like to make friends with her if possible, but he's afraid. Since he have seen her a few times, he knew he'll see her again. She must be working somewhere nearby his place.

Today he's would be walking past her once the pedestrian lights turns green where he'll get a closer look at the girl he admires. However, today is a different turn. A lorry refused to stop at he finds himself lunged to push the girl out of the way. Besides a few bruises on the legs and arms, everyone was ok. "What's your name?", she asked him, thankful that he saved her life.

No, this is not a natural action that he initiated. This invitation to friendship was due to a "must do" and not a "need to do" situation. So he answered "I'm sorry. If fate makes us meet again, I'll introduce myself properly. I'd really love to see you again." and he walked off. To him, the friendship need to happen from his own doing, not fate that brings an introduction. She saw him walk off, rather disheartened that he was not willing to befriend her there and then. She'll seek him out again.

Days went by. At 1:00pm, he entered a restaurant. At 1:15pm, she entered the same restaurant, but she did not see him. He has just left 5 minutes ago after receiving an urgent phonecall from his boss to return to the office.

Weeks went by. She's walking towards the pedestrian crossing on one side of the road, and he on another. They will see each other while waiting for the light to turn green. Only tens of steps left before she reaches the crossing. Then a gust of wind blew the papers she's holding. Scattered on the pavement, she proceeded to pick them up, helped by strangers. A minute later, he has crossed the street and heading to the direction not from where she was coming from.

Months went by. She wonders why she has not met him, and he wonders the same. Luck called the both of them to attend the same seminar on a hotel nearby. On the morning, after she registered and head to the toilet, her white pants was smeared red. A leak! She left to go home. He registered while she was in the toilet, and went out for a smoke. They did not meet, he was busy looking at a billboard being painted while she raced passed behind him, head bowed to get to her car.

"Are you Fate?", a bird, perched high above a tree near the pedestrian crossing asked to its left. "Yes, yes I am", said the 'being'. "I think they really want to meet each other. Is it just bad luck, or you have something to do with it?", the bird queried.

"I did that", said Fate. "They are too perfect for each other. Should they meet, they will get married. Grow up with three kids, both soars in their careers, live happily for many many years." The bird was confused, "Then why did you not let them meet?"

"They will be divorced in their 15th year marriage, when the economy goes bad and they get retrenched. It will start from a fight about money, then about career, then they will start bringing up what they're unhappy about each other, and it will just grow until they divorce."

"How can you know this?", surprised, the bird asked.

"Because for 15 years they will not face any life challenges. I have to split them apart for their own good. We live our life to face challenges, to grow up, to get matured and to be able to face further difficult challenges. Having a smooth journey for 15 years, you will get too used to it, and once a bump appears, you will ram into it and find yourself getting tossed out of the car. It's exactly like how a kid grows up on their parent's riches until he or she reaches 22 and the parents goes bankrupt. He or she will not able to cope."

"I'm doing the best for them. I give them a reason to live. I make sure they have challenges to grow old properly and to appreciate life."

God Lends To Us

This is the first time Azman have gotten the courage to break into a house. It was dinnertime. When he smashed the door down and brandished his parang to the shocked family, he never expected what he saw.

Yes, he expected the woman to scream, only to force herself to be quiet to save her 12 years old daughter and 9 years old son. She moved them away from the dinner table, to huddle in the corner crying softly looking at Azman. What Azman don't understand is why the man, after being shocked by the sound, looked at him, continued eating his dinner as if he's not there.

"Why aren't you scared?"

"Why should I be?"

"I'm going to rob you, and most probably threaten your life and that of your family until you give me every cent you have."

"Everything that I have, my money, my car, my house, my television, even my wife and my children, they are lent to me during my lifetime. Everything I own and love, even myself, belongs to God. Certainly you have come, ordered by God to take back His possessions. If it is so, take what you were asked to take back."

With that, Azman took what he was asked to take, without knowing it... the advice that began to change his life for the better, and he left the house.

BELIEVE In Yourself!

I've actually blogged about the fact that most people carries along with them words of courage or idioms, to bring them through their daily life as a guide or confidence booster when faced with situations unfamiliar to them, or situations that challenges the current peaceful state of their calmed minds.

Just to recap, two of them to me are "If you think you can't, you've already lost without even trying." and Nike's "Just Do It!".

Most of us also carry stories as a guide and confidence booster that we have accepted and practically and absorbed that story into our subconscious. I wish to share a story that has just surfaced just few hours ago, which I knew was in me all along. I can't recall where I read it, but I know it's a story I read quite some time back. You will at first notice the evil in the character in the story, but it will knock some sense into our head to who we really are. Sorry if the story is not well narrated. Hmm... I'll check the internet for it first, and if I can't locate it, I'll narrate on my own. .... darn, can't find it.... anyway, it's either a dance, or a singing, but I'll take a dance.

A woman, Dawn, in her 40's watched as her daughter performed her dance on stage. After the dance, the crowd gave her a standing ovation. Dawn was very proud of her daughter, having failed herself to be able to dance as graceful and beautifully than her. Her daughter will make it big, unlike her mother.

After hugging her daughter, she went up and approach the dance teacher. Abruptly she turned away and pulled her daughter away with her. The dance teacher is familiar, in fact, Dawn knows her. They used to take dance class together at a prestigious dance class twenty years ago, and she is the worst in the class. And Dawn, the second worst in the class.

Twenty years ago, on a heaty evening her dance teacher called the both of them, and told them to leave the class. She said, "You will never be able to dance well, I suggest you stop your lessons with us." Dawn retaliated "But I want to dance well!", to which she received the reply "Don't waste your time. You'll never amount to anything big."

How is it then that her friend could even now be a dance teacher?! Dawn went home, rummaged through her old files and found the address to her old dance school. She wanted an explanation. It took her two weeks to track down her old dance teacher, who she decided to give a visit. Her anger non-wavering since two weeks back.

"Do you know that you wrecked my dream when you told me I cannot dance?! Do you even remember what you told me!?"
"Dear, you're not the only one. I've shot down many dreams, you're just but one of hundreds, even thousands."
"Why do you do that? You're evil! You're a dance teacher, a dance expert, you're suppose to guide your students, to make the best of them."
"Call me what you wish. Everyone of my students who I train to the end just ends up as someone who can dance, nothing more. There are some whom I wish they soar further, and these are the ones I told them they cannot make it."
"What do you mean?!"
"I may be an expert, but what gives me the right to dictate your ability? What gives me the right to tell you what you can and cannot do? It is just a simple challenge, but you chosed to heed another individual's advice than to believe in your own ability!"
"But don't you get it? You're the expert! Of course I listen to you! You mean to tell me I did not make it big because I believed in what you said? If I didn't believe you, I'd soar to great heights?"
"You may or may not soar, but at least you'd challenge yourself. Heeding my words, you totally placed your future in another person's hand. Too many people prefers to let others dictate the their life, and destroys whatever in-born ability they have within them.

Only one person truly knows your capability, and that person is yourself. You know your skills, you know your ability, you know your own body and mind and what they can do. No one has the rights to tell what to do with your skills, ability and body and mind's capacity and capability."

Apartment vs House: Bringing Up A Child/Children

On a generalised debate, a house appreciates better than apartment and you don't have to pay for maintenance fee, while you need to pay a maintenance fee even if you don't stay in an apartment but improves in security compared to a house.

When we place another variable in, that is to bring up a child/children, a new debate comes up. Let's check the pros between a house and an apartment according to my opinion.

Pros for bringing up a kid in a house.
1. Private garden for the kids to do whatever he/she wants, ie cycling, digging up grass, playing ball, burning grass, etc.
2. Jumping up and down or wailing in the house does not usually disturb the neighbour.
3. A generally larger space in a house allows for guest sleepovers especially relatives' kids.

Pros for bringing up a kid in an apartment.
1. Facilities! Enough said. There's swimming pool, sometimes a gym, sometimes a daytime retail store, large compound to run around (albeit shared compound), etc.
2. Secured. With only one door (or two) to leave the apartment, can easily be watched, and no climbing out the roof to sneak out.
3. Closer neighbours. It's easier to find kids the same age to play with within a vicinity of 100 metres radius (or circumference since there's up and down involved) for them to play together. Better social linkage.

Just a short opinion above itself tend to show stronger emphasis towards bringing up kids in an apartment environment. Hmm... is it really? Next time I need to give an opinion on "Apartment vs House: For a Gardening Parent".

Careful What You Wish For

I have come to believe that babies, as they're growing up, tend to want to have environments where they can enjoy different feelings. One of them is a feeling of fear. I noticed that my kid have started to create a fear environment by re-enacting what scared him in the first place, a crow that was perched on an awning under a roof when it was raining. One look at the crow scared him that ever since then, he always pointed up our wardrobe and says "Bird, Bird!" and then hide away.

That above, is just a theory, but then what if kids can really 'see' things? One night when he was again going "Bird, Bird!" and pointing to the top of the wardrobe and hiding under the blanket, I looked up so again see nothing. So I said to myself, "Please let me see what my son sees." It was half-hearted and very doubtful, but when I looked up again, I saw it. Just a dark shadow perched at the spot where my son pointed at.

Then it really occured to me that yes, kids DO see things! Though panicked, I was in control enough to carry my son out to the living room where my wife was. I never mentioned any of these to anyone, but that shadow is not always on the wardrobe all the time. It was only some times that it appears, and whenever it does, my son does notice it and shies away. As for myself, it does appear at very awkward hours, usually at night, and sometimes when I accidentally wake up from sleep say 3:00am or 4:00am. Twice of thrice it appears at the foot of the bed, standing, but still it's just a shadow.

Unable to accept such things, I wished to have my ability to see it go away. It didn't happen until three days later. It's been a while now since I last saw it, but I do have to pity my son a lot whenever he points upwards again and goes into hiding, heart beating so fast. Now I'm just waiting for when he will eventually lose that 'gift' as I believe they do when they grow up.

The above story never happened, but it can.

Problem with Blogging

I do read other people's blog and for those who writes a lot on reviews or observations, it falls to two types of bloggers. One who writes exactly what they observe and give an honest, non-biased opinion, totally clinical and rather professional,... and another who injects their own opinion that ends up somewhat injecting a boost in their ego as well.

Noticing this I reviewed my previous blogs on my own reviews and observations and sadly, I fall into the latter category. While I understand it's totally my opinion on what I observe, putting down... or placing a negative opinion on any specific subject tends to show "I'm superior, what I observe is inferior."

Therefore, from my next blog onwards, I will try my best to put in a very clinical view on what I review and observe. I may give an opinion, but will not try to place it as if I'm a Mr-Know-It-All. I am back, hopefully a better person and a better blogger.