Author: Wilfrid

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Diary

Destination Bandung!

My Travel BagThese days I seem to have shocked my friends with my impromptu decisions. Sometimes these decisions shock me too. It is an avalanche of factors that lead to one single event. Much like what the subprime has done to the indexes worldwide today, “Destination Bandung” is going to burn a hole in my pocket. Though I must say, this one stone has definitely killed quite a few birds.

Last month, when my good buddy Mark told me that he has decided to take up a short project in Jakarta, my eyes went watery, my emotion went high – much like the Korean TV drama – and I promise him that I will visit him before his project ends (erm … you know, we guys do have bonding too). Mark and I used to meet almost once a week. All of a sudden, my life seems a bit lonely these days.

Though a promise is a promise, we guys are good at putting things at the back of our heads. Similar to Cynthia’s constant lament on the “airport blue”. She hates Monday because that is when she needs to fly off to Jakarta for her business trips. She hates Friday too because she always gets stuck in the Jakarta airport hoping to catch an earlier flight. At times she may have to miss her flight due to meeting overrun. The ideal case is, of course, for me to visit her but that too has been put at the back of my head.

Less then two weeks ago, I was instant messaging with Mark’s significant half and was recommending all the wonderful places that they should visit in Indonesia. I got Felicia so excited and out of the blue, I typed: why don’t we go and visit them over the weekend … we will do shopping and tour Bandung as well?

Uh-oh … where did that come from? Before I knew it, Felicia has got us the air tickets and I got my passport renewed at the last minute. Although I have visited all the tourist spots in Bandung, I am actually looking forward to visiting Puncat – the tea plantation – and the Safari nearby. Cynthia, as a local, has not been to the Safari before and I would love to relive some of those memories of huge animals sticking their heads into the car munching on a bunch of carrots I was holding with saliva dripping everywhere, ostriches running alongside with the car, and a monkey that threw the banana back to me – twice.

Oh, before Cynthia flew off couple of days ago, she actually helped me packed up some of the stuffs with two checklists (see picture above).  Nice huh? Stay tuned for more updates!

Categories
Action & Thriller Movie Reviews

Michael Clayton – Do You Have The Patience?

Michael Clayton

Cynthia and I have a few secret codes and signs. For instance, when we say that a film is quote unquote Oscar Material, that usually means: ya sure, it is artistic but it can quite boring (Cynthia surely did feel that way).  Okay, I personally don’t feel that bored because the acting is solid. Real solid. And that’s why you come to my site to hear different views.

Cynthia’s colleague enjoyed watching “Michael Clayton”. She actually forgot what the movie was as it was the 2nd movie straight after that, in her own words, mouth-watering Eastern Promise (remember that naked dude?). Being a walking encyclopedia of what’s showing, I guessed it right. She said she can relate to the corporate life depicted within. I can certainly relate to how she relates to the movie. I was once a “fixer”, a support consultant who was flown into Paris to fix a series of problems so that my so-called beloved firm would not get sued.  And the firm was saved. I got nothing in the end. The firm never remembers, just quarter to quarter results.

Sure, I can relate to “Michael Clayton”. When I told my new colleague ST that I was going to watch “Michael Clayton”, her immediate response was: you’ve got class!  I’ve got class? We’ve got class? Now I know. You really need to prepare yourself in order to appreciate “Michael Clayton”. Viewers are the hardest bunch to satisfy. If the movie is overwhelmingly entertaining, we complain that it does not have enough character development. “Michael Clayton” has plenty of character development and yet, some of us find it boring.

The acting of George Clooney (the “fixer” of a law firm) is solid. So are Tom Wilkinson (the lawyer who goes mad) and Tilda Swinton (chief counsel). The storyline is straightforward, nothing groundbreaking. Our little complain is that we don’t really get to see George Clooney fixing anything. There are quite a number of moral decisions involved, that’s for sure.

Surprisingly TK enjoyed the movie. Cynthia and I joked that because he got two phone calls from his boss and needed to leave the theatre. Hence, the movie is (a) a lot faster pace and (b) a lot more mysterious. Critics all over the world love this movie. I think you can too … if you have the patience.

