"Good Morning!"

At times, by that I mean most of the times, working and living in Juba can be quite a drag for Juba is a small sleepy town. While Juba is indeed growing rapidly, she has not much to offer, yet. 

As we all know, all work and no play makes Boonsky a dull boy. So I run. I run with the Juba Hash House Harriers every Saturday evening. It's a fun group, made up of mostly the expats in town working for the various NGOs and foreign businesses. We run all over the places, various neighborhoods in town, along the river and villages at the edge of the town.

A group of mostly blonde hair blue eyes fair skin men and women running around town sure attract a lot of attention. The friendly locals always cheer us on, albeit with a perplexed look on there face, probably wondering why are these crazy folks running around town in the late afternoon heat, yelling "On! On!" along the way. 

And then there are the kids, the cutest and craziest bunch. They are such a fun hoot! The shy ones would simply flash a big smile and wave at us from a distance. The brave ones would burst out from their hut or yard to high-five us, wide eye and grinning. They are those making funny faces at us and posing for pictures. Some would even join us for a bit, chasing after us down the street, often running bare footed and half naked, hollering "Kowaja!" (Foreigners!) and greeting us "Hello!" or "Good morning!"

Yes, they yell: "Good morning!" at 5:30 in the evening. Loud and chirpy, with the sunniest and most infectious smiles. 

Oh bless 'em kids!

A Better Tomorrow

Today is one of the darkest day for my people and my country, if not the darkest. The day was started with high hope for change. Sadly it ended spiraling down into an abyss of despair, frustration, disgust and shame. Electoral fraud was rampant, money politics, intimidations, voters' list irregularity, ballot box rigging.  You name it, we got it, and then some!

Democracy is dead.

I'm crying for my people and my country.

I'm praying for better tomorrow.

37

As you grow older, birthdays just sneak up on you. Before you know it, another year slips by, like any other day. Another year healthier, if not wiser hopefully. Healthier, that's all I hope for. It's a universal fact that as you get older, the body get slower. Let just pray that it's only the body that's getting slower with age, not the mind too. 

Let's face it, I'm no longer a spring chicken, though I'm been discipline with my diet and exercise almost all my adult life, fighting deterioration of the body along with age is indeed a losing battle. I'm getting a bit flabby around the waist, it's easier to pile them load there and it's taking me longer to lose. I'm more susceptible to cold and fatigue. My back ache is recurring. The worst of all, I notice decay in my pearly-whites! Now that's serious business. I'm flossing every night from now on.

Good thing that I'm not losing my mind and my faculty yet, not noticeably so anyway. But my fuse is running shorter and I'm quite emotional nowadays. Is there a correlation of hormonal change with aging, in men? Maybe I'm just having too much on my mind, from work especially. Being busy is one thing but work has been feeling kinda' dead-endish off late and the people that I'm working with now ain't helping much either. Am I'm cocooned myself in this comfort zone for too long? Time to make a career move?

But the money is good! And the holiday is even better! I ain't exactly livin' la vida loca in Juba, not that I ever been or Juba could offer such la vida loca. But with the mullahs I;m making here and the holiday from my work rotation, I can go loco-loco elsewhere should I wish to. It's always good to have options!

That said, I should be grateful to be able to have options, and I am. I'm doing quite a lot better than a lot of my peers. I can chose to enjoy the finer things in life if I want to. Good thing that my sound as a pound Chinese mind is still good to keep me checked and grounded for enjoying the finer things in life cost quite a bit. In fact I'm blessed with the Micheline-star quality food on my plate, the designer clothes on my back and the 9-tier palatial roof over my head. (Allow me to dream a little, it's my birthday after all) More importantly I'm blessed with the love of family and friends.

What more could I ask for?

Actually there can be quite a lot. I can start a list on that, topping with running a marathon, now being move to before I turn 40.

Happy birthday to me.

Iron Lace

King's Cross is one of Sydney's inner city locality, vibrant with restaurants, hotels, bars, nightclubs and shopping. The place has had a seedier past. Illegal trading of alcohol was rampant in the 1950s and King's Cross was the red light district of the city in the 1960s. Organized crime, drugs and corruption were notorious. Those days were long gone. Today, due to the very close proximity to Sydney CBD and the breath-taking view of the harbor, King's Cross definitely one of the most priced real-estate in city, if not the most.

I took a walk into the neighborhood on the morning of the Sydney Mardi Gras. The parade would bring tens of thousands of party revelers and tourists to the street in the evening. But it was still peacefully quiet in the morning, calm before the storm. It was a lovely leisurely stroll. I loved the intricate cast iron grille of the houses. Doors, windows, balconies and fences are decorated with such amazingly beautiful iron work of art. It was almost like lace, delicate and full of details. Well it's iron lace. Though they are old, they are preserved very well. It must be such pain-staking task but it's part of the charm and characters and history of the place. Wouldn't anyone give it all to preserve any part of our identity and our past?

Overheard #27

"Tough times don't last, tough people do." Dr. Joan Watson from Elementary.

Hanging there!

Beyond Impossible

Do you believe that God created a someone out there for you, that God put a someone in the over 7 billion people living in the world today for you? 

And all you need to do is find that special someone. 

Good on you if you are one of those lucky ones who found that someone. Please hold on to your someone for your dear life. Finding that special someone who adores and loves you to bits out of 7 billion people is already impossible, and finding that someone who adores and loves you AND willing to put up with all your shit, now that's just beyond impossible. Treasure them, cherish them, love them with all your heart. 

You have no freaking idea how blessed and lucky you are. So count your blessing.

For those unlucky bastards who are still searching, good luck. You'll absolutely certainly need it.

I'd like to think that there's more than one someone. It's simply because the odd of finding that one someone in 7 billion, that's just whacked! God can't be that cruel or that funny.

April Fool

"Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me!" 

Someone put on a article online today about the news of the dissolution of the parliament at home. I bought that, and went around telling and confirming with my Malaysian colleagues here. We all were pretty anxious about going home to vote in the coming general election. 

It turned out to be a hoax!

Oh got me!

But a bit of foolishness in life is good, necessary even. Do you remember our foolish innocence and trusting the best in people? Or the days when we were foolishly brave rushing in for love? What about the enthusiastically foolish passion to chase our dreams?  Where is our foolish optimism on life?

Sometimes I wish I'm still a fool.