Perception

Clearly, I don’t understand sports.

Olivia

The song can be found here. Ironically, the cheerful song tells a story about child abuse.

Helping Strangers

How shy are you to help strangers?

Today while I was cycling to the college to take photos of the sunset, I came across this couple whose car tire had blown. The damage was pretty bad, I could see the tear on the tire, the rim was dented, and the wheel cover was missing. I had actually seen the wheel cover somewhere along the way, but I had kept quiet and continued snapping photos.

That was until the guy asked me for help. He had removed the spare tire, but he couldn’t get the car jack out of its mounting, and he was wondering if I could give him a hand. It was only then that I told him that I saw the wheel cover at the side of the road earlier near a construction site. The car probably hit one of the construction blocks somewhere along the way.

As I know nuts about automotive, I could only apologize and tell him that I couldn’t really help him. I continued snapping photos, as the girlfriend walked to the nearby Sunset Grill restaurant, presumably to ask for help.

I wished him all the best, and I went on to the college. I took more photos, and on my way back, I saw the girlfriend walking all the way to the other end of the road, where the car hit the block, to retrieve the wheel cover.

As I cycled back, I felt guilty and disappointed in myself as I felt that I could somehow at least offer them some form of a help. For those not in the know, Seletar can be quite inaccessible, and walking in or out is very inconvenient. As I was riding a bicycle, it wouldn’t be too hard for me to go and retrieve the wheel cover for them, or to go to Sunset Grill to, maybe, borrow a car jack from the owner of the restaurant.

At the very least, even if I couldn’t help them, the gesture would have been nice. Even a simple “Do you need any help?” would do. It was too easy for me to reason out that I shouldn’t be too kaypoh (busybody) about another person’s business, and that even if I offered my help, he might just reject it. But thinking about it again, I realised that sometimes I’m just too shy to be bold and offer some form of help.

The next time I encounter myself in a similar situation, I’ll try to offer some help. Maybe by being nice to strangers, people will be nice to me too.

Running Away

The last time I ever ran intensively was 2.5 months ago during Outward Bound before I started in my current company. At that time, I remembered that I was one of the least fit people in the group. Not surprising really, because the others are locals who have to keep fit anyway as a national service requirement.

So when I started running again today, I was pretty pleased that I could complete my run satisfactorily. It’s not great by any standard, but hey, for someone who’s been dormant most of the time for the past half a year (except during Outward Bound), I was quite satisfied with the run!

I hope I can train in time for the 5km run that the school is participating in the middle of November!

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Love

Note: This entry is dedicated to someone who shall not be named, who keeps on bugging me to blog before I am able to recycle the previous entry on the next Chinese New Year…

What is love?

The first paragraph of the Wikipedia entry says the following:

Love is any of a number of emotions and experiences related to a sense of strong affection and attachment. The word love can refer to a variety of different feelings, states, and attitudes, ranging from generic pleasure (“I loved that meal”) to intense interpersonal attraction (“I love my boyfriend”). This diversity of uses and meanings, combined with the complexity of the feelings involved, makes love unusually difficult to consistently define, even compared to other emotional states.

As mentioned in the quote, love is a very difficult thing to describe, and it can mean many different things. But I know a couple of things that I love in my life now.

1. I love aviation and flying. That is why I decided to make the career switch to flying as soon as I was eligible to. I never regretted that decision, although my pay now is less than a third of what I earned in my previous job and the training isn’t exactly easy. At least, I get to learn the things that I’ve always been interested in. And that brings me to the second love, which is…
2. I love my job. Enough said above.
3. I love my family. For their support in what I am doing now, although initially my parents and my grandma have some reservations about my decision to take up flying.
4. I love my friends, especially those close friends who are always there for me when I need them.
5. I love Plurk, Facebook, and Windows Live Messenger. Though I’m not as active as I was before on Plurk, I still check Plurk and Facebook from time to time either to see what the others are doing, or to update others about my life. In the confines of the dormitory for cadet pilots, WLM is the best way to communicate with outside friends.

There you have it, some loves of my life at the moment. What do you love now?

Lovely,
hendri

PS: After months of not blogging, my English is now very rusty and I don’t get that feel that I got when I blog. Heh, I don’t know if this will improve over time, but I’ll try anyway.

PPS: Not sure if I should put the last one in the list. Heh, if you know, you know, if you don’t, then you don’t.