our beijing friend

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that two-wheeled thing

My OC used to tell us this: "Be careful when you ride or pillion on a motorbike. 'Cos on motorbike, you protect the 'metal'. When you drive, 'metal' protects you." It's not that I ride a bike or something and it's not like I'll ever intend to. It's just that there were quite a number of 'daredevils' from my squad who rides rather recklessly. It was just a safety reminder.

If there's anything I took away from a social visit to Singapore Cheshire Home for seriously disabled under my current Police Technology Department on Thursday, it has to be the lesson of riding motorbikes safely, or even staying away from it. No link, you might think.

I made a friend with a resident there. He's disabled, physically but not so much intellectually. Speech wise, he had much difficulties. When I introduced myself to him, he passed me a handphone in which he had saved a message, meant for people who visited him to read. It said something like this: "Hi nice to meet you. My name is John, but you can call me Jon Bon Jovi. I was an SC from 'E' Division during my NS time in police. I was riding my motorcycle along Upper Bukit Timah when I was knocked down by a lorry. It left me paralyzed in my lower body and my operation had to be done in my throat so I have speech problems. I want discourage people from riding motocycle as it is very dangerous. Thank you for visiting me in this home. It's a great pleasure to meet you."

It was the first time I've ever met anyone who have had a tragic experience like that, one which totally changed his life. And I wish I will never have any close friends or family members involved in something like that.

Chinese New Year, to me, means…

Another visit to my ex-teacher from Dunman, Mrs Ng. She was a PE teacher, one whom students feared. A PE teacher in her sixties, that is. She retired in 2004, the year after we graduated from Dunman, perhaps to the delight of some students who are more than happy to be spared being called ‘LAOGAO’.

Strangely, yet in a nice way, Mrs Ng and a group of us became closer after she had retired and after we had graduated.

Tradition is supposed to be something meaningful to individual, something you do on a regular basis, and perhaps also something that brings you happiness.

Visiting Mrs Ng has become a tradition. It seems like Chinese New Year will not be complete without a visit to her house. It gives me a sense of delight, knowing that my good old Mrs Ng is still very active and healthy. It is also a good time to update ourselves on how the past year has been for each of us.

Credits should go to this consistent group of my ex-classmates, Yujie, Yiwei, Zhaohong, Hanqin, Shima and Yusrina, for making the point to relive this tradition year after year. Thanks especially to Yujie, for being the organizer in every visit as well as every class get-togethers.

Let’s keep this tradition going!

2004

2007

2008

yet another injury.

Spraining my right ankle in October 2006 has made me learnt many lessons the hard way. If anything at all, the most important rule I've learnt is to focus on not having a recurrence of injury and instead on treating the injury effectively.

I was playing street soccer last Sunday. I shouldn't have. I wasn't paying attention to what my body was trying to tell me. I wasn't paying attention to God's signs. I woke up that morning with a very dry throat, a symptom which I knew was very likely going to have me down with flu in a couple of days. It has been statiscally proven. But I disregarded it and went ahead with my impulsiveness. And sure it did, and I had to even take medical leave from work on Wednesday.

God sends signs for a reason only He knows very well and you have to face the consequences if you fail to read them. This was how I got injured: as I was about to half-volley the ball, the defender attempted to block it. If you freeze that moment, I would be air-borne, right feet in contact with the ball and the ball in contact with the defender's thigh. As an analogy, imagine having a ball against a wall, and kicking it with full force. As a result, the ball got blocked and I got slammed to the ground with inertia.

There were two points of injury for my right knee, the first was the impact my right knee suffered when I was about to half-volley with full force but got blocked, and the second was when I crashed to the concrete ground with my right knee. The defender got injured and walked off the court. That was something I should have done. It was probably another sign from God that I should do what that defender was doing, to walk away and rest. But I continued on. And for that, I had to pay dearly.

For the rest of the day, I was having muscle aches, which was normal. But I woke up on Monday, not able to bend my right knee. Or rather, it was very painful to do so. Praying Fajar namaz was almost impossible, but I did it slowly.

