5.05.2013

Observations at a cafe


I’m sitting in a cafe enjoying a daim chocolate cake and drinking my Breakfast tea, not that I’m taking breakfast now, it’s just past 4 PM! But here in the UK, people drink breakfast tea all the time. And what’s in a breakfast tea? A friend once told me it’s a combination of Earl Grey, Assam and Darjeeling! Should I believe her? Why not? I guess it doesn’t matter anyway... As long as it’s tea! My guess is that the shops simply serve you whatever tea they’ve got as breakfast tea.

Across the room is an elderly man drinking coffee. He’s so old even the staffs of the cafe are worried about him. His hands and feet seem to shake uncontrollably. Parkinsons maybe? Perhaps a mild one, or it’s just that his muscles are weak. He seems lost and lonely. Sitting there staring into nothingness. He won’t be the first lonely old person I’ve seen. I saw an old lady the other day eating all alone in a cafe, and another man on yet another day in the same cafe. All elderly, all lonely, yet they worked at their fish and chips so purposefully I could imagine them being there simply because they wanted to eat fish and chips!

The man tries to get up from his chair, but he seems to be really struggling at it. A cleaner comes up to help the old man. He pulls the man on his feet and for just a moment, I thought the old man might fall to the ground. But alas, he stands... thinking hard what he should do next. Another lady staff walks over to him and asked if he was alright. I couldn’t hear what he mumbled to her, but she seemed satisfied and left him standing. He stared at his coffee, and stared around the room. I tried not to stare back.

After a moment, he moved his feet a little, getting a little exercise, thought he’d have enough of standing and started to sit down again. Once again, that male cleaner came over to help him. I’m really amazed by his kindness. There are some other guys around, guests of course. But they do not even look at the man. He sat for a little while more, all the while staring into nothingness. Occasionally, he glances at the newspaper on the table. I imagine he was thinking back to the old days when he would bring his wife here to the cafe, drink some coffee, and eat some sweet cakes, before heading off to the movies or the theatre. Finally he stands and leaves. After the little exercise just now, he had regained some strength I think, as he did not need anybody’s help this time. He took his bag (it was an ancient document bag, could he be a professor???), took a final glance around the room, and left.

                                                                        ~~~~~~~~~~~

Another elderly lady walks in; this time she is pulling a small luggage bag. She orders a tea, sits at the table next to mine, and starts the staring ritual just as the man before. But oh, this lady is not as old as the other man. In fact, she even knows how to use a hand phone! She seemed to be punching in an awful lot of numbers on the phone. Then she puts the phone to her ear. She makes a call. Speaks the briefest of moment, and puts the phone down again. She fiddles in her pockets and brings out a packed biscuit. A smart move I’d say, instead of paying 50p for a cafe biscuit.

I write about these lonely elderly people. But of course, in the UK, it’s not just common for elderly people to eat alone. There are many young people who do this too. Like the girl sitting across from my table. And myself, typing away on my computer while having tea to avoid staring into nothingness. Is this the British way of life, you think? Perhaps; perhaps not –but they do have many cafes with very small tables and seats facing directly out a window, which, in my opinion, are designed for the very purpose of enabling customers to eat alone without feeling too awkward! 

2.16.2012

Life can be so unpredictable... you may make plans for the future but one hard ball thrown at you can bring you spinning all over you're at a lost on what to do next again. My company provides good medical care for its workers. Last year, they allowed all employees to go for a full-body medical check-up. Why? Coz they strongly believe in "Prevention is better than Cure". Just like many of my colleagues, we thought is was a great opportunity to get ourselves all checked up to give us a few more years of peace eating that slice of meaty burger or chunky pizza! But what we didn't think of is the fact that reports may not be so great, and with no excuse for ignorance, we might end up cutting those pizza and burger days short!

Ahh.... life!

7.13.2011

It's funny how sometimes God tests us on what we commit so blatantly. I was reading the passage about the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus told the people to give an eye for an eye, but instead to go the second mile when people make you go one mile. Just today at work, I had a scuffle with a colleague early in the morning. This colleague of mine made me go one mile with her on something that I thought wasn't my job. I was quite annoyed by it as I had a lot on my plate as well.

It was until later when another colleague came to tell me that I had answered that particular colleague quite loudly that I remembered what I read last night. There and then, I decided I would help her. But it didn't mean that I was all happy to go the one mile too! After performing what she requested, I was told to do more. My anger flared up instantly and I had to quickly fan myself out quickly before I blow at her face again. Thank God for His strength to control myself and also His favor, to be able to complete all the tasks without any more trouble. Going the extra mile isn't easy. But there is still work to be done, and I am just hoping that tomorrow will be a better day!

