Ang Pau, no matter 大 or 小

One of the must have for CNY is ang pau and here is what I've come out with. The mathematical calculation for "Amount Received" exponentially decreases every year as you get older until which it'll be zero and that's when it starts to be negative, which also mean you start giving la =P

I did something really really paiseh when i think about now but i was dead serious about it that time. Back when i was 10 (i think), I had a hard time remembering who gave which any pau at the end of the day. So i thought out a "brilliant" device to keep track of my ang pau, a PEN! I would simply write the person's name on the ang pau when i get it. A simple no fuss way of having to remember the design on each ang pau to match the giver. I remembered an uncle was stunted when he saw me writing his name after given me the ang pau and he jokingly commented, "Sei lo, luckily i gave you quite a good sum if not malu cause you would know it was me". Then i responded, "Sorry la uncle, no choice i get too many ang pau jor, cannot keep track so have to do this". It's kinda funny now when i think of that ingenious plan of ang pau tracking i once had.

But when you're older, you start to realized that the ang pau no matter 大 or 小, it's the meaning that counts.

Something to laugh about

Something happened today which made me kinda laugh about it.

While entering church this morning, I noticed this small little 4/5 year old girl following behind me. Since i was walking pretty fast, I could feel as if she was trying to catch up to me. I turned to look and thought why would her parents let her run off like that. Aren't they afraid someone would kidnap her?

Anyway, I didn't bother much and carried on walking. But right when i was facing forward again, i felt something grabbed hold of my hand and it was those tiny little fingers of that girl. My initial reaction was to grab her hands back and I said hello. Honestly, i did it unconsciously as i was too blur with what was happening.

But soon after looking at me and realizes i wasn't her dad, she quickly ran back to the car where her 'real' dad was calling her from.

I laughed thinking.

Firstly, what if she still did not realize i wasn't her dad and continued to hold on to me? Will I be accused of kidnapping someone's daughter? =P

And why would she think i was her dad? Do i really have the dad look? But anyway, it wasn't the first time this kinda things happened to me so i was't surprised.

Today, i was somebody's dad for like one second. Something to laugh about..

A little good news for the new year

While most working adults only get their encouragements through monetary means, my colleague and I are glad we have alternative ways to encourage ourselves.

A little good news we heard from our boss last week was that one of our clinical trial patients was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer and apparently given only 3 months to live. But to know that it has been 9 months since patient first received treatment and is responding well till now, it's really comforting. We were overjoyed cause we knew we played a part in treating this patient. Nine months may not mean much to us healthy people but for a cancer patient, every month counts. Moreover, this patient had to care for his wife who's quite ill as well.

Though at times we feel all stressed up and pressured with unreasonable doctor's request, the thought of how this treatment has given new hope to patients always bring a smile back on our face.

I know my role may not be as prominent as the doctors, but knowing that i generated the treatment dose has already given me great encouragements.

Happy New Year 2014!! though it has already been 11 days in =P

At every new year, we always reflect on life or count how long ever since that something happened. For me, I always do the latter and count how long, for example ever since i went to the USA. Little did i know it was a whopping 6.5 years. It honestly felt like 3 years instead.

With that on my mind, I woke up today to a certain something by my bedside. "It" was a bear with really cute eyes given to me as a birthday gift by two sisters because she knew i like bears. This bear meant alot to me because during my loneliness in the US, "it" has reminded me of home. True enough, I realized that be it in the US or Malaysia, "it" has always been with me, every night ever since i had it 7 years ago.