Categories
Snippet of My Life

Snippet Of My Life Episode 9 – Questions, Questions

Oil Painting Morphed

One day, a girl in front of me flip-opened her phone. Wallpaper was a picture of two girls. Two good friends perhaps. I thought it was beautiful. I wonder what if you see a guy in front has a wallpaper of two guys instead. Or three, with heads close to one another. Something wrong … with that picture?

One day, I was practicing my music, like I have done since primary school. I was suddenly inspired to classify daily non-work related, personal activities into two types. Give (type I) and take (type II). Type I activities are like cooking. Singing. Playing instruments. Writing diary. Writing stories. Blogging. Painting. Making models. Jogging. You take something from within you and give it to the environment outside of you. Type II activities are like watching TV. Reading. Surfing the net. Playing computer games. Listening to radio. This time, you take in things passively from the outside.

So, which type of activity do you usually do? In your free time?

And I think type I activities are in general therapeutic, euphoric from within. I enjoy type I activities and I think that type II is a waste of time.

Then I change my mind. Perhaps some people enjoy taking, more so than giving. One day, I was on the plane. Besides me was this super hyper kid, totally lack of manner. No “thank you” nor “please” when talking to the SIA air-hostess. What has our future become? He looked like a rich kid. His whole family looked rich.

Or maybe just because I am from the service industry, all my life, I think that was rude. Maybe his daddy thinks it’s okay. Hence, it is just a change of perspective? That explains what goes round in the world, why people behave differently? People from the front line are trained to put on a happy face all the time when facing clients doesn’t mean that everyone has to comply? Who set the rules anyway.

Year 2008. Will Israel progress towards withdrawing the troops from the Palestine settlement while Palestine will dismantle the terrorism within? Will Taiwan progress towards unifying with China now that the opposition has gained more seats than the ruling party? Will North Korea progress towards unifying with the South Korea now that the leaders are to meet the third time? High hope for the year 2008?

In Bush’s visit to Middle East, he preached about democracy. What would a king from the Middle East preach about if he does visit the West? Is democracy really the way to go?  Or it is just like the perspective on the happy faces, the giving and taking type of daily personal activities.

Year 2008. Doesn’t look pretty so far. “Subprime” is the word of the year for 2007. I wonder what will it be for year 2008.

So, what’s wrong with all these pictures.  Maybe nothing is wrong.  Maybe everything is wrong.

Categories
J Pop Music Reviews

Ayumi Hamasaki’s Guilty – It’s Near Perfect In My Book

Ayumi Hamasaki’s Guilty CD DVD

Year 2000 was when Ayu released “Duty” – my favorite album before “Guilty”. Year 2000 was also the year when she started to realize that she has problem with her hearing that ultimately leads to her losing all hearing in her left ear by the time “Guilty” is released. At times I can’t help but wonder: is it because she knows she has an “end date” and therefore she works really hard to achieve as much as she physically can? As she wrote to her fans when she found that her left ear is inoperable: “I won’t stop. I won’t make excuses. As a professional, I would like to deliver the best performance for everyone”. In less than 10 years, she has released 10 studio albums and 4 compilation albums. 12 of which were debuted at number 1 in the Japanese weekly chart while the other two at number 2.

Ayumi Hamasaki has always been an inspiration to me. In year 2002, TIME did an interview with her (you can search the interview materials in YouTube when she conversed in English). I learned that Ayu’s success ingredient is to get involved in all aspects of her career and persona and she is so full of energy and determination to get to where she wants to be. She has raised the bar high as a total package – including music, concerts, and fashion – that I doubt any artist from Japan will come close to what she has achieved in the near future. She has certainly dominated my CD and DVD collection in terms of number of artwork per artist. You really should watch some of the recording of her concerts. Grandiose is the word to describe the quality of delivery.

I cannot find any song that I do not enjoy listening to in “Guilty”. The first track of a minute and a half makes a bold statement: “Guilty” is going to be one hell of a rock album. In fact, the next three songs are all rock oriented and I love them immensely. The fifth song titled “Guilty” brings down the pace and the next two songs are the most notable moderate to slow songs of the album. Then comes an instrumental, theatrical track that leads to “Marionette” – a slow song that contains a fair bit of electronic sound to it. The electronic sound intensified as the album progresses and she throws in another instrument song that leads to two more songs that are more traditional with a more J-pop feel.  Finally yet another instrument track that leads to the conclusion of a deeply emotional slow ballad “untitled ~for her~”. I cannot think of a better song to end the album.

