ash'ventures

The wannabe philosopher

My brother Anand, who happens to the brightest and scholarly in the family started his blog. And his first entry is so cheem (singaporean chinese lingo for anything confusing & difficult to understand) that i had to read again and again to understand the contents. Here is the link to the cheemology.

solitude

Sunset at Maikhao beach, Phuket

free of debts

Finally, i paid off all my debts! I used my bonus to settle off everything. Now im left with SGD 200 and THB 10,000 in my 2 bank accounts, but the feeling is so good ! NO MORE DEBTS AND IAM A FREE MAN. Now its time to start effective money management !

hello singapore !

back to singapore tonight and will be there until 15 july. who is asking me out for coffee ?

until death do us apart

I remember Joseph Lawrence, the eldest son of my chemistry professor Lawrence Michael. We grew up in the same neighbourhood, went to same church, same cathecism school, and years later, same college. He was also friend of my brothers. It appears as if controversies followed Joseph lately.

He married a muslim girl amidst much controversy and he is the father of two kids. Pardon me, he was, because Joseph, his wife and 2 kids passed away last week in a road accident.

The accident was was also kind of controversial. The accident happened some 50km away from his hometown. Following the accident and eventual death, the people of the locality blocked the national highway and held the top government official of the district at ransom until the authorities promised to do something about the condition of the road. It appears as if the potholes on the national highway was the cause of the accident.

Joseph's funeral also ended up in a controversy. It seems that his wife's parents insisted on their daughter being buried in the muslim cemetry and they got what they wanted. Joseph and his two children were buried at the catholic cemetry.

When they took their wedding vows, they pledge to "be together until death do us apart". Ironically, their death happened while they were together, but their bodies cannot be together. 

Joseph, his wife and kids will unite in the "other world", free from the pressures of religion, society, norms, elders-of-the-family, etc - people who dont give a darn about you but always around to give their useless 5 cents worth to stir up shit ! 

Here is wishing you a happy life, together, from now onwards !

im so glad june is over !

I had the lousiest month for a long period of time. June was full of downsides and a hell of a roller coster ride for me ... I was looking forward to 2 work trips to Bangkok and 1 to Chiang Mai. Alas, things went wrong and I did not get to get my plans executed !

On 6 june, i made my first virgin trip to bangkok aka prungtep(for the uninitiated, prungtep means city of angels). i was feeling feverish the previous night, but i braced myself to fly over to bangkok. i flew from phuket to bangkok on Thai Airways with a complimentary upgrade to Business class, in style. Cool right? Soon after the aircraft took off, i literally became cold, thanks to the strong aircondition. upon reaching bangkok, i was feeling so hot ! And to add to all the inconvenience, the pick-up vehicle did not arrive and i had to stuff myself into a very uncomfortable meter taxi to bring me to Holiday Inn Bangkok.

Immediately upon reaching the hotel, i went looking for medication and excused myself for a nap. After the nap, i was feeling normal and i was so happy. Went about meeting people and striking off each items on my to-do list. Decided to rest early and went to bed around 8pm. Throughout the night, i woke up countless times feeling unwell. I took more and more medication, but i was feeling so feverish. To cut things short, i ended up being admitted in Bumrungrad International Hospital. They had to wrap me up in 8 blankets and i had a temperature of 40.6 degree celcius. I was send for countless tests and xrays and dunno-wat-all. After 30 hours at the hospital, i was feeling good to go back. The doctor wanted me to be admitted for another day, but i signed off the against medical advise form and returned back to Phuket the same day.

Unaware of my situation, my mum and brothers expressed their desire to visit Phuket. So i arranged tickets etc for them and they arrived on 11 june. Took leave and brought them for a tour of the island on 12 june. Everything was going on well when i received a message from my brother on 13 june, that my grandfather was admitted in intensive care unit due to heart failure. I arranged for my mum and brothers to return back immediately and arranged for my own tickets. Luckily my bosses and colleagues were so helpful, i got everything done in 1 hour. But there was another challenge, as i was holding Singapore passport, i needed visa to enter India. And the normal processing time is 3 days. I had to catch the evening flight. Anyway with the help of Singapore Embassy in Bangkok, i got my visa and flew to India on 13 june.

From the airport, i went to the hospital and saw my grandfather in a coma state. It was very depressing. Though the doctors gave up on his condition, he was showing signs of improvement. So on 17 june, i returned back to Phuket. Unfortunately my grandpa passed away on 18 june and i had to make another trip to India. Luckily my colleagues in India arranged me a permit to land without visa and i flew to India again on 19 june.

My grandfather's funeral was done the next day and i stayed on until 22 june. I was scheduled to fly on midnight flight, which was delayed 12 hours. And since i was holding staff ticket, i was not entitled to hotel stay. So i spend the night at my friend's place near the airport and flew to Singapore on 23 june. When i arrived into Singapore, my connecting flight to Phuket was about to depart and they refused to accept me on the flight. I had to spend a night in Singapore. As i was holding staff ticket, they refused to give me hotel again. I was really devastated. I havent showered or changed my clothes in almost 20 hours. i reached Phuket on 24 june.

Well, since then, things have been looking good. Royston & Sam came visiting on 25 june and they stayed couple of days. It was good to have them here.

However, throughout all the episodes that happened in June, it made me realize how fortunate I'm to be blessed with this job and good colleagues in a great company. When i was sick in Bangkok, my fellow manager from Chiangmai and colleagues from Bangkok went all the way out to take care of me. When my grandpa was sick and later passed away, my bosses and colleagues in head office and India office did everything to ensure i could travel asap to India. Everything was done in lightning speed. Im also thankful for this job, else i wouldnt have been able to travel to India twice without having visa.

And it was heartwarming to see my mum's cousins and uncle who went all the way out to take care of my grandpa in hospital and making arrangements for the funeral. It was heartwarming to see so many people turn up for the funeral. It was touching to see the numerous condolences messages and flowers from Canada to Melbourne to Singapore.

Perhaps it is karma !