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According to Wikipedia, Boxing Day dates back to past centuries when it was the custom for the wealthy to give gifts to employees or to people in a lower social class, most especially to household servants and other service personnel…. however in present times, Boxing Day have became  a day for giving gifts to any people…

And on this year Boxing Day, I did give gifts to other people, or rather it was we did.

26th Dec 2008  at 10.00am, was the day that my first ever participation in giving gift on Boxing Day in my life and the recipients were a bunch of special people.

The gifts were really simple stuffs that includes cakes, cookies and a Christmas song, despite that, the gifts were still specials as it was  presented with lots of care and loves.

As you see, I was with my group of friends on that day, we had gathered together to give a gift of love and care for strangers that we didn’t know.  This group of strangers were patients of Singapore General Hospital,SGH.

We were there, to sing them a Christmas Song and at the same time giving out some brownies and cookies. The aim of the day was simple, it was to bring love, joy and care to another human being. 

So, with about 30 of us, we splitted into 2 groups and we went to ward by ward, greeting the nurses and patients, singing our heart up to them. It was really a great feeling, despite the husky voice, Igot after the session, the gifts that I received for myself, were plenty of sincere thanks you, genuine smiles and even tears from the patients.

The constant “Thank you,Thank you”  from the patients really warms my heart, by what touches me more was this auntie that held my hands and said “Thanks you so much for making my Christmas season so special, I almost forget how Christmas feels like after spending 7 days here, thank you for being here…’ 

Well, frankly speaking, to me, I just felt that I’m just doing my part and doing some volunteer work, and I am prepared to receive the two words, “Thank You”, and the effort I put in was not a big deal. But I was wrong, as I never expected to receive a string of appreciation, that auntie just let me realised that, our action in singing and giving might seems small but to them, the auntie it was a big deal.

That Boxing Day morning, the group had created a memorable Christmasand hospital stay for them. For that short 2 hours, the hospital was no longer a chilly place filled with sick people and cold medical machine, it was filled with Songs of love,  voices of care and feeling of warmth.

And on that day, the group and that auntie reminded, me that no matter who we are we can still make a difference to another person and that every contribution counts, whether it is small or big, the contribution still matters…..

Whoo HOO!! What A match! ha! Singapore Slingers 91 and Darwin All-Stars 68….. hahaha That’s the final score for the basketball match that I  just watched today!

HA,what a great experience it was, the match was my first ever professional basketball match that I watched LIVE in person MAN!!. 

Despite the low attendance at the Singapore Indoor Stadium, I was quite surprised that the atmosphere was still pretty happening. There were people cheering, clapping, pushing the team on and I think that about 60% of the crowd were Caucasians. So, I’m not even sure which team were they cheering on… hahahaha as you see, all the 10 man on the court, none of them were Singaporean, they are all foreigners and even the 2nd team were all foreigners. For the Singapore  Slingers, is only when you come to the 11th man then he is a Singaporean!!

Well, nothing wrong with that, but as the first Singapore’s professional Basketball team, I do hoped to see some local breed in the team. Ha and of course, I’m aware that to assemble a team of Singaporean it is easier said than done. In fact it is the same situation for most of the team sports in Singapore, there are just not enough local talent to go around.

Firstly, I want to confess that, I don’t even know much about Singapore Slingers other than the fact that they were formed in 2006/07 to be the first Asean-based team in the Australia National Basketball League (ANBL). I have to admit that if it is not because of the free ticket that was given by my boss and  my interests in Basketball(the B-ball is my fav. sports game), I will not even go a  match like this. 

I’m guilty as such, that I’m one of the lot that doesn’t really support the local sports scene. Other than the national team news on table-tennis, bowling, badminton and the Singapore Lions(soccer), I hardly pay any attention to the local sports scene. I was more interested in the Barclay Premier league than the S-league!!.

The reasons of having no interest in them are mainly, because that I don’t even care and I deem that the sports standard here are just not good enough for me to support. Ya, I know, who am I to make such a comment, I wasn’t even a school team player of any sports lack alone being a national player. 

Well, it is just that there are really nothing much for me to support them….. at least that was how I thought in the past. However, after today’s experience in the Singapore Indoor Stadium, something just struck me. I was like “Hey!  The Slingers are no so bad after all, they are pretty entertaining, how come I never ever thought of coming to watch and support this team, based on the way they played, they really deserved some support.”