Not sure if you will notice every single song from the “Guilty” album has a beginning, a middle, and an end – a proper song ending with no fading of music (in fact a major criteria for Cynthia to assess how good the songs are). Each song is sung with full emotion and with the right amount of accentuation (that contributes to the “middle” part). All the lyrics are written by Ayu herself. Her album comes with a DVD that contains 6 videos from “Guilty” and the making of all these 6 albums that make up to one hour of visual entertainment. I enjoy watching her music videos. More so for the making of clips as we fans get to gain an insight on what Ayu is like behind the camera.

At times I wonder why bad things happen to beautiful people like Ayu who has contributed so much. Only God knows. Now that she is determined to continue the tours, I hope and pray that her right ear can last her a lifetime.

Categories
Horror I See I Write Movie Reviews

Body #19 – Lack Of Fear Factor But The Crowd Was Awesome!

Body 19

This is not my usual stuffs, I swear. It’s going to be a fun read. I think there are way more girls who can take horror movies than guys. The question is: why?! Amongst all my guy friends, I seem to be the odd one out who truly enjoy watching horror movies. But I can name you quite a number of my female friends who actually enjoy or don’t mind watching this genre of movie. Unfortunately for me, Cynthia belongs to that 1% who can’t take it. Knowing that asking TK would be a waste of time so I have decided to watch “Body #19” alone – like the last time when I watched “Alone” alone.

There was no popcorn flying to my face this time and I did make a mental note that if the dude in front was to hold a box of popcorn, I would shift seat. On my right was a bunch of girls. On my left was a pair of girls. I am telling you, I bet more than 75% of the audience are girls.

What I observe from the crowd is this: most of the audience comes in large groups. Perhaps they need some emotional support? And there are quite a number of people who are on our own. These are usually the quiet ones. The screaming ones usually come from the groups or at times, the pairs.

What I LOVE about watching a horror movie is really the crowd. I observe that more often than not, in a horror movie setting, you bound to find some pockets of audience who chit-chat throughout the movie. I think they are the scared ones and they chit-chat their way just to divert their attention. And you know there are times when something bad is going to happen on the screen – believe it or not – usually there are one or two persons in the crowd who tend to scream ahead of time (or make certain moaning sound). It is incredible how much entertainment value these people provide and it makes the anticipation more real. Then of course, at times the anticipation leads to nothing … and suddenly … BAMP! … a loud sound and most of the audience will jump out of our seats. These effects usually get me and people usually laugh about it after the act. The most disturbing ones are the scenes that get some of the audience screaming out loud continuously.

And that was what happened to at least one guy and one girl in the theatre. One girl behind me screamed so loud and so long in duration that I thought she was going to pass out. At the end of the movie, thanks to the director who gives the audience one last shock, the girl behind me was screaming and choking. I turned around and she didn’t look well at all.

I wonder why.

To me, “Body #19” lacks the fear factor. I was shocked at most 5 times and those blood scenes, or body-part scenes, or ghost scenes really didn’t get me at all. I can imagine if I was watching this with my buddy Mark, he would pass out seeing so much blood on the screen. The storyline of “Body #19” is good though – full of twists and turns. “Body 19” is from the studio that brought us “Shutter” and “Alone”. “Shutter” is a great movie by the way. I personally don’t think “Body #19” is anywhere near.

But still, I love the crowd!

Categories
Book Reviews Fiction

Scarlett Thomas’s PopCo – What A Mess?! (But I Do Know Better About Girls Now)

PopCo by Scarlet ThomasI think “The End of Mr. Y” (2007) is a classic. “PopCo” (2005) is not. Some may argue that plots do not necessarily require closure, protagonists do not necessarily be likeable.  Having read “PopCo”, I can certainly see “The End of Mr. Y” a much improved version of “PopCo”. Even the writing style is much better in her latest novel. The similarity is haunting between the two. They both full of big intriguing ideas, split storyline, groups of people from different disciplines, and tons of puzzles.

