... of a farewell to the fifties

It has been three years down the retirement road for Yours Sincerely ( Y S ) and this day 20th April, 2011 Y S is celebrating his .........his.........his.....59th birthday... sob...sob.....sob the last year of the fifties, and the advent of his sixties, and then it is the downhill. When you were a child, how you wish your birthdays come quickly and more in between but not at this age. In the 'down the hill years" you tend to pick up speed and the years are so much shorter.

The " going down hill years" in spite of all the sayings, poems , ballads, songs and odes dedicated to its glory is in fact not that glorifying :-

It is when your friends begin to flatter on how young you look but there are sure signs that you are growing old.

It is when gray hair is a sign of age but they flatter you by saying that it is wisdom. (What wisdom ? The cost of hair dye and the frequency of your need for it is forever increasing ! )

It is the prime of life, no doubt, ar ... but then it just takes much longer to get primed in many things.

It is when you pay more attention to the food than the waitresses.

It is when you mind say " Go, go.... !" but your body says " Wait....wait....! "

It is when you keep forgetting where you put your glasses and hand phone.

In spite of all these oddities of bidding farewell to the fifties, Y S is nevertheless grateful to the Almighty for all those of years of His choicest divine spiritual and temporal blessings showered on Y S - the better half that he is blessed with , the daughters and also son-in-law whom he loves and treasures, the siblings he values, the friends whom he cherishes, the health he enjoys, the list is unending.

Btw the birthday cake is specially baked by a former pupil and now Y S' good friend, Mr Beh, who is a photographer by profession but he cooks and bakes like a chef ! It is a cheese cake and that is Y S' favourite. This one is "superlicious" because it has an added ingredient - love. You may not see any candles, well, do you have to remind me of my age ? why waste money on 59 candles ?

Life lives on. The BEST is yet to come !!!

.... of the "nine" taboo in ages

Yours Sincerely ( Y S ) remembers a certain taboo related with the number "9" in matters concerning one's age. It is about crossing the "9" taboo and is more relevant to seniors crossing the thresholds of "59" going to "60" or "69" going on to "70." The taboo centres on the need to smoothly cross over to the next figure. i.e. say from 59 to 60 and then one is assured of years of peace and solace until one reaches the next " 9 ", like 69.

How much water does this taboo hold water is seen by the number of people being struck down when they were 59, 69 or 79. So, much so that certain Chinese families play a trick on this taboo by skipping " 9 " and goes on to celebrate the next figure, i.e bypassing 59 and celebrate it as your 6oth birthday. So, a 6oth birthday celebration or demise age could actually be 59.

And of all the "9s," the "49" and "59" are thought to be of greatest significance. That is why many celebrate their 50th or 60th birthday, happy that they have safely crossed-over or seem to have crossed over. Look at the obituaries in the Chinese newspapers, you can never find the deceased age with a " 9."

Y S talks about this because he is " thresholding " over to 59 in a few days time, and has a year to live on to turn 60. Y S is not so much concerned about the taboo, as Christ has set him free, but more concerned with the UGLY FACT that he has only one more year in the fifties. Then, it will be 60 oleli, wor !!! (sob! sob ! sob!) He has also very recently joined the "High B/P gang" and has to devote a morning each month to queue for the doctor and medicines at the General Hospital. Life is still a four-lettered word - GOOD. If we gather all our troubles together and lump them together so that we can see each other's problem, I think, we would still pick back ours and be contented to live with it, ya ?

Anyway to grow old is to pass from passion to compassion. Age on. The BEST is yet to come !!!

... of 34 th wedding anniversary

MANY, MANY YEARS AGO WE LOOKED LIKE THIS . lol

Today is Y S' 34th wedding anniversary. 34 years is a mighty long time to be devoted to a single woman. You see her face when you turn on the bed. You see her again at the breakfast table. You still see her beside you when you drive. Love at first sight is easy to understand; it is when two people have been looking at each other for 34 years that it becomes a miracle! And after 34 years, Y S has to confess that he did not marry someone he can live with but he has married some one he cannot live without !!!

What clicks in a marriage? My daughter going into her 4th year of marriage asked.

In the first place, remember that marriage may be made in heaven, and so is thunder and lightning. And that all the maintenance work of marriage is to be done by men right here on earth!

