deep within

Took this from http://takeuaway.wordpress.com/

Hmm..I always thought mine was words of affirmation :P Oh well…

The Five Love Languages

My primary love language is probably
Quality Time
with a secondary love language being
Acts of Service.

Complete set of results

Quality Time:		9
Acts of Service:		7
Physical Touch:		5
Words of Affirmation:		5
Receiving Gifts:		4

Information

Take the quiz

Waiting for something you might not have in the end is painful. If only i would know the outcome of things to come. If only I could look into the future and be 100% certain of my destiny.

Things have happened at home and things have happened here at Singapore. Yes, i would like to keep it as ‘things’. It seems that nobody really wants to know what these ‘things’ are..or is it just me not wanting to reveal them? Everybody is either rushing here rushing there…trying to keep up with their overfilled calenders with a million things on their to-do lists. Do you really want to know what’s up? Then don’t just ask and then expect me to tell you in what 2 minutes?

Guess I’m also guilty of not being able to really listen to people. All have their struggles, dreams, plans, stories to tell..it all just seems too much for just a ‘Hi, so how have you been doing?’ kinda question…where do you begin? what do you say? how much to say? does the person really want to know or is he or she asking for small talk sake?

Blogging is the easy way out. There’s time to formulate what you want other people to hear, and it’s easier reading what the person has to say..esp if the person doesn’t talk fast :P It can be addictive even because hey finally i have an outlet where by I can pour out my whole life to and ppl can actually read off it and know wat’s happening in my life! But i’ve come to realize that it is not what i want. If you want to know me, i would want to know you too…And if you’re patient enough, i will let you into my world…it’s not a virtual one by the way..heh

Would still update some stuffs here btw… :P

This is a long, long, long delayed post on my trip up to Kota Kinabalu (Sabah), home of the highest mountain in South East Asia.

It was a trip which I at first regretted on deciding to go due to issues like time and $. But gosh, was I glad I did not back out in the end!

Give me beautiful man-made objects- skyscrapers, fountains, cars, towers, castles…anything and still, it will not match up to nature in all its glorious beauty! Something inside me just wants to burst out with joy whenever I get to enjoy beautiful places like these…places whose natural beauty is untouched.

Of course, not everything was untouched or unspoilt. The track up to Mount Kinabalu is man-made for convenience sake but i’m not complaining. My only gripe is the construction site at quarter way up the mountain. Read somewhere in the newspapers later that the project was brought to a halt in order to prevent further damage to the natural surroundings of the mountain.

Had a really great time with Maureen, Vincent, Wei Ling, Kah Yen and Rena. Who would have expected then that me, mau and vince would be housemates soon too! hehe…for those who don’t know, i would be shifting in with mau and vince. Would miss my hostel though! *sobz*

Pics with my ramblings now!

“Now, everyone can fly…” That’s Air Asia’s tagline :P And i must add, everyone who plans coz cheap or free tickets only go out to those who book them half a year earlier? Ohya, don’t know why the staff there did not allow us to take pictures while going on board. Managed to sneak some while they were not looking!

WeiLing and I were at an earlier flight (at least 1 hr before the rest), so we waited at one of the airport’s eateries in KK.

KK’s cheapest and bestest inn around! Forgive my england…

The travel to the base of KK. We stopped at a small tourist area where you could take pics of the mountain behind you and buy exorbitantly priced souveniors

At Poring Spring, we went for the canopy walk, enjoyed a cool waterfall and a sulfur water soak!

But why come to KK? To climb the highest mountain in SEA of course! :P But since we were day trippers…would it be possible to reach the top? People who usually climb KK would stay overnight at Laban Rata (6km). The whole route is 8.5 KM, height 4095 metres plus. Even our guide told us that it would be hard to reach the top so quickly and come down in time due to our lack of ahem stamina..heh..The climb up was to start at 7-7plus am and we were to reach the bottom by 4pm! So, this is what happened:

Yay! Ready to start! Hearts pumping and legs itching to get it going!

Start! no time to take much pics except for the few stops…At the 3 KM stop. 5.5 KM more to the top!