“PopCo”, like “The End of Mr. Y”, is split into two stories running in parallel – Alice’s present and her younger days living with her grandparents.  The one puzzle that strings the two stories is a necklace given by her grandpa that contains a code that leads to some ancient pirate treasure. The big ideas circle around Cryptology, marketing, and anti-consumerism that, to me, are pretty dry topics to read. “PopCo” started right giving the readers hands-on education on how to apply codes to encrypt messages. It is without doubt a fun read trying to break the codes together with Alice. The corporate retreat, that turns out to be one long brainstorming seminar in creating an ultimate toy for teen girls, dominates the majority of the literature. If I was the editor, I would have trimmed that a fair bit and I would create a more satisfying closure. I personally love to read Alice’s childhood story. Unfortunately, that too ends too abruptly. The final breaking of the ultimate code has totally gone past me – or perhaps I read a bit too fast towards the end. So much for reading a puzzle book.

One interesting takeaway though is my deeper understanding on the teen girls. It was not at all obvious to me.  Some of the highlights are as follows.  Perhaps some of you can verify for me?

  • Teen girls value motherhood a great deal. Many of their fantasies are connected to caring and responsibility (think soft toys).
  • With regards to friendship, there is a need to care far more than a need to be cared for. A typical sentiment would be: I want to be there for my friends when they need me.
  • Teen girls are non-competitive as a rule. In terms of priorities, girls from all cultures place friendship above all else.
  • The word “sharing” is very important for girls. The word “winning” is hardly important.
  • Of course girls do compete.  But they never admit that they are engaged in competition. Girls try to refine their identities to further their more general aims: to have important social relationships and find a “perfect man”.
  • Communication is of vast importance to teen girls. 79% of MSN Messenger users are girls. Closeness and telling secrets are important.
  • SMS text messaging is the most popular way for the teen girls to keep in touch. Communicating using text in this way reinforces the need girls have to exchange messages perceived as ‘secret’.
Categories
Silly Me

Gosh, I Could Fall In Love With Nokia Maps!

Nokia Maps

I admit that I am technologically declined. One day, my colleague SC looked at my new N95 8GB and asked if I have used the Nokia Maps. I said no and he exclaimed, “But that is why people spend so much money for such a phone!” He pointed out that our female colleague JL – who has the same phone as mine after I tempted her to trade in her brand new phone (I’m evil I know) – also don’t know how to use Nokia Maps and at the same time implied that I am a guy, I am suppose to know. Fine, know I shall.

I am notorious in harassing help desks. First with Singtel, then with Samsung. This time, I hassled the Nokia help desk.

First, I sent them an email asking how to download the maps and how to use the Nokia Maps in real life. They replied to me after a few days with an useful link and tips to get the GPS (global positioning system) to work. Unfortunately, I just couldn’t get it to work. So, I have decided to call the help desk instead.

Nokia: Press 1 for product and enhancement, press 2 for …

I pressed 1.

Nokia: Press 1 for product, press 2 for enhancement …

I was stuck. 1 or 2?! I pressed 1 and that was the wrong request. So I hang up and tried again. After a good 5 minutes or so, someone answered my call. After the usual greetings, he asked for my phone number. Didn’t I just key that in?! Oh well, be it as SingTel or Nokia, it is the same. I told him my problem …

Me: I pointed my phone at the open sky but there was no signal.
Nokia: You have to point it to a clear sky at a 45 degree.
Me: Yep. I did just that. Still no signal.
Nokia: Have you opened the keypad as the GPS sensor is at the bottom of your phone.
Me: Yep. But where exactly is it?
Nokia: Where your palm is.
Me: Is it the star key, or zero, or the hex key?
Nokia: The hex key.
Me: It is concealed ya? I can’t see the GPS sensor.
Nokia: It is concealed sir. You will not be able to see it.
Me: I swear I did that too but still no signal.

Then the shock came …

Nokia: For first time connection, it may take up to half an hour sir.
Me: Half an hour?!
Nokia: Yes sir.
Me: Half an hour pointing at the sky at 45 degree?!
Nokia: That’s correct sir.
Me: My hand will get cramp no?!
Nokia: (laugh) and you have to remain in the same place.
Me: I can’t move?
Nokia: It’s better not to move.
Me: I have to stay still, holding my phone with the keypad opened, pointing at a clear sky at 45 degree for up to half an hour?
Nokia: It is just for the first time sir.

I tried just that, near my office area. And I got the connection in less than 5 mins.

Hooray!