It made me realised that it is so common and easy for people to condemn the local sports scene, and there are really not many local sports supporter around. Come to think of it, if there are not many people supporting the local sports, how can the local sports scene grows? If we still behave like the past, waiting for the quality to come and then support(which I’m equally guilty of), I can bet that the local sports scene will never grow. 

So, I guess it is time for me to change side from being a non-local sports supporter to a local sports support. As today, I felt the same adrenalin rush that I get from cheering the Singapore Lions when I was cheering for the Singapore Slingers. The feeling is the same, it is a feeling of national pride especially when you heard the word “Singapore”.

From now, I am even more convinced that I will give the local support more support then before. Regardless of the nationality of the players, as long as they are donning the national colours of Singapore, I will continue to support them. It is time to give our sportsmen and sportswomen the support they needed so that, they can draw more encourage and motivation from us rather than the pressure and stress from wanting them to prove their worth first before we support them. As now I believed that if there are more fans around then the players will have more things to fight for other than the prize and glory.

So 加油! Li JiaWei (Table-Tennis Singapore National , China-Born), Ronald Susilo (Badminton Singapore National, Indonesia-Born), Shi Jia Yi(Soccer, Singapore Lions, China-Born) and the lastest Darren Ng (BasketBall, Singapore Slingers- Australia-Borned) Make Singapore Proud and hopefully, because of your success, more Singaporean will support and enter the national local sports scene!

Ah… time really flies man, and soon in less than 10 days, it will be Chirstmas Eve! Yeah!  Sing with me!! “We wish you a MERRY CHRISTMAS,  We wish you a MERRY CHRISTMAS, We wish you a MERRY CHRISTMAS and a HAPPY NEW YEAR!!” ha!

Hmmm well, to be honest, Christmas to me is just another Holiday to me, I don’t really celebrate Christmas. Never really have the habit to do so. I mean I do go to Christmas Party and stuff, but it’s more for a gathering and having fun rather than really really celebrating Christmas. Nevertheless, I still like this season as we can see that everyone is more or less in a relaxing mood, wanting to be at ease and enjoy the holiday period and of course another ”PLUS” point I like about Christmas is that I  get to receive presents!! HA!

Well,  received a gift, I did. The first Christmas gift I received really came from an unexpected source. Ha just last week, when I was still busy with work, I received a call from a  number unknown to me.  Without thinking much, I answered the phone, and from the other end it said” Hello!, are you Jones?” “Ya” I replied,”HELLO JONES!!! IS US! CHOPSTICKS HERE!!! Do you still remember us!!” 

HA! Chopsticks! Of course I remembered them. Chopsticks were a group of my participants in a Overseas leadership camp that I was facilitating in. I was their facilitator for 4 days 3 nights and that was more than a month ago. It had been like about 30 plus days ago since I heard from them. In that period, our company had a policy that we were not allowed to exchange any form of personal contacts be it email or phone. The purpose was to prevent any emotional attachment between the facilitator and the participants straight after a training, 30 days was deems long enough for that attachment to die down and if after 30 days, they still want to contact, means it is cleared that they understand that it is because of sincerity and respect that the participants want to contact us and is not based on emotional attachment. Hence I was touched that the students upheld the rule and then made the effort to contact me after 30 days.

The phone call from them was to ask me out for a gathering on, Saturday(yesterday) which I happily agreed. It was great fun meeting up with them, we had Sakea Sushi for lunch and went to catch a movie.

It was really great to see this batch of teens behaving so differently since the first day I saw them. They are full of energy, hope and their sense of bonding was so strong, that you couldn’t help but to feel happy for them. It was pleasing to hear from them of how well they were coping school and family as well as listen to their plans about the new year. They have so much to look forward to ha. They were totally behaving like a sensible young adults that ready to take the world on.

So the gathering went on and we were all chatting and laughing and it was soon to say goodbye, and I thanked them for organising the gathering and that was when they stopped me, and said “No need to thanks us, CurryPuff(oh that’s was my nickname in the camp), is us that we want to thank you, thanking for being our facilitator and letting us learnt so much from you, this is a gift from us, hope you like it and Merry Christmas!” 

Ha, and guessed what, that last statement from them was one of the sweetest thing I ever heard, and after so long(closed to 40days), they still remembered me and I do feel honoured and pleased that I had played a part in their growing process.

And maybe that’s what kept me going on to do the work that I’m doing and I am not talking about the words or gift that I received but the purpose and the mission to make a positive difference to another person’s life.

Last but not least, Yes, I do Like the gift, so Thank you, Chopsticks!! 

Oh yeah! Is the time of the month again, where I need to “bleed” again…(Gosh!! that’s sound way wrong man!!) Hahaha!! The bleeding is from my wallet I meant. hahaha, ok not funny….

Anyway, yup, the month now is DECEMBER!! ha is the festive season month…. well, is Christmas time soon and after that is the New Year!! You bet that in this month there will be plenty of gathering, outing and even party when is comes to the last few weeks of December.

For me, in fact the first week of December I have been going out to meet friends and have spent quite a bit on entertainment and food!! yikes!! and now it is only 8th of Dec. So before, I spent any more money, I had once again, took out some money to repay my debt. This time is not much, just returning 500 back first, as I had decided to keep some money first, the reason?? He He, is of course to reward myself for the hardwork I had put in for the year!!!

HA ha, it does sound horrible isn’t it, especially if your are my creditor. Well just before you get angry, I just want to say that,please forgive me!!! it is really the festive season man!!! I just want to prevent myself to be too stress up with money for this two months.. I just want to make sure I have some spare cash for Christmas and the new year and of course the CHINESE NEW YEAR!!! is just a month plus away…Is time to buy some new clothes and even underwear to symbolise a new start!!! So please let me pamper myself just for this month,ok please, please please??

(Total amount left to clear:$7950)

Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon had once again ended with a big BANG!! This year, they had about 50,000 runners running for them. Wow, can you image 50,000 people, the event has really  become one of the biggest running event in Singapore. How I wished I was one of the 50,000 runners on that Sunday.

Well, theoretically, I’m one of the 50,000 as i had already registered myself for the event many months ago, but on the other hand, I am not one of them and that;s because, once again I didn’t went for the run!!!

Ergh!!! that the 3rd time that I had signed up for a marathon and again I didn’t get to participant in it!!! To be frank, I’m quite angry about the whole situation, but at the same time I know that It can’t be help that I have to give it a miss again!!

Well, a man got to do what a man got to do, I really had to give it a miss this time as I was sick once again. I had been having this sickening cough for the past 7 days and at this point of the blog entry I’m still coughing. I had been looking forward for the marathon this year, as for the past few years I had missd it and it’s been 3 years since I told myself that I will finish a marathon. Time and time again, things will happened in the last min and I had yet to complete one marathon, once was due to job assignment the other two time which includes this year is due to sickness.

But this year, I really want to participant so much, that it was only at 3am on Sunday morning that I told myself that I should once again to drop the idea to run.  The main reason is that I really need to be responsible. Why? it is because, being responsible is not only for my own health, but also to be responsible to other people who cares for me.

A few days before the marathon, I had many people around me telling not to go as I was still coughing badly, and that includes my friends, my colleagues, my boss and most importantly my family members.

At first, I still want to go, but as the date gets nearer, and more people telling me not to go, even to the point at 3am in the morning!! There were a SMS asking me “”Hey! Are you sure you still want to go, If you are still coughing, better not go, dun be stubborn, is 42km man, and there’s always another marathon but there’s only one Jones!”  that was when that I started to realise that “Hey, what am I doing? how come I’m so stubborn that even I’m sick I still want to go for the marathon, can’t I see that because of my stubborn, I have put so many people in a worrying situation, How can I be so irresponsible.”

It was that thought that came to me that made me decided to give the marathon a miss. Althought, it still feels like a miss opportunity but then again this miss opportunity had made me realised that there are many people around me that cares for me, and I learnt that I should be more responsible, not only to them but also to myself to live well and rest well so that these people will not worry for me again. Thank you all for all the care and concern. I promised next time that I will only participant in the marathon only when I’m fully fit and not when I still nursing my cough so that, all of you will be supporting for me rather then worrying for me…..I promised!  

OH boy, what a girly title, hahahaha can’t believed I had actually thought of it and put it down some more, wahahah!!!

Anyway, yup yup yup, is about FIREFLIES!!! Man, as you know (OK not all are aware), recently I just came back from a working trip at Kota Tinggi Waterfall Resort, Malaysia. I was conducting a 4 days - 3 nights Training Workshop for a neighbour school. One of the night was actually spend on going on a Night Fireflies Cruise.

