Compete or Complete?

Pic from here

Stephen recently lost a lot of weight from watching his diet and exercising. He had made a dramatic change to his lifestyle and now looks fighting fit. A couple of months ago, we met the former Staff Sergeant of the Commando Unit that he belonged to, when he was in the army. Oh yes, Stephen used to be a Commando with a red beret! Anyway, Staff Sergeant Seah stopped to chat with us, as we had our breakfast. He said he was happy to see that Stephen is keeping to a regular fitness regime. He only cautioned that it was necessary to “complete not compete”.

He is right. We hear of so many people who have dropped dead even before reaching 50 years! They push themselves to better their times, to get ahead of the one in front of them and, often, they accidentally beat the clock of life way before their time.

Those words played around in my mind for a while. I see that it is also an apt description to life. I know that many go about in a perpetual competition. They wake up each day with no inkling of what really matters. Their sole purpose is to compare and compete to win. They cannot wait to shout that their home is bigger. Their job pays more. Their spouse is better looking. Their car has a higher capacity. Even their continent is better! They are the ones that say such high faluting stuff like their mansion is just “a humble abode” or that their BMW is old because it’s last year’s model or that their holiday destination is pending because they can’t decide yet.

Life is a journey for us to complete. The competing is not going to change the fact that when we die, our journey is complete. If we spend all that time, living to compete with those around us, then we miss what is important.

I think that even before I met Staff Sergeant Seah, I already knew that in the race of life, I have to run to complete and not compete. Okay, I'm going to be running along now.

Selamat Hari Raya Aidil Adha

pic from here

Happy 50th Birthday! But who's counting?

I decided to add this song because it epitomises what I am feeling right now, enjoy it while you read this post!


youtube credit

I travelled across half of peninsula Malaysia, a 5-hour journey, to reach Singapore, before midnight so that I could be with the one I love.

Was it an arduous journey? No,it wasn’t, as I only had to sit and doze throughout. Thoughts of reaching my destination and being with the man who greets me with that twinkle in his eye makes it all worthwhile.

He’s 50 today. It’s no big deal, age is just in the mind. Isn’t everyone bandying the phrase “50 is the new 30”?

So this blog post has to be all about him and I’ll start with adjectives that best describes him.

S – SEXY
T – TALENTED
E – EXCITING
P – PROTECTIVE
H – HANDSOME
E – ENERGETIC
N – NAUGHTY

G – GENEROUS
R – ROMANTIC
O – OUTSTANDING
S – SINCERE
S – SPONTANEOUS
E – ENDEARING

He’s all that and more. He’s kind, witty, caring and loving. I really lucked out when I met him. My life is filled with so much joy because of him.

Thank you for every moment of happiness.

Happy Birthday, Baby Grosse!

Ignorance is bliss

This is just a short rant!

Every workday, I drive along the Old Airport Road, enter the Smart Tunnel, and exit at Tun Razak Road. Usually I head straight for the underpass along with all the motorists that come via Sungei Besi and the Maju Expressway. 5 lanes squeeze into the 3 lanes which make the rush hour traffic heavy and sometimes painfully slow. Add to this, the motorcycles who are NOT permitted to use the underpass and you have an accident waiting to happen.

Well, not that the motorcyclists should be faulted but I’ve noticed if you signal to change lanes, these motorcyclists horn you as if to say, “Stay in your lane”, I’m passing by”. Although they have no right to be in that underpass or tunnel or whatever you want to call it, they ride by all the NO MOTORCYLES signs without a care in the world and they have the audacity to blare their horns at you if you get in their way.

Grrrrrrr!

I’m not a snob. If I ride a motorbike, I’d adhere to the rules. I won’t drive in the motorcycle lanes and the motorcycles shouldn’t drive where they are not supposed to.

It’s simple really. Either remove those signs (and there are many of them) going into and out of KL or enforce the rule.

It’s a mandatory road sign which ALL motorcyclists are now oblivious to.

A failed state

I received a long email this morning and the part in it that caught my attention was this line,

One conclusive hallmark of a failed state is that the crooks are inside the government, using government to protect and to advance their private interests.

I'm always impressed when people write well. I'm even more fascinated when they write factual stuff in an interesting way. What takes the cake is when they write well about factual stuff in an interesting way and when absolutely everyone can understand when they read it.

Last year, around this time, I wrote about this