Mark & Yin Yin

It’s the wedding season. Some of my colleagues don’t actually believe I’m attending yet another wedding. Mark was my cell member as well a dew crew many years back. He and Yin Yin got married on the 7th Feb in Singapore. The programme in Penang was blessing/renewal of vows ceremony, tea ceremony and Chinese dinner.

I think his parents worked very hard to make all the arrangement for friends and families. Mark is very cool. He just left all the stress and worrying to his parents! :-p Thank God for such supportive parents. Not only did they plan the actual event details with the wedding coordinator, they also arrange accommodation for many people. Thanks to their generosity, a number of us get to stay in the hotel where everything took placed. :)

With the exception of the short trip to Penang last year for work (which we were very much restricted to only the hotel) I haven’t been to Penang for probably 22 years. :-p Found out Siew Kim used to study in Penang so she knew some of the roads. It was great because we get to drive around this morning to eat Penang Fried Kuey Teow, Cendol and Laksa!

Marley & Casper

I bought a few books from last year's MPH clearance and one of it is Marley & Me.

I happen to read in the newspapers and saw the preview of the movie last month and decided I better read it real soon! It is an autobiographical about the Grogans and their yellow Labrador Retriever.

The subtitle of the book is “life and love with the world’s worst dog”. I roughly get an idea what it is all about. Since my childhood days I have attempted to convince my parents numerous times to allow me to keep a dog. I vaguely remember that we had one but died and another one stolen. My parents gave up. I guess they knew that they will end up caring for the dog anyway.

They finally gave the green light in 2002. We brought home Casper when we was around 2 months old. He was a furball. So rounded and super adorable!

As I read the book about Marley, I realized that Casper is actually a very normal dog. Like Marley, Casper likes to run and crash into the doors. He lungs and chokes himself when we walk him. He is also extremely terrified of the thunder and fireworks.

Thankfully Casper is not destructive like Marley when he is afraid. Casper would just want to be indoors when the storm comes. I suspect he has gotten over the fear. I caught him pretty calm one day during the storm. Everyone was out so he must have forgotten there is still one human in the house. When he heard noise from the house he started pleading to get in! Hmmm… con-dog.

Casper got over the chewing part of his life pretty quickly. We can leave our very new shoes with him and he will not touch them. Surely it is Casper’s presence that prevented the frequent shoe theft.

As I flipped the pages of the book, at every paragraph that describes an occasion or location, I could almost expect the possible disaster. I think anyone with a notorious dog should be able to relate. ;-) It was a good read and as I read towards the end of the book this morning... I cried…:-p. Old age can be pretty bad but that dog savored every moment of life!

Casper is almost 7 years old now. Still a baby to my family but in dog age, he is in his fourties! That's fast. He is aging so much faster than I am.

Every dog lover would agree with Grogan’s following line…
A dog judges others not by their color or creed or class but by who they are inside. A dog doesn’t care if you are rich or poor, educated or illiterate, clever or dull. Give him your heart and he will give you his.

When the game is over...

I received “When the game is over, it all goes back in the box” as a Christmas present in 2007. I didn’t read until the end of 2008. It was a timely read for me – after my surgery and saying “see you soon” to Connor. The book really served as a good reminder on what is our priority and objective in life.

I especially like the part where the writer compared life on earth to a temporary stay in a motel. How we are very unlike to be spending all our money decorating it because it is just not home.

People go through life collecting stuff and then they die, leaving all their stuff behind. Then their kids argue and fight over those stuff and then they die and leave stuff behind again….and the hunger to accumulate stuff continues throughout the lifespan of….the stuff.

Do I like collecting stuff? I guess I do! For what? To make myself happy! :-p
Dumb.

The writer also mentioned about the contrast between his little known college mate and a famous billionaire’s funeral. The number of people and who (friends/family/anyone at all?) actually showed up at their funeral tells a lot about that person’s life. It reminded me about the legacy we leave behind when our time here is over. Who will have eternal treasures? The billionaire who abandon his family and friends for "success" or the little known person who has been serving God and people faithfully with everything he has.

It is the impact we made in others’ lives that really really matters.