We were in a small boat that can hold up to 20 people and  the boat owner was the guide of the cruise. So with our life jacket on and comfortably seated, the whole group were off to see the fireflies.

Well, it was not the first time I saw fireflies, the last time I saw it was many years back when I was in Chiang Mai, Thailand, we were in a village sitting at one of the high points, and right in front of us, was a big group of fireflies blinking and shining at us, some even flew past us, it was such a lovely sight.

This time round, it was slightly different, we were on the boat and we were cruising along the Johor River. I was hoping the sight we were going to see, could matched what I saw in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

After about 15 mins cruising down the river, the “ah peK” the captain and owner of the boat started to shout in mandarin”OK, people, stay silent and switch off all the camera light we are approachingthe fireflies real soon”, With a right turn of the boat, and from the corner of my eyes, I saw a magnificence sight,  the river banks on my right was suddenly brighten up and blinking at us, it was like the whole forest were being decorated with Christmas lighting, it’s like walking down Orchard Rd with all the lighting blinking and shining back at us. There were easily thousands of them covering the forests. As we cruising along, they were more both on the left and right at the river banks. 

It was really beautiful, as the cruise went on the mood of the crowd were starting to change from an initial of pure excitement to a form of quiet, smoothing admiration of the beauty of the mother nature.

this was when my head started thinking, I was like “Wow, this tiny insect that’s gives up light can actually brighten up the darkness and create a beautiful sencery with its lights, what an amazing creature” and to know that fireflies doesn’t really live long, some people said they only last for about a week - 2 months and some only last for a few hours make me even wonder more, “why even create this insect, what was its purpose to be here, was it just to give up lights or were they here to send us a message?”

Hahaha, somebody say i always think too much, and probably that is true. but really, I can’t help it, i was thinking if I’m the firefly, why live? When I know that I don’t live for more than 2 months, what’s the point and all I do is to give out lights?? I might as well just die. 

Ha, but the other side me me is telling me that if I’m really a firefly, and I do know I have only 2 months to live, I will guaranteed that I will give out more of my light and shines even brighter! and the point  I know that my light can lit up darkness and it can offered a beautiful scenery for others to appreciate. I know that my light can make 20 people on a boat to go “Ahh… that’sso nice” and I know that because of my light, the “Ah Pek” can earn his living by bringing people to see my light. And that’s why, If I’m really a firefly and have only 2 months of lifespan, I will LIVE and SHINES!!

What about you? if you are a firefly and have 2 months to live, will you just wait to die or you will LIVE and SHINES! If the answer is the latter, then who and what is your light shining for? Is it for your loved one, your family or even the community. Can you be the light that lights up another person’s darkest moment?

I know I can and I know who and what my light is shining for and Yes, I will live and shine bright, and I want the people around to shine too and that’s because, it is not the effort of one firefly but the efforts of thousands of individual shining firefly that can create the full strecth of riverbank that’s blinking and shining bright in the darkness of the forest. 

As I was travelling back home from Outram MRT today, I came across a very very sad sad scene.

There was this man with a big bag hang around his shoulders who looks like either in his late 4Os or early 50s, walking really slowly in front of me. The way he walks was like dragging his tired leg across the ground of the underpass.

When I was walking behind him, I was like “Wow, this man must be really tired, hoped he can quickly reach home and rest man…” and that was the first thought that went through my mind. Not thinking too much, I decided to over take him, and it was at this point, I overheard his own mumbling and below was what I heard…..”五十岁了，一事无成， 怎么办呢….,五十岁了，一事无成， 怎么办呢….,” ……oh man, for a few second, my heart literally stop pumping when I heard those words, automatically I turned around and looked at him, and quickly I just turned back and fasten my footstep towards the east-bound train. And all this while, the man is still mumbling “怎么办呢….,五十岁了，一事无成， 怎么办呢….,五十岁了，一事无成”

I do not know what struck me at that point, all I knew was the fear rising up in me. I’m not so sure, what the fear was all about, Was it a fear that I will be like him or was it a fear coming from witnessing from a man losing hope, or was it the fear creating for me on my first encounter of the impact of career failure or the reality consequence of a retrenchment. I really do not know.

Frankly speaking, all I know is that as much as I am empathise with him, deep inside my heart and my mind is that I totally don’t like what I saw in him and I do not want to be like him.

All I know now is that I am glad that I have found a job that I like and love to do. Despite the tough road and tough outlook in terms of the financial crisis, I want to stay on my job, to do whatever it takes to ensure the company is floating and flying so that it can ensure my career success and not failure, continue to upgrade myself so that I am will always be in demand in the job market, continue to search for new ideas and opportunities so that I can create another form of income security or start my own business again, quickly to clear my debt so that I can use my future income to invest to earn money rather than to use to pay off debt, continue to live and eat healthy so that I have the energy and spirit to enjoy my later life.

This might sound mean, but this is what I really want to say to the man, “Sorry and thank you Uncle, you just taught me a very valuable life-time lesson” and I hope you too, have learn something from this sad episode.

It seems that 2008 is a great year for wedding, for the month of November, I had 2 invitation. and this month I have another 1 more. The total wedding that I had attended is easily more than 15 and that is about more than 1 wedding dinner per month man!. In January, I had about 4, and the hottest month was September where I went for 7 weddings in a month!!!

Nowadays, weddings are always schedule to start with Cocktails at 7pm and the Dinner at 7.30pm, but then again Wedding dinner will never start on time. So at times, I will also arrive slightly later than the stated time, but, I will only allow myself to be late for 15 min at the max, so that I will not delay the whole event. Most of the time I will skip the cocktail reception and arrive at the ball room at about 7.30pm-7.45pm so that I will be sure that I will not be too late. Haha

However, it can’t be say to the rest of the people,as the dinner I had on last Saturday didn’t start till 9pm!! That means we were actually waiting for people who are at least one and half hour late!! If we were waiting for one or two person, I think it is OK, but at about 8.45pm there were still quite a lot of pockets of seats that were empty.

I mean, I’m not trying to be a Saint or claimed that I was never late for a wedding dinner, it is just that if I will be super late, I will definitely rush to the venue ASAP, and is just that I can never understand how can a person who were more than one hour late and still can pretend that nothing happened.

By my own standard, 10-15mins late is not a problem, 15-30mins is acceptable but to be more than 1 hour late is a NO, NO, NO,!!!

For me is simple, you know you have a wedding to attend and on the card it stated dinner will be served at 7.30pm and if you think you will meet a traffic jam if you are driving, then make an effort to leave early lah!!

Ha, some of you might be thinking why am I so worked up as it is a very normal common thing.  And you are right, it is a common thing and because it is a common thing that’s why I’m so mad!  as I had experienced the same situation of latecomers in every single wedding dinner that I had attended this year. I cannot recall any of the 16 wedding I attended had started before 8.30pm let alone starting on time.

The funny thing is that I always heard people complaining about wedding dinner ending later and later and yet, they don’t complaining about people who are coming later and later.

Some of the people around also tell me that “Well, is like that one lah, is either you leave with it or you can continue to bitch about it”and yar, I might sound like I’m bitching right now, but I can tell you that the “either this or that” doesn’t work for me, and that the reason why I decided to write this post.

Is time for people to know that, “One person’s little action can affect another person’s plan.” So, in this case, one person’s act of coming late will result a late start of the dinner and eventually delay the whole event, and people who has plan after the dinner might or will be affected.

It is also time for people to be more aware that if they choose to have an act of punctuality and be on time for the dinner they will see that the wedding will start on time and the event will not be delay and then people who have plans are the dinner can go on to carry out their plans at ease, and then people will not complained about wedding dinner is getting later and later. People need to know they can choose to make a stand and change things and it is still using the same idea of “One person’s little action can affect another person’s plan.”

Since I know that I can’t live with the problem,16 weddings that all started late is just too much for me and I will not just bitched about it, what I will do now, is that I will ensure that myself will not be late for any wedding anymore and I will ensure that my friends who are going to the same wedding will be on time too and of course, to tell the purpose and reason of me taking such efforts.

Put it simply, the purpose is to have the wedding dinner to start on time so that people don’t have to waste time to wait for another person and the reason will be people can learn that they can make an effort to be on time and to let them understand that, their actions does affect other people.

At least that is what i intend to do and I will start by the next wedding dinner that I’m going to attend on the 27th December. 

Somebody just have to make a stand, and I have decided to do so. anyone care enough to join me?