New Beginnings.

December 31, 2006 | Leave a Comment

Just today, I have added a link to one of my pal’s blog. She is Doris
Chua who is married to another pal of mine Alex Choong. They have a bundle of TNT named Clayton and if you want to know more about them visit her blog. It is full of good tips and sincere sharing of their lives. I visited her blog rather frequently to find out how they are doing and what they are up to lately and also learn from her re-blogging!

Today is the last day in 2006 and in a few hours, we will be in 2007! May I take this opportunity to wish all of you a Happy and Blessed New Year with many good things going your way for the next 365 days! This morning I went to church alone since rock wanted to have some peace and quiet at home spending time with dawn my youngest daughter who is back in Kuala Lumpur on her summer break from drama school. They have much to catch-up on.

At church, my pastor gave a very encouraging sermon about entering and exiting in one’s life taking arbitrarily a year in time. Year end is always a good time to start afresh one’s resolutions. He said that we must exit 2006 and leave behind us all the past 12 months of failures, pain, encumbrances, negative thoughts and enter into 2007 with a fresh positive attitude towards people, issues and build once again the life that we wanted. We must look towards the Almighty God to help us achieve all these. So in the few hours left in 2006, we were encouraged to take stock of our lives and make a decision to start all over again when we usher in the New Year.

So for me and rock, we will leave behind the many failures we have had this year and look towards the New Year with a sense of purpose to achieve those targets we have set to achieve in our lives. Not to look backwards but rather press forward with all our strength. I want to encourage you readers to do the same and never let past failures deter you from moving forward in 2007.

We Wish all of you, a New Beginning in the coming days in 2007!

Posted by | Filed Under Learning 

My Rock

December 29, 2006 | Leave a Comment

On October 27th 2005, my wife Rock, had a stroke which leaves her left side paralyzed. From that day onwards, our lives changed dramatically. I did not know about stroke although have heard of it many times. I guess somehow we do not really pay attention to something like a stroke when we are healthy and able bodied.

Upon reflection, actually Rock had a very mild stroke around June 2004! Since it was so mild, neither she nor I realized anything wrong! Well, during that time, I noticed that Rock was unusually quiet and seldom join in our conversations when friends were around. Although my wife is not by nature a talkative person but she always participate with our conversations.

Initially I thought she was angry with me over something! You know how women are when they are mad at you over some thing and the man seldom realize what happened until cold war has gone on for a few days. So after sometime I decided to clear the air and asked her. She told me nothing was bothering her or was she mad at me. She explained that she wanted to say something in our conversations but somehow the words got stuck in her head and unable to articulate it. Soon the conversation would have gone for quite a bit and she felt why bother since the topic had sort of changed.

We went to the hospital for a medical check-up and found nothing seriously wrong! Everything seemed to be within limits meaning her blood pressure, sugar level etc. Well Rock suffered from hypertension for many years and she is on daily medication to keep the blood pressure in check.

Then on that dreadful morning of 27th October 2005 while driving my wife to the bank for some errands, she felt dizzy and I noticed that she could not sit straight. She sort of slanted to her left. To this day I do not understand how I knew but I just know it was a stroke and I drove her straight to the hospital. After the doctors checked her and about an hour later, she sort of got back her strength and she acted very normal. However the doctors warded her for observation since her blood pressure was sky high! While waiting for a bed at the hospital, the stroke came. What she experienced earlier was what medically called a TIA.

From that moment, my life, initially changed into top gear and for the next 12 days, I was sort of in a dream state. Perhaps I was in shock and did not realize it. Some months later, rock told me that just a few days before the stroke, she sort of black-out in the garden but just momentarily and she regained consciousnesses.

So folks, please treat each and every minor sudden changes in you with care and do not just brush it off. Sometimes I just wondered what if she had told me about that incident in the garden but what if she did for all we know we may just brush it off as nothing. I wonder at times which is more painful, someone born disabled or disabled later in life? Through the past one year, I discovered that having compassion for the handicapped is easy but understanding is not so easy! How can an able bodied person break away from his or her mindset and understand handicapped people on their own terms?

Posted by | Filed Under Learning 

Happy New Year

December 28, 2006 | Leave a Comment

Time flies! Christmas has come and gone and in a few days time, 2006 will be history! So Happy New Year 2007! Managed to get online and into my blog today. The earthquake in Taiwan was really giving the www some problems! Last night I experienced such delays in loading from the internet that I gave up and went to sleep instead! Even today loading up is still painfully slow but with a bit of paitience managed to get in!

Somehow for the past few years, things seem to go wrong around this time, in December or near to Christmas! In 2004 was the Indonesia Tsunami on Boxing Day! This year earthquake in Taiwan. We had a family reunion in 2004 in Penang and returned back to Kuala Lumpur on Christmas Eve! We were staying on a Beach Resort and just missed the Tsunami.

Well this year Christmas was a quiet family affair since everyone was away somewhere. Met-up with my work-group this evening and had such a wonderful time of sharing and exchanging ideas on doing business online! Well its time for me to talk about my life changing experience which happened in October 2005 in my next posting!

Posted by | Filed Under Learning 

Met an old friend

December 20, 2006 | Leave a Comment

hi, we are back from our 3 day break! Had a wonderful time, driving through old familiar towns. Took a two hour break in my home-town and tasted my usual favorites. Something I never fail to do on each and every trip I pass my home town. My daughter, being a photo freak, wandered off into the quiet back landes and empty old houses and took many photos there!

This time round managed to meet-up with an old friend who told me that she had experienced what doctors called a ‘TIA’ transient something something. Well since my wife experienced a stroke about a year ago I learned of TIA, Stroke etc. Managed to give her some advise on what to watch out for once someone experienced TIA which could lead to a ‘Stroke’.

Actually one year ago, my wife had a haemorragic stroke in her right brain and that event changed our lives dramatically. In due time I will share my experience on it and the challenges a strokee faces as well as the care-giver! Now busy preparing for the coming Christmas Celebration so will update after the dust settles so to say!

Posted by | Filed Under Learning 

I am a rookie!

December 16, 2006 | 1 Comment

I learned about blogs about a week ago and a dear friend, a lady encouraged me to start my own blog and so an hour ago I created my blog! Thanks doris for your encouragement.

Really find it hard to decide what to blog about now so just a few words to sort of kick-off this new thingy! I believe sharing with others about our life experiences will enrich not only ourselves but hopefully others as well. So I intend to share about my own life experiences and what I learned from all of them in this personal space.

Well that much for now and will not be online for the next three days for I am taking my wife and daughter to a remote place without easily available internet connection! also will have time to ponder on what to blog about when I come back. Bye! and see ya in three days time.

Posted by | Filed Under Social