Nokia Maps is really neat. Today I needed to drop my friend at 52 Stirling Road. Even without the GPS connection, I was able to pinpoint where exactly it is. After that I needed to head to Katong Mall (to check out the plasma TVs). Within seconds, Nokia Maps gave me the information on how to drive from Stirling Road to Katong Mall. Cool thing! And the best thing is, it is free. I just need someone to read out loud the routing information to me (voice navigation comes with a price).

Though Nokia Maps gave me the instruction on how to get to Katong Mall, I have decided to take a different route (dumb eh?) and surprise, surprise, I got lost. I was in this road heading to a T-junction and I said to myself: left or right, left or right?! I whipped out my N95, desperate to know where exactly I was … and it took so long to connect! I literally have to stretch my arm and point the phone to a clear sky. I wonder if it is illegal in Singapore to have one hand on the phone trying to get a GPS position while I am driving (I was not “on” the phone!). At the last minute, as dramatic as Mission Impossible, I managed to locate where exactly I was and made the correct turn (see picture above). Phew!

Though it may have limited usage within Singapore for many of you (except me whom always managed to get lost), it could be quite a nice device when you travel overseas. All the maps are free to be downloaded from the Nokia site.

Categories
Action & Thriller Movie Reviews

Eastern Promises – A Believable Mafia Storyline With Good Acting

Eastern Promises

We all take turn within the squad. Since TK was not particularly delighted by my last pick on “My Blueberry Nights”, I let him pick this time. When he texted me with the movie title, I turned to Cynthia and asked the Walking Life! Encyclopedia what “Eastern Promises” was about. Her immediate reply – knowing how bad I am with Hollywood actor names – was “the King Kong girl”. Oh yes! I love the King Kong girl (her name is Naomi Watts by the way). So I was sold. Okay, I wasn’t sold that easily. I did a background check on “Eastern Promises” and found that it has good reviews written all over it. “Are you sure you want to watch that,” I asked Cynthia. Her reply was “Aragorn” (Viggo Mortensen). “Ah … the human!” exclaimed I. Okay, this was going to be an interesting outing.

My first impression of “Eastern Promises” is that the storyline is surprisingly simple, but yet believable. Maybe it is the Russian accents that the actors have created; maybe it is the tattoos, the absence of guns, and the simple explanation of the Russian mafia protocols in London; maybe it is the rather unpredictable storyline with just enough twists to keep the audience engaged. The acting of the Naomi Watts (the midwife), Armin Mueller (the Russian mafia boss in London), Vincent Cassel (his son), and Viggo Mortensen (the driver) are equally convincing. If you enjoy watching thrillers, there is no reason to give this 100 minutes of film a miss. Some of the violent scenes are very realistic though, let me warn you. But I think there is enough humor throughout to soften the rather dark nature of the film.

Categories
For the Geeks

Omg! It’s 8800GT!

This blog entry will probably lose 99.99% of my regular readers so I am going to be a little bit creative here. It will be as layman as possible and I even have a little game for you. For each paragraph you read, you will collect a certain number of cherries. The heavier the content is, the more cherries it is worth. Simple? Here is what the number of cherries implies (note: I created those cherries myself!).

Number of Cherries You could be …
< 5 Cherry! Okay, computer to you is like a hairdryer. You turn it on to use it and turn it off when you are done with it.
6 to 10 Cherry! You have a lover, or a friend, or a sibling who keeps talking in geek language day in day out. Soon, some of those geek elements get rubbed onto you.
11 to 14 Cherry! You are the CFO of the household. After seeing all the budget applications for the computer parts and gadgets month in month out, you realize that you can’t really say no without knowing what exactly they are.
15 to 17 Cherry! You constantly have this desire to upgrade your computer parts. You could be my best friend.
20 Cherry! You constantly have this desire to tempt others to update their computers. Does it sound like someone you know?

As an analogy, if your regular usage of a computer is to surf the Internet, write some emails, and edit some documents, a simple home cooked food will probably satisfy your taste buds throughout the years. Unfortunately, for the computer gamers – summing up the initial investment, the frequent upgrade cost, and the electricity bills of running those power hungry components – it is everyday at Au Jardin Les Amis for some of the them … 1 x Cherry!

There are quite a number of components I wish to upgrade and I have been hunting for a particular graphic card for ages. When I told my friends what my budget is like (S$400), they jolted thinking that I am so rich to get a high end card.  The reality is not.  Check out what high end cards really mean below … 1 x Cherry!