Success in marriage is more than finding the right person. Being the right person is even more important! The perfect husband is one who does not expect a perfect wife and vice versa. And that marriage is the art of two incompatible people learning to live compatibly, and after 34 years Y Ss is still learning very day. So much for life-long learning and education for life.

Leather becomes moldy and hard if unpolished. Iron rusts. Wood rots. Marriage, too. So, a bit of sugar and spice, pepper and salt, honey and also "Tabasco" to spruce your marriage now and then work a long way.

Finally, it pays to keep falling in love everyday, WITH THE SAME WOMAN !!!


Stay married, the best is yet to come.

... of blood pressure

Yours Sincerely ( Y S ) has been very busy this week ferrying himself between the General Hospital n( G H ) and home. The good doctor, Radha , of the GH has put Y S on the monitor for hypertension. Y S used to think that hypertension , Diabetes etc etc are for others, not him.

However, of late Y S' b/p has shot up to as high as 200 / 90, in spite of all the golfing, squash and gymn, and that alarmed the second half more than Y S. She bundled Y S off to the G H one fine morning and threatened to abandon Y S ( poor me ! ) if Y S did not seek treatment. Scary, eh ?

Another catalyst that rushed Y S to the G H was the condition of Y S' childhood body builder idol - Malek Noor. He was carried off the football field to the hospital hardly five minutes into a friendly showcase match ! Frightening, eh ? A body builder ! (Sorry, picture is blurr)

'
During his hey days ............................ Mr Asia.

On the day he was heart attacked .......
So, there goes Y S to the G H for five mornings already and the final verdict will be passed this Wednesday, the 13th of April. If "guilty" then it is medication for the rest of my life.

There is a certain deterioration of the body's parts and functions as one ages. ( sigh !!!) There is no panacea to heal them. Healthy diet and exercise can only help to maintain them a bit. If you are young and you read this posting, VALUE your youth and health . It comes only but once. So, take good care !!!

........... of living purposefully

Y S' footprints on the melting snow at Sinchiang, China.
Yours Sincerely ( Y S ) received this in his mail. It is a good reminder for those who have reached the summit and also those who are still climbing. Read on .......

And then it is Winter.

You know. . . time has a way of moving quickly

and catching you unaware of the passing years.

It seems just yesterday that I was young,

just married and embarking on my new life with my mate.

And yet in a way, it seems like eons ago,

and I wonder where all the years went.

I know that I lived them all...

And I have glimpses of how it was back then and of all my hopes and dreams...

But, here it is... the winter of my life and it catches me by surprise...

How did I get here so fast?

Where did the years go and where did my youth go?

I remember well...

seeing older people through the years and thinking that those older people

were years away from me and that winter was so far off

that I could not fathom it or imagine fully what it would be like...

But, here it is...

my friends are retired and getting grey...

they move slower and I see an older person now.

Some are in better and some worse shape than me...

but, I see the great change...

Not like the ones that I remember who were young and vibrant...

but, like me, their age is beginning to show and we are now those older folks

that we used to see and never thought we'd be.

Each day now, I find that just getting a shower is a real target for the day!

And taking a nap is not a treat anymore... it's mandatory!

Cause if I don't on my own free will... I just fall asleep where I sit!

And so...

now I enter into this new season of my life unprepared

for all the aches and pains and the loss of strength and ability

to go and do things that I wish I had done but never did!!

But, at least I know, that though the winter has come, and I'm not sure how long it will last...

this I know, that when it's over... its over...

Yes, I have regrets. There are things I wish I hadn't done...

things I should have done, but indeed, there are many things I'm happy to have done.

It's all in a lifetime...

So, if you're not in your winter yet...

let me remind you, that it will be here faster than you think.

So, whatever you would like to accomplish in your life please do it quickly!

Don't put things off too long!!

Life goes by quickly. So, do what you can today,

as you can never be sure whether this is your winter or not!

You have no promise that you will see all the seasons of your life... so,

live for today and say all the things that you want your loved ones to remember...

and hope that they appreciate and love you for all the things

that you have done for them in all the years past!!

"Life is a gift to you.

The way you live your life is your gift to those who come after.

Make it a fantastic one."

LIVE IT WELL!

ENJOY TODAY!

DO SOMETHING FUN!

BE HAPPY! BE THANKFUL!

