"Toured" Wales........and hung on to my dear life

I was sick when we visited Wales. Hubby was unwell too. MS joked that we caught the Amsterdam virus, which is very potent.

I was so tired, after a few days of massive political maneuvers in the office when I left for Wales. It was practically Tai Chi vs bullets and arrows. I probably did not sleep well, or too "konk out" because of the cold. I could barely keep my eyes open, sleeping through most part of the car trip. I need SH to shake me and hubby to yell before I would open my eyes to look at something. It didnt help that Wales was totally grey!!!! It was misty/foggy and grey. We could tell that the landscape was beautiful, but nothing would look nice in photos if they are grey.

Thankfully, we went with MS & SH, who I think are really nice people, and very accommodating to the fact that we are both unwell. We spent a lot of time in the car, doing a very "tour group" like tour... most of the time sitting in a car, get down at spots to sight see, and off we go again.

There goes my adventurous Brecon Beacon trip. Only 1 morning was spent trekking, but that was probably one of the biggest adventure in my life. The last day was unforgettable. I had a narrow brush with death.

We felt better that morning, and did the waterfall trek. We decided to do a challenging route. I had no worries, apart from the fact that we were not well equipped.

Probably because I had slipped and fell hard before, and probably because I was very tired that morning and my running shoes was slippery, I had panic attack at a narrow, slippery part of the cliff after a few slips. In the middle of nowhere, where one wrong footing would send me down a cliff at least 7-8 stories high, my legs turned jelly. It is not funny when you are at a very dangerous part of a cliff where sure, strong footing is required and your legs turn wobbly. That affects your balance, and you could easily say sayonara to your life. I was hanging on to dear life by holding onto the roots of trees, and after resting at the "widest part" of the section. At the widest section, it at most 1 metre between a hard wall and a cliff. While sitting there and talking myself out of my panic attack, I knew that if my bum slip off the sloppy and slippery ground I was sitting on, I could spend a 2-3seconds as superwoman. Then, I will claim my fame.

I clawed and crawled my way back to safer ground. All the time, I asked hubby to get away from me, because I was much more panicky with him around. I thought if I slip and he tries to hold on to me, we would both slip. I am no featherweight material.

Haiz, despite my panic, I was still able to sigh to myself that it is clear that I am that kind that wont pull people down when I fall-loser. Like that how to survive in life? I think I am only suited for 1 job: Rich Tai Tai. hahaha. I know my brother will read this and sigh "useless", but there is a saying which is once bitten twice shy. I still have a nice scar on my left knee, courtesy of slipping off a very hilly part of the campus.

Chiang Ti Ming - a real star now

Chiang who???

Chiang Ti Ming- IQ exceeded 180. Genius. Child prodigy. Record breaker in CalTech and Cornell.

There is a saying that dead people turn into stars. Ti Ming is now a star.

I heard a lot about him when I was in school. As the world is really small, I had friends who knew his family-that was why his life did not seem to be too far away from mine. In school, my friends and I followed his progress closely, and were "cheering" him on, hoping that he would "get it". Of course, we were envious of him too.

A little boy trapped by a brain of immense capacity, or a brain trapped in the body of a little boy. A genius born into a country where merit did not and still do not count as much as your color.

We heard of his mega giga capacity brains and him endlessly. We listened to stories about how this kid was so respected by his classmates in school who were much older than him. We heard of his struggle to gain a place in a Malaysian university, and the problems he faced because he tried to sit for the A-levels equivalent at the age of 12. He was too young, and his country had not place for someone like him.

The universities in his own country had rejected him, and the only way out for him was a foreign university.We followed the story, and relieved when his family eventually raised enough funds for him to go to Caltech, supported by private organizations and some the Malaysian Chinese communities who felt the injustice this guy had to endure. Not only he was rejected from local universities, he did not get any official help in the form of scholarship or university placements when hundreds of "good" students were dished out scholarships every year!

We heard of his parents' despair at the death of their daughter, reportedly a genius too. And soon, I will hear about his parents' grief of the death of their only surviving child from my friends. Two children. Both geniuses. Both...stars-then and now.

I used to wonder why I was not a genius! It would be nice to just sit, look, and know everything (that is what people say about him absorbing everything in classes!). But now I begin to love my " mediocrity". What an irony. 16 years would have change a person's perspective totally about intelligence.

His death generated only 2 mentioned in the newspapers, and some blogs. For someone like him, I thought he deserves at least one more mention. Whatever the cause or reasons for his death, this was a guy who had beaten more odds than you or me.

Being "gifted", especially when the gift is huge, is a "burden". Some bloggers say some unkind things about him pushing boundaries and doing things inappropriate for his age. Some blamed his parents. Sigh... is this the darker side of human beings-- again???

I know others who I would consider as "geniuses", and can see how difficult it is for their parents to raise them. It is much easier to manage and nurture an idiot, than a genius, and this guy was a super genius!

Below is a newspaper article about his death.
___________________________________________________________

Monday January 8, 2007

‘Boy genius’ Chiang dies

SEREMBAN: Chiang Ti Ming, the boy genius who was the youngest student ever to be admitted into the prestigious California Institute of Technology (CalTech) almost two decades ago, has passed away on Saturday morning.

Chiang: Had achieved many firsts at CalTech

“He passed away peacefully,” said a family member yesterday.

The family declined to reveal other details while Chiang’s parents, father Chiang Chick Liam and mother Lee Soo Hoon, were too distraught to talk to the press.

Only his family members were seen entering the house here yesterday afternoon and requested that privacy be given to them.

Press reports in 2002 said that he had been admitted into a hospital in Kuala Lumpur, for depression and withdrawal symptoms. The family also suffered a tragic loss when his sister Eei Wern, drowned at the swimming pool of the Seremban International Golf Club in 1993. Eei Wern was then four.

It was reported 16 years ago that Chiang, who was 15 at the time, was not only the youngest student to be admitted into CalTech but also among the top five percent where his results were concerned.

Chiang had achieved many firsts while at CalTech, including being the youngest ever student to receive the Undergraduate Students Merit Award two years in a row.

He was also an honorary member of the Tau Beta Phi, a national engineering society.

He had been accepted to study for the second year of the four-year Physics degree course at the university in 1989 when he was 13 after sponsorship from several organisations.

The prodigy later pursued and graduated with a doctorate in particle physics at Cornell University in New York.

A revelation from the dead.....

Sumerians..Egyptians etc etc

Visited the British Museum (yes, again)

This time I came out with a conclusion.

We eat too damn much!!!

Look at the pottery of the earlier civilisations, their "vessels", their "plates", and their "bowls". Phi tried to tell me those storage jars might be "cups", but I was determined to have none of it. Look at the size of that God damn bracelets! I cant fit in!!

Sigh.. I MUST LOSE WEIGHT

THE MUMMIES and sumerians were telling me to.

Note: TAlking about death. I saw a woman walking pass, stopped, placed flower on the hedges of the house across the road.

So, it is that house. I had tried to imagine that it was further away, but no, no. With all the leaves dead and off, I can see the house so clearly. Poor woman.

Murder... on my street, mould on my fav jacket

I have lots of stuff going on these few days, but I am just too tired to put everything down. The nice trip to the Cotswolds etc etc etc.

But the weekend away was just a temporary respite. Once we got back we got a warm and mouldy welcome. Cough cough cough, sneeze sneeze sneeze. Itchy eyes, itchy nose, and even itchy skin i think. It is a tiring, and perhaps losing battle against the mould. After all those super kiasu super concentrated sodium bicarbonate and bleach, new discolorations reappeared. On Monday morning, when we opened our cupboard-we are greeted with moldy belts and it even attacked my hubby's down jacket! So we threw away the belts, and rushed his down jacket to the dry cleaner. On the way there, I saw the sign-those big yellow boards that they put on roadsides to appeal for witnesses---"MURDER".

Murder on my street????


I was shocked, but too preoccupied with coughing to think about it.