Type Price
Entry Level Around S$100
Mid Range Around S$400
Mid Range (Enthusiast) Around S$400 x 2 = S$800
High End Around S$1,000
High End (Enthusiast) Around S$1,000 x 2 = S$2,000
High End (Futurist) Around S$1,000 x 3 = S$3,000

… 2 x Cherry!

8800GT 

In fact, I have “downgraded” from being an enthusiast. If you recall, back in April 2006, I have equipped my computer with two graphic cards. I realized that in most situations, the second graphic card is underutilized. It takes up power and it’s nosier (there is a little fan on top of the card to dissipate heat). For the high end futurist, you’ve  read right. Now, we can stuff three graphic cards into the computer rig … 2 x Cherry!

When I first saw the graphic card at my favorite computer shop, I gasped and said, “I have waited for this for so long”. The shop assistance’s eyes glittered and replied with a smile, “Yes, many do.” The second batch of the Asus EN8800GT does look very pretty with a new fan design.  But knowing how dumb I am with computer hardware, was I able to install the card myself? Well … 2 x Cherry!

Before installing the card …

First I needed to knocked off my two old cards. That was not that hard though I have broken one of the tiny plaster latches slightly. Brutal force may not be a good idea – for future reference. Then it was time for me to brush off the dust and to literally blow it off. I made a mess on the floor. Luckily, Cynthia was out of town … 3 x Cherry!

… I made a sign of the cross (you have no idea how many times I have seen bad things happen in my computer that were beyond explanation) and switched on my computer. Immediately, I noticed that my computer sounded different. It is a lot quieter and when it does somewhat sound like the aeroplane engine. It worked on first try! Yay? … 3 x Cherry!

I ran some benchmarking tests, happy with the results (click here to view), and then I tried out some games of mine that could not be played well with my old cards.  It was awesome. Another cool thing with this new card is that I can now extend my display to another LCD monitor! Imagine, playing games while not missing a single MSN message, writing blogs with reference materials and dictionary on a separate screen, watching YouTube while browsing your friends’ webbies! … 3 x Cherry!

Supreme Commander

I know some of the console gamers may baulk at the effort and cost in constantly upgrading a gaming machine. They may even point out that the cost of my video card is close to buying one console gaming unit such as XBox or Nintendo Wii.

But … can your console gaming unit do this (see image on the right … one game, two screens)? … 3 x Cherry!

Categories
Other People's Lives

Reality Can Be Cold At Times

My Family Tree

No one should see his or her savings seized twice – once at prime age and another time at golden age. My poor aunt who is now in Paris was in Vietnam when the war was lost and witnessed all our family’s assets – pharmaceutical factory, tea plantations, shop houses, and etc. – seized by the communist. She was thrown into jail and left with nothing. Having missed the age of marriage taking care of the family business that was vanished together with the Vietnam war, my aunt started a new life in Paris together with our family’s lifelong friend whom I call uncle. I have had the opportunity to meet with them when I was studying in UK and when I was working briefly in Paris. I have not met my aunt in Vietnam (according to what I have heard, all my family’s assets are now converted to my aunt’s husband’s family name) nor am I that close to my uncle and aunt in Canada whom refused to lend me money to study in Oxford. Not only that, they blamed my aunt in Paris for doing so. My mother managed to settle the loan from my aunt in Paris before I got my degree.  Now, take that!  (Thanks mom.)

And it is my uncle and aunt in Canada – who I think they are doing pretty good judging by the fact that my cousins are all doing pretty good – together with one of my cousins (who is now going through a divorce), they continuously suck money out from my aunt and uncle in Paris time over time. The latest figure? Half a million US dollars. The scam was formed for a promise to migrate my half-paralyzed aunt over to Canada. In reality? They just take the money and be merry. My aunt is still bedridden in Paris and my 82 years old uncle is still taking care of her on his own, with the help of the French government’s monthly subsidy.

I learned the news today from my sister and mother and I called my uncle in Paris on the same night. At the end of the conversation, I promise him not to pursue the matter any further out of respect and nothing else (I am still thinking of drafting a letter to my uncle in Canada with my sister’s help … just a friendly reminder that they should take care of my aunