A discovery during my reconnection journey

Following my last entry, I have more or less combed through my email archive, communicated with a lot of people, some of you have graciously replied and it has been an awesome experience communicating with those who replied. Amidst the elation, I would nonetheless pause and reflect on an unfortunate discovery during this sentimental re-connection journey.

In the year 2008, 2 years after my Mom’s passing (which I blogged plenty about during the early days), I received an email from someone, telling me that he chanced upon my blog at that time, and it was 2 hours before his mother’s funeral service.  He informed me that he would recite a poem found in this blog as part of his mother’s eulogy.

I could sense at that time that he was lost for words, and I was glad that writings in this good ‘ol blog helped him during those grieving moments of his. We exchanged a few emails more than 12 years ago and of course, I would definitely be interested to connect with him again. 

He was someone from the other side of the globe, in the US.

As I was about to write to him, something tells me to just google his name, maybe I will find a FB page or LinkedIn, you know, the kind of online footprint that we all have these days.  It was through this step, that I discovered something tragic.

I did not find his FB or Linkedin. Instead, I found is obituary. He passed away unexpectedly April this year. He was described as someone with a huge heart and a deep soul, and he was younger than me.

It was indeed a very timely reminder during this eventful year that life is too fragile to be wasted away.  While we cannot realistically live as though there is no tomorrow (because reality doesn’t allow that), we ought to cherish every moment of our lives.

May we all pause at this moment, think of the loved ones that we have around us and bask in the gratefulness that life has given us.

And may this friend of mine (if I could consider him as one)…. rest in peace.

Sentimental connection to legacy readers

I was feeling rather sentimental a few nights ago, perhaps it was because I have reached another milestone…. It was my birthday, another number to that ever increasing number, a number that you don’t quite keep track after a while. Wouldn’t you agree?

And so, I decided to log on to my Zewt e-mail account and went through a lot of the mails that I used to receive and the communications that I had with the readers of this blog, days when there used to be so many of them :)

It was very surreal to read through some of those mails from readers who asked me so many questions, ranging from where I got my inspiration to write, advice and well wishes during a time when I was diagnosed with a kidney condition, and most of all, questions about career from people who just graduated from university seeking a pointer or two about whether they should join the corporate world. 

Time wise… most of those mails were almost a decade ago, some even longer.  I wonder how these people are, whether my 2-cent worth of consult to them (if I can call that a consult) did lead them to where they wanted to go, and whether they have achieved greatness and did well in their respective career.

And as such, I decided to write to a few of them with the email thread that I had.  To my surprise, some of them have replied!

I have discovered through the years that human connection is one of the most fulfilling experience ever.  Therefore, I am excited to connect to people who wrote to me literally… a decade ago.

Are you one of them?

Zewt in hotel quarantine

It was such a good feeling to actually know that there are people still lurking around here, it gives me hope that people still fancy reading.   I myself have also missed some bloggers that I used to follow, and I too wish they would make a return.  However, we all have our lives to live.  

I wish everyone who is reading this is having a good life and that you are currently staying healthy and safe in this unprecedented time in human history.  I think no one alive has actually been through this.  Tough times but I am sure we will all come out of it stronger. 

Meanwhile, just want to share with everyone that I am now in hotel quarantine, and I made these videos to entertain myself and hopefully you will be entertained too.

My “Friday Frolics” crazy video, hope you will find it funny.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72d7FDY1LXM&t=31s

This one is when I first arrived.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-Xj7ZJEPpo&t=268s

Hope you enjoy them and I will see you again very soon.

Best wishes to everyone,

Zewt

Hello world, are you still around?

And so…. it has been 7 years, months and 13 days since I have shown any sign of life here.  So many things have happened and I feel as though I am now living in a completely different world.  Amongst the change is the death of blogosphere as we used to know it.  It is all now about products and services and people just do not read blogs for the sake of reading anymore.

And so, the notion which has been long touted here has finally come to pass, I am finally in Australia. Looking back, it took more than a decade for this to happen, it has not been an easy ride.

Long story cut short, I have spent almost a decade in Singapore, saw and experience what it is all about working in this pressure cooker, resigned without a job to move to Australia and I have seen been (as the Chinese say) “measuring road”, commonly known as jobless.  Well, apparently anyone without ‘local experience’ is not very in demand here, nevermind the vast non-local knowledge you have.

But…. While it is not within my workspertise, I have landed myself a role as a host for a TV programme! Yup…. Hey Mom, I am going to be on TV!

So life is not like a box of chocolate…. Life is like you resign without a job, you never know what you are going to get. And indeed, I am truly going to find out what I am going to get.

Just a quick one to send a chilling howl out there…. To see whether anyone answers…..

Yoo…. Hooooooo……

A free trip story

A friend of mine asked me why in the rarest of occasion when I do write, it’s quite certain that I will be bashing the country.  Well, let’s deviate from that for this one… though, not exactly much…

A story was relayed to me when I was back at my KL office last week.  I have heard of such stories being circulated via word of mouth and you probably did to.  But to actually hear it first hand… that was quite something…

The mother of a colleague of mine is a member of this association, which shall remain unnamed.  Just to be clear, it is not a political association. And so, this association sent out a notice telling all its members that a free trip is available for anyone who is available on the trip date.

It’s a free day-trip to a local destination that covers everything – and my colleague’s mom thought… why not?  The free trip is not only open to the association’s members, but family members as well.  My colleague; being a filial daughter, decided to accompany her mom.

And so, the day arrived.  All the uncles and aunties together with so and so who tagged along for the free trip all happily boarded the bus, looking forward to a day of fun, fully paid. 

As soon as the bus hit the road though… things took a twist…

The supposed tour guide then announced in the bus saying that the free trip has been cancelled.  Instead, everyone in the bus has now been given the “supreme privilege” to meet a VVIP of the country.  Everyone was “carefully selected” for this supreme privilege… so it seems…

That’s not all.  Everyone will also be given a free T-shirt to wear during the meeting with this VVIP and... get paid!  Wow, things just get better isn’t it?  From a trip to a trip where you will get paid…

There is a catch though… in order to earn this supreme privilege and obtain payment, everyone must clap when the VVIP arrives and… and… and… sing a song!  If you do not know how to sing… not a problem at all.  It will be taught to everyone during the journey.

You may be asking... how can one learn a song within such a short period of time? Well, it is a very simple song.  Similar to the ABC song... this is actually a number song.  In fact, it's much simpler... instead of having to sing all the numbers, you only need to say only "satu"...

This song... a lot of the word "satu" in it.

(satu = one in Malay).

Of course, that free t-shirt has got a big “1” printed on it.  Something tells me you know what is the word that comes after 1.

All the uncles and aunties with their innocent tag-alongs were sent to some school where the VVIP arrived and everyone was to clap and of course… sing the important “satu” song.  Apparently, there other buses arriving from other places… seemingly bring other souls who thought they were going for free trips.

It was a cheerful atmosphere.  People clapped and sang and at the end of the day, everyone was paid… MYR20.  Apparently, the VVIP said during his speech that he was so happy that many came to support him.

Woooaah… free bus ride, free t-shirt, free singing lesson, meet a VVIP and now… free money! Where to find!

I don’t know about you but that sure beat a free trip anytime… next time you hear of anyone getting free trips, be sure to join them ya… you might just get this supreme privilege.

Dear Home... what happened to you?

It has been a long time since I had the Chinese New Year reunion dinner back at home, it has been an affair at the restaurant for a while now.  But my aunt and my sis decided to cook and hence, we had our last reunion dinner back at home.

Speaking of home, it has also been a while since I went back.  I mean when I am back, it's usually for a brief stay as most of the time, I will take my Dad out for lunch or dinner.  So with the reunion dinner happening back home, for the first time since I moved out... I spent some time back at my home.

I arrived early, helped out a bit, had a proper dinner and stayed back to chill for a while.  It gave me an opportunity to actually spend some time looking around the house.... more specifically, the neighbourhood.

It's not the best neighbourhood but it was nice, or how it used to me.  Nice food store everywhere and most people are familiar faces.   Now though, it's like foreign land.  Most of the people of my generation have moved out while those of my parents' generation tend to stick around.  Well, either they stick around or they leave for the eternal resting place.

When I looked around after parking my car when I was back for reunion, I realised that the neighbourhood is now infested with .... honestly, I don't even know the origin of these people.  One thing for sure, they are not Malaysians - wait, maybe they do carry MyKad, you'll never know.

From the mid section of my house, I could look across to the mid section of other units within the block (yeah, it's one of those very old design of low-cost flats). My neighbours used to familiar faces of aunties and uncles who either man the nearby fruit store or hawkers.  Now though when I looked across, I actually saw all the rooms are now rented out to (again) people whom I can't accurately tell where their origin is.  And there were a lot of them. 

And they didn't give me a friendly look either.

The coffee-shops and convenient stores within the area have all been changed to either "mamak" store or middle-eastern eateries.

I feel like an outsider now, I feel like I don't know this place anymore.

One would hope that such drastic changes would be a result of progress... or development.  But no... I can't even find a word to describe the transformation that has taken place here.

And something tells me that this change that I am witnessing - will only gather momentum.

Just to digress a little... a country usually deports illegal immigrants.  But in Malaysia, I was told that all the illegal immigrants can just go to the embassy and get themselves registered and voila... they become legal.  I understand millions, who we have no idea why they are in Malaysia and what economic contribution they can bring into Malaysia can now call Malaysia their home.

After my reunion dinner, I thought to myself... Home, what happened to you?

I guess in the not so distant future, I will have to ask the same thing about my country.

Or maybe, I should asking already. 

Testing testing 1 2 3

Hello world!!!!!! Do you miss me? (perasan....)

Alright, as a new year is upon us... I would like to think that I should update this blog a little bit more often.  Have to admit, work has been a killer in this tiny red dot.

Anyway, I do like to know whether any souls still wander into this blog anymore.  Have to admit another thing... Don't think I would like to write when this blog is already hidden deep within a forgotten memory... yeah, a bit of a writer ego there if you want to call it as such...

So yeah... if anyone still drop by... leave a comment or a mark or any kind. Am really interested in knowing if my thoughts will still be sought...