.....times of refreshing.....

It's just Tuesday but I find that the week seems so long or maybe  I'm longing to see my kids and wife in JB over the weekend. Anyway, been feeling good lately, thanks to working out and sufficient sleep. I jogged for almost 40 mins on a Monday evening in the gym while tonight, sweat it out at two badminton courts with only seven people. It was so tiring and I think I'm going to hit the bed soon. I will be having another badminton session tomorrow evening. :)


Mentioning about badminton, well, I guess it's one of the most popular games played around this region and I have started playing it since I was a kid in the 70s. Then, I was holding those wooden racket and hitting those aeroplane brand shuttlecocks at the 'lorongs', in between the pre-war shophouses with the kids next door. It was fun then, just anyhow whack the shuttlecock till it landed on the drains, pick it up, dried it by hitting it hard to the walls and played again!! Yonex was called Yoneyama then, if I'm not wrong!

A wooden racket

 When I was in secondary school during the 80s, sometimes I woke up at 5am to rush to school on Saturdays to book the open air courts, since it is on a first-come, first serve basis. And, we will stayed until 11am or 12pm. At times, we started playing at 2pm under the scorching sun and finish at 6pm. Those were the teen years then, never ending energy at our disposal!! :)

When the wind comes, we have to stop and continued playing after that

 Though I don't consider myself a good player, I continued playing during my tertiary education and really met some good players, and some played for their state teams. It was a great learning experience playing with them. The game didn't stop when I started working in mid-90s and till now, where I played the most games in my life, twice a week! I've also been buying expensive rackets and got myself a coach too. In fact, some of my company colleagues thought I'm a professional player. :)

Got the Yonex Armortec 700 series  for S$230

And, my favourite Apacs Nanospeed at S$80 only.

 
Anyway, it's not easy going for coaching when you are over the prime as it is not easy to change your habits. On the other hand, I was surprise to see my 50+ year old coach whacking everyone of us!! He was so full of energy and I just lost 21-5 to him tonight. I can't even anticipate his shots and he got me running around the four corners. :p

Wow..slept for almost 12 hours from 2am till 1.30pm on a Sunday and never felt so good. And, that's really the wonders of sleep, though we need not slept that much. I felt great, good mood, alert, focus and blissful. This has reminded me to sleep more, at least 7-8 hours during work days so that I can be always on the top and handle stress better. Shop around Jusco with family to fetch some new clothes for wifey and myself, where we will be attending our good friend's wedding three weeks later in KL.


Drove all the way to Kluang yesterday to visit a Chinese sinseh  and felt so much better today after taking the traditional medications. My phlegm and cough subsided after taken two dosages of the cough medication. Well, I usually like to follow up with Chinese medication after recovering from a long recurring sickness like cough and flu - to strengthen my body.
 
We stop by the Kluang railway Coffee for a break of nice coffee, mee goreng (fried noodles), mee kari (curry mee) and roti bakar (toast). Love the massive temporary stalls opposite the cafe for buka puasa (breaking fast), which transformed this corner of the district to a big pasar malam. (night market)

Kluang railway coffee - blogged in my old food blog

Had Fish Head steamboat in Taman Universiti and got some CDs for my PC, before heading home by 11pm. It was quite tiring but yet another good outing.

I was taking a cab back from JB City Square (near JB's CIQ) and the driver is a Malay. He looks tired initially and sorta disinterested. Thus, I started asking him, 'Sudah makan? dah buka puasa' ? He replied ' Ya, dah makan'. Then, silence prevailed. After a few minutes later while he was turning a corner to another road, a motorbike was trying to overtake him on the left but unable and started to horn him. He began to talk about this fella on his dangerous biking and instead of cutting him from the right, the biker tried to overtake from the left, despite the little space the biker had. And, thus we started a long conversation of around 30 minutes and this taxi driver slowly began to lit up. And, when I reached my home, he looks so brightens up after our conversation about dangerous driving, Hari Raya holidays, Politics, his home state, Terengganu and he was so friendly and thanked me and wish me well after I paid him. I hope he will had a good night shift!

I always felt that human beings are complicated beings but as long as you are willing to be friendly, helpful, nice, no ill intentions and etc, even though, it may takes time, eventually the person will like you. This is not trying to win someone's favour but rather to create and maintain good relationships and eventually things will be easier with each other, especially in work. Some folks takes longer time to earn your trust while some will click easily with you.


Though, I'm not an extrovert or outspoken, I do have a lots of experience dealing with different type of personalities and so far, usually successful in creating a good working relationships with them.Some have even became my good friends. I remembers I befriended an Indian national and we almost like buddies, went for bowling, badminton, movies and etc. Anyway, he's back in India now and doing very well as a Director. He's not difficult but I cannot imagine befriending someone who's differ in culture, education, diet, interest and etc etc... However, both of us are open minded and I learn a few indian cuisines from him while he's trying out bak kut teh, dim sum, sushi during some of our  lunches.


What I'm trying to share is, human beings can be complicated beings but no matter how ferocious or difficult someone is, as long as you do not have ill intentions, you guys can be friends. Of course, there are times when someone needed to be alone, thus do not disturb them and let them settled their issues. After all, everyone has their ups and down.
  
Mark 12:30-31 (New International Version)
³⁰Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.
³¹The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'There is no commandment greater than these."