the odd one out

A friend once looked me in the eye and said, “You do know you’re odd, don’t you?” My quick retort was, “So, whats your point?” I’ve always been that. It is a fact I accepted and embraced a long time ago. It is not a bad sort of “oddness”… at least I don’t think it is. It’s not like I have a hump on my back shaped like the face of Marty Feldman that screams …

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a Malaysian miracle?

May the 9th was already significant to me. On that date when I was 12… my Dad passed away. On that date this year, Malaysians went to the polls in the 14th general elections resulting in a momentous shift… one that ousted the ruling coalition that had been in place for the last 61 years. A ruling coalition whose time had come… bloated from the rot within. Social media is still being filled with Malaysians …

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a new year… a new age

If one were to follow the time zones of where I was born… at 9:05 AM (today, here) I turn 59. (However, in the time zone I live in… this will only be acknowledged tomorrow.) Yet, even until this day, the question I’ve asked all my life, “Am I old enough to…” still floats in my rabid mind. This feeling of ‘not being quite old enough’ has chased me all my life. It came while …

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for the past 3 years…

… I have come across him on my morning walks… usually when I pop into the liquor store to get myself a crumb cake or any manner of pastry that’s on the shelves. Not every day though… but on most days. My late friend, (and former tenant) Randy would also run into him and we would talk about our encounters. What struck us was that he would never ask for money… but a cup of …

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last picnic with Mum

For a year now it has been on my mind. After Mum passed in 2009 there was a vague idea to bury her ashes at Dad’s grave. Because the plan was vague I wasn’t particularly committed to it. So, over the past year, I’ve been ruminating over this. The only thing I was sure of was that it would happen on her birthday weekend… which was this weekend. Around about May this year, I came …

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sometimes you get it…

… the way you want it. For years I’ve wanted an arbor full of grapes. This year it happened. Well, not suddenly… like in a blink of an eye or after a blinding flash. It took a while. The arbor had to be built first. That was 5 years ago. Then, about three years ago I planted a vine. As it grew I trained a couple of the main vines to twist up one of …

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do yourself a favor… take the train

Some of you already know I just got back from a month long adventure about 3 weeks ago. And yes… a big part of it was journeying via Amtrak. I started and ended this trip on board the California Zephyr… but also rode on the Wolverine as well as the Lake Shore Limited. And how was it? Pretty grand. I’ve always loved riding the train. Even as a kid in Malaysia the opportunity of a …

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because I hate “gloat posting”…

So, I rarely posted about my recent adventure on Facebook. Yes, there is a line between genuine “sharing” and “gloat posting”. I did, however, create a dedicated blog to chronicle the journey for myself …which you can get to by clicking HERE. Or if you want to start at the beginning of it… click HERE and start with the bottom most post. OK, now that’s out of the way… This adventure came about at just the …

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