When I reach my office, everyone asked me how was my weekend, and I said, great, lovely, sunny weather etc etc. But I obviously did not look convincing at all- with all that red eyes and wet nose. I looked more like a battered wife i guess.

After apologising to everyone for my terrible and tunderous sneezing, I try to settle at my seat. Horror!!!! White patches on my Zara jacket!!!! Can you believe it???

I was so worried that the mould problem would get worse while we are away, and decided to leave my fav jacket in office, thinking that it would be a safer place, but the jacket was not spared!!! Now the jacket is sitting in my kitchen, marinated with tea tree oil. My whole flat is being marinated with tea tree oil, which I rushed to buy right after work. I finished 10 ml of tea tree oil in a night. I am going to smell like a bleeding tea tree, and my pimples will all retreat.

I left work at 7 pm plus last night, not keen to come back to a moldy house, and sneeze sneeze sneeze. I had to take a longer route as the short cut is closed, and thoughts of the murder reappeared in my head. I wondered how and why it happened .Was someone knifed on the street? Was it robbery? Did I see anything? It was right outside my window, damn! I imagine myself at the witness stand. Did I see, hear anything over the past month or so? No. did not notice any thing except that the police had closed off the road on a saturday, and there was a night with bright flashing siren lights that I thought was ambulance and hubby thought were police cars with road blocks. Of course, the thought that hubby uses that bus-stop metres away from the murder sign was unsettling. The fact that I was walking home in a very dark night, almost past a murder spot was totally depressing. Murder and mould ............. what have I got myself into? Damned flat!

Yesterday night was spent cleaning and cleaning as soon as I reached home. I repeated the same thing again.

Murder and mould probably clouded my thoughts so much that I forgot to mention that I got a great bargain of a bagful of books for £1! Uxbridge is still lovely, despite the murder and mould I am facing.

My ma and my pa should not know that murder was less than 50 m from where her daughter lives and walk pass every day, and that her darling son in law has to wait for a bus so nearby. Ma will really panic. My London is just getting more and more exciting. The old flat was on a street where a woman was dragged to a side street and sexually assaulted. Hubby was robbed and assaulted on his way back. And now this.. murder on my street. As careful as we do in going for peaceful areas, these things still happen around us. Sigh........

Oh, did I mention that I just Googled for the news of the murder? The victim was a Chinese woman, owner of a local takeaway. She must have suffered kicking and stamping for more than 15 minutes... brutally murdered. Four youths have been arrested, but RELEASED on bail!!! Now I remember I saw a gang of 4 youths yesterday on my way back, while wondering about the murder. I really got to be extra careful.

Drama in death....

Caught up with my mum in the afternoon.

She told me that the woman died a horrible looking death.
She did not dare to look at her, as those who saw said it said it was really horrible. Most notable-Blisters on her mouth!!

Gosh! Ma said everyone (i.e. the rest of those aunties) was saying that is a retribution for her the things which came out of her big mouth.

"Ah.. then you better not say anything anymore, Ma! She is dead already...."

That was my instant reaction. Worried that my mum would come out with some unkind words.

Retribution??? That is one of the scariest concepts about life that the Chinese have. I personally don't like it. I thought that it is a rather cruel way of looking at things or people. Retribution....?? Is there such a thing?

I thought that being choked to death is horrible. Blisters too???

This is so... morbid? So Cliched? A bit like of out of a story from Amy Tan or Catherine Lim?

Aunt #5, who used to contribute short stories to the paper once said; if she would commit to documenting the family life, she would make big money. The story would become a long Hong Kong TV serial, much bigger than the ""Big Family" (can't remember the name) serial that was shown in the late eighties. And no doubt, this particular woman would contribute lots of character to the show. She had made Aunt #5's life hell during her confinement period.

Drama. So drama in her life and death.

I am trying to get this out of my mind. Worried for myself, I guess. Hahaha. My mouth is not totally guilt free. And now my fingers too. They do lash out pages and pages of nonsense and complaints.

Now I better mind what I say, think, type.. blah blah blah...