At the same time, Daohua was gathering response for a soccer match scheduled on today, 17 Feb, when Sean replied that he got injured with an ankle sprain and he HAD to add this: "i don't think i should play even if i feel better, become recurring injury also no point". That was another sign from God as far as I see it.

That made me determined to abstain from any activities that exerts the knee, including my only regular pastime - running. It is a sacrifice, but one that is worth it (insha-allah). I've seen drawn up a comprehensive rehabilitation programme for myself, with inputs from my knowledge about rehabilitation from my physiotherapy experience last year.

A message to myself:

Zeya, you must know that your knee will get better with regular rehab only if you listen to your body. You should not indulge in any activities like soccer and running for this period of time, until your knee gets back in good shape. You should also not be disheartened when it seems like your knee doesn't show improvement. Just keep on sticking to the programme and all will be worth the effort. You must have every confidence to believe that your patience will pay off, since having done all the correct rehab training will ensure that the injury is fully healed and won't recur again. Your knee will not suffer what your ankle did. Do not give up and do not give in. Keep your heads up high. You'll be the victor at the end of the day.

My 10-weeks rehab programme.

like starting my life afresh

It's me and the handphone business again - never-ending. This time, there was some problem with it, like only hearing the other party over the line very softly and some minor glitch with the Walkman function. On Monday, I sent it for repair, thinking that I have all my contacts inside my SIM card. When the Sony Ericsson guy warned me that things in the phone memory might be gone, I was fine with that, since I don't have much important information anyway. Or so I thought.

To my horror, when I collected it back on Friday, all of my contacts were gone! So pardon me if you happen to send me a sms, only to receive a reply from me asking who you are. At the split moment of my realization, I was lost. I could only recall a handful of numbers. But like a coin which has two sides, this is a blessing in some ways. Firstly, all the reported problems have been solved and secondly, disappeared into thin air are also contacts of those whom I don't really see a point in keeping.

Somehow, it feels like starting my life afresh.

a trivial thing that makes my day

Normally, it takes me roughly an hour of journey time and $1.92 of transport cost between my current workplace at Novena and home. That amounts to $3.84 of expediture on transport alone, everyday.

Yesterday, I discovered another alternative route, via SBS transit service number 5, which runs from Novena to the bus stop opposite Tampines SAFRA, from which I can transfer to several other buses. Even though the entire journey is about 5 to 10 minutes longer, a single journey costs $1.81 which means I get to save 22 cents everyday.

Somehow, this fact is very comforting to me, in light of the blues after a long CNY weekend as well as my expense woes in January.

Since young, I have this habit of mentally rewinding a soccer match that I recently played in. The earliest memory of such that I can remember is when I was in primary school. I can't remember which level I was in, but I do recall the way I scored a goal when we were playing soccer during our recess time.

I received the ball, back facing goal, outside the penalty box, defender just behind me. The next moment, I used the outer side of my left feet to control the ball such that it rolls towards the goal. The defender was caught by surprise by my quick move, and before he knows it, the ball was at the back of the net.

In secondary school times, I remember that there was a 'Sec 2A vs Sec 2D' match, in which I scored with a semi-diving header from a corner kick (to my own surprise too). I have a couple of pleasant soccer memories too, from the inter-unit Games Day for NPCC.

More recently, I'm with a team that makes it a point to play regularly (thanks to Dao for organising everything), especially when all of us had either ORDed or are going to. Last Sunday, we played a testimonial match for our friend, Zongyu, who was going to leave for New Zealand in a few days' time. The scoreline did not matter as much as the fun we had playing in the light drizzle (albeit some small controversies).

And I was on my home on the MRT from Novena just now, not napping, not sitting down, nor reading a book. I was staring into space, with my walkman phone plugged into my ears. But I was more than just staring into space. I was recalling bits of memories from the game last Sunday, how the goals were scored, how I got tackled, how I contributed to the first goal we scored, how we were lacking in our defence etc. I was too engrossed in my thoughts that I even failed to realise that the seat right in front of me was already empty after someone got off. I didn't want to sit down. Strange, but I just wanted to continue dwelling in the realms of my thoughts, reflecting and reminiscing.

How nice.