5.14.2011

Reflection

Little is said when life throws you a tough ball. To appear strong, we would rather bury ourselves further in our misery, to which we know at some point will lay us bare and probably kill us (not literally, but perhaps emotionally), rather than face the truth and proclaim it out loud. If there’re no secrets of the past, the past can’t haunt you.
I just watched a TV show that made me realize how much I belittled a thing of the past. Now this thing did not happen to me, but to a friend of mine. Back then, there were those who were angry and hurt and sad about it, but I couldn’t seem to have such strong emotions within me regarding that. Perhaps my mind is wired in such that I have to see it to fully understand it. I usually rely on graphical images when I study, so maybe it’s the same way too when it comes to other things. After watching the show, I am now filled with anger and wish those people responsible for my friend’s predicament will rot in hell.
And to my friend, I’m so sorry that I wasn’t able to feel what I was supposed to feel for you when you needed me to. But I’m glad you did not choose to hide it from me.

3.14.2011

The Battle in My Mind

A friend of mine recently sent me an email with an interesting story that went like this:

In a small town, a person decided to open up a brothel, which was right opposite to a church. The church and its congregation started a campaign to block the brothel from opening with petitions and prayed daily against his business.

Work progressed. However, when it was almost complete and was about to open a few days later, a strong lightning struck the brothel and it was burnt to the ground.

The church folks were rather smug in their outlook after that, till the brothel owner sued the church authorities on the grounds that the church through its congregation and prayers was ultimately responsible for the destruction of his brothel, either through direct or indirect actions or means.

In its reply to the court, the church vehemently denied all responsibility or any connection that their prayers were reasons for the act of God. As the case made its way into court, the judge looked over the paperwork at the hearing and commented:

"I don't know how I'm going to decide this case, but it appears from the paperwork, we have a brothel owner who believes in the power of prayer and we have an entire church that doesn't."


It’s interesting to note how this story speaks to me as a Christian, I often pray to my Father for something but when it turns out to be something more than what I had bargained for, I begin to question if it was actually a result of my prayer or mere coincidence. I have prayed for many things, big and small in my 24 years of life, and often God gives them to me, sometimes as I had hoped for , and sometimes not as I had hoped for. It is often these times that I accept my answered prayers with reluctance. And who’s to blame, for I was the one who asked for it. There were times when I even rejected it out of fear.

In one of the seminars in the course Battlefield of the Mind, the speaker, Joyce Meyer, urged her listeners to ‘think about what you are thinking about’.  Often we have thoughts running through our minds, but not all these thoughts are necessarily healthy and promote a sound mind. Therefore we’ll have to constantly pause and think about what we are thinking about, and figure out if that thought is from our own critical thinking, or our own imagination, or whether it is from God, or from the devil.
When I think about the times when I chicken out of God’s promises because I let fear get the better of me, I regret it. But it’s not to say I don’t battle with negative thoughts or fear anymore. I still do. Everyday, actually. And each day is a tough battle.
 
 

2.09.2011

Life Ponders

The past week has a been a rather eventful one... firstly because it was also Chinese New Year, and I got to experience working in the office with just a few people and was really tempted to just sit back and relax and enjoy the air cond... but alas, my conscience said otherwise! I am proud to say I did work as much as I could under the circumstances :D Secondly, I revisited KK and am once again convinced that I wouldn't mind going back there again! Thirdly, an incident happened that made me realize how unpredictable life can be. But over the mountains and the sea, I saw the magnificent hand of God at work in my life and those around me, and in Mother Nature.



 Life is short... one day u're fine, the next u're not... whatever life throws at us, live it to the fullest.




 Be like the rock that stands firm in adversity and the water that adapts its path to find its way to sea.


Here's a toast to better days.

12.26.2010

A Barbie Fashion Fairytale!


 
The show was short and sweet and many people enjoyed it. I heard that the casts were flown all the way from US. Great job ppl! The stage was awesome... that’s what I liked most! I’ve missed stage shows and can’t wait to catch another one! I’m glad I’ll be going down to Melaka for one next week and I hope it will be way better than this! ROC here I come!
           

The 3 fairies being "flari-napped" (their word for kidnaped)


Barbie looking for the 3 fairies and asking the kids for help... I kinda like it that it was an interactive play.

The main cast: (from left) the 3 fairies, Elis (Barbie’s clothes designer), Aunt ??? (some big name Parisian designer from Barbie world) and Barbie.

The highlight of the play was not a ball, or a prom, but a fashion show! Elis graced one of her designs by parading it herself.

And for course the star of the fashion show is Barbie.
Duh~!

And as all fairytale goes, Barbie meets Ken and they live happily ever after.

Never in my the world had I thought that I would actually watch a Barbie musical and enjoyed it. But I did! LOLs.

Christmas has passed and it was time to go shopping for new year! My mom and I went to Queensbay to do some shopping coz we realized that we had not paid a visit to the grand sale yet, and it will be over soon!... so, on that fateful day, we went to shop... but lo and behold, when we arrived, we noticed banners concerning one “fashion fairytale”... and my mom recalled reading it in the newspaper that it was “quite interesting”... as we neared the center court, little girls were all dressed up and dolled up as little Barbies and had their pictures taken. And I realized that the Barbie musical would be on that day and the little girls were joining the Barbie contest.             

Now if I had went there alone, I wouldn’t have bothered. But mom was kinda excited about it and wanted to “go have a look”. I tagged along behind and was thinking that we’ll just take a peek and continue walking. But that peek lasted about 30 minutes!

Well, just so you get the idea on how it was like... here are some pics :)