At Pondok Mempening which means Dizzy Hut! haha…Good thing it was not Pondok Mempengsan (Fainting Hut). Maybe by the time climbers reach here, they would feel dizzy :P

Mouth dry and kept drinking lots of 100 plus during the first 4 Km or so…not so bad after that but i was beginning to feel hungry! Ate some chocs :) When almost reaching Laban Rata (food and rest stop), a guy coming down came up to me and said ” you know up there, there’s a Hard Rock Cafe.” Ok, great some incentives now to keep going! After a little while more, another group of guys said ” Oh, there’s a lot of cafes and restaurants up there you know?! MacDonalds, KFC, Burger King..got Ramli Burger also!” Even better! I was like ok, just a little bit more and Ramli Burger here I come! So, used every ounce of strength i had left to climb up to Laban Rata while thinking of a nice hot Ramli Burger ;d Well, little did I know..they all tricked me and i was not their only victim :( Did we really looked thaaat hungry? There was no hard rock cafe, macs, kfc..not even ramli burger!!! wahhhhh cry! In the end, we shared a plate of fried rice lah..heh

Ok, so we were at laban rata but our guide was still behind with WeiLing. If we were to continue up to beyond here, we would need a key to pass through. To cut the story short, we begged them for the key as our guide said that we should go down already coz “tak ada masa sudah.” which means no time already. But it was 11.30 am when we reached there! So…begged and begged till we got it :P Dashed off pass the gate only to be stopped by our guide (who caught up with us after having his lunch..boy these ppl are fast or wat). Reached 8 KM i think and we HAD to get down even before reaching the top as it was 1 plus pm. .. :( But was glad that we went pass the gate coz the trail was different from before, more rocky and challenging. Had to use ropes to balance!

Time to go down *sobz* After going down, we rested again at laban rata…and stormy skies started to form and it was like how i felt…a little gloomy. hmm…but i guess Aurelia can’t stay gloomy for long too :P Droplets of rain fell and we had to brace ourselves for the climb down by adorning raincoats which made us look like cute penguins..heh

The descent was quite fun actually, coz we could go really fast and encourage the other climbers too! Too fast oso not good tho’ coz poor Mau sprained her leg half way down…worst thing that was my legs began to ache! And since that time, they ached for three whole days!!! blahh

Beatiful mountain views from our inn

Finally, time to go home…time to face other mountains!

From an email my friend sent to me :)

————————————————————-
The older I get, the more I enjoy Saturday mornings.Perhaps it’s the
quiet solitude that comes with being the first to rise, or maybe it’s
the unbounded joy of not having to be at work.Either way, the first few
hours of a Saturday morning are most enjoyable.

A few weeks ago, was shuffling toward the kitchen with a steaming cup of
coffee in one hand and the morning paper in the other.What began as a
typical Saturday morning turned into one of those lessons that life
seems to hand you from time to time.Let me tell you about it.I turned
the volume up on my radio in order to listen to a Saturday morning talk
show. I heard an older sounding chap with a golden voice.You know the
kind, he sounded like he should be in the broadcasting business
himself.He was talking about “a thousand marbles”to someone named “Tom.”
I was intrigued and sat down to listen to what he had to say.

“Well, Tom, it sure sounds like you’re busy with your job.I’m sure they
pay you well but it’s a shame you have to be away from home and your
Family so much.
Hard to believe a young fellow should have to work sixty or seventy
hours a week to make ends meet.Too bad you missed your daughter’s dance
recital.”

He continued, “Let me tell you something Tom, something that has helped
me keep a good perspective on my own priorities.”And that’s when he
began to explain his theory of a “thousand marbles.”"You see, I sat down
one day and did a little arithmetic.
The average person lives about seventy-five years.I know,some live more
and some live less, but on average, folks live about seventy-five
years.”

Now then, I multiplied 75 times 52 and I came up with 3900 which is the
number of Saturdays that the average person has in their entire
lifetime. Now stick with me Tom, I’m getting to the important part.”"It
took me until I was fifty-five years old to think about all this in any
detail,” he went on, “and by that time I had lived through over
twenty-eight hundred Saturdays.

I got to thinking that if I lived to be seventy-five, I only had about a
thousand of them left to enjoy.”"So I went to a toy store and bought
every single marble they had.I ended up having to visit three toy stores
to roundup 1000 marbles.I took them home and put them inside of a large,
clear plastic container right here in my workshop next to the radio.
Every Saturday since then, I have taken one marble out and thrown it
away.”"I found that by watching the marbles diminish, I focused more on
the really important things in life.There is nothing like watching your
time here on this earth run out to help get your priorities straight.”
“Now let me tell you one last thing before I sign-off with you and take
my lovely wife out for breakfast.This morning, I took the very last
marble out of the container.I figure if I make it until next Saturday
then God has blessed me with a little extra time to be with my loved
ones……”It was nice to talk to you Tom, I hope you spend more time
with your loved ones, and I hope to meet you again someday.Have a good
morning!”

You could have heard a pin drop when he finished.Even the show’s
moderator didn’t have anything to say for a few moments.I guess he gave
us all a lot to think about. I had planned to do some work that morning,
then go to the gym.
Instead,I went upstairs and woke my wife up with a kiss.”honey, I’m
taking you and the kids to breakfast.”"What brought this on?” she asked
with a smile.”Oh, nothing special,” I said.” It has just been a long
time since we spent a Saturday together with the kids. Hey, can we stop
at a toy store while we’re out?I need to buy some marbles.”