...... of 2012

With two major earthquakes, the one in N Zealand and recently in Japan, of such disastrous magnitudes happening within such short interval, images from the block buster movie "2012" kept flashing in Yours Sincerely 's ( Y S ) mind. Would Planet Earth end up in a series of catastrophes and cataclysms : earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tornadoes, twisters, typhoons, landslides, floods, Tsunamis, drought, collisions of the planets etc etc coupled with political turmoils in the Arab countries and else where in the world ???

Y S tries to assure himself with self reasoning that "2012" is a block buster hoax and that natural disasters are always the order of the day. Ice bergs of all sizes , for example, collapse into the Tundra and Antarctic almost everyday and that glaciers turn into avalanches every now and them. Floods, twisters and volcanic eruptions have been happening since time immemorial. The only difference is that now we have efficient and effective mass communication. In the days of old, at the most one could only see a picture in black and white on the front page of the newspapers, and perhaps a few coloured pictures sometime later in "Time" or "Life" magazines NOW, you can see the HD images and video clippings of the natural disasters right in your living room on your LCDs. These images keep repeating themselves and with each passing days, CNN , BBC, CCTV or Al (Something?) serve you with better and more detailed images. How not to etch in us lasting impressions of the events ?

The theory that flashes of images on the LCD screen can leave a lasting impression on our mind holds water. This has been capitalized by advertisers to ingrain their brands on our mind by regularly flashing all the silly advertisements on our TV screen. The images of the catastrophes and cataclysms do leave an impression on us subconsciously in the same way.

Are we moving towards "2012"? As much as Y S does not want believe it, things are unfolding almost everyday. Yet, Jesus Christ says that He will come again "like a thief in the night." So, would "rapture" (Where believers would be assumed into heaven before the world suffers in turmoil. ) followed by "Tribulation" ( Where the world would be in turmoil before the assumption.) or vice versa? It is confusing.

What do you think?

.... the light from within

Yours Sincerely ( Y S ) once read that "people are like stained glass windows! They glow and sparkle when it is sunny and bright; but when the sun goes down, their beauty is revealed only if there is light from within. "According to Buddhism, all beings are imbued with a spark of inner divine light.... The Jewish mystics use similar words when they speak of the inner spark or the spark of God. The Koran, referring to man, talks about the little candle flame burning in a niche in the wall of God's temple.

Almost inevitably a spiritual search becomes a search for divine or sacred light. By cultivating our inner core, we search for this light in ourselves as well as the divine." - Lama Surya Das It is the "light from within" that produces in man strength and happiness to find out the way in which God is going, and he going that way too.

It is often said that the foolish man seeks happiness in the distance, the wise grows it under his feel. That is why that happiness is like a butterfly which when pursued is always beyond our grasp, but which if you sit down quietly may alight upon you.

Cecil Rhodes, born in 1853, played a major political and economic role in colonial South Africa. He was a financier, statesman, and empire builder regretfully said at the conclusion of his life, " Happy ? No! I spent my life amassing a fortune only to find that I have spent half of it on doctors to keep me out of the grave, and the other half on lawyers to keep me out of jail."

There is a common belief that happiness is something that is achievable and can be held on to. We look forward to that time in which we can finally be happy, but it continually recedes. We want to get to the top of the Wheel of Life and stay there. When in the university, we think, "If I can just graduate then I will be happy." Graduation, however, is not fulfilling, and we decide " Maybe it will come upon finding the right job, buying the right house / car / etc etc....... or getting married, or having children, or retiring. " The goal remains elusive. The "happiness that lasts" is never found because it is actually impossible to get happy and stay happy. If life is based on obtaining happiness, then we will always fall short because life is always changing as the wheel turns.

Y S likes what Richard L Evans once said, " May we never let the things we can't have or don't have, or shouldn't have, spoil our enjoyment of the things we do have and can have. As we value our happiness, let us not forget it, for one of the greatest lesson in life is learning to be happy without the things we cannot have or should not have," How true?

And above all, it is so important to know that we can choose to feel happy. Most people don't think they have that choice.According to Aristotle, "Happiness depends on our selves." For people are just as happy as they make up their mind to be. True happiness may be sought, thought, or caught but never, never bought. It is the light in our inner self that keeps burning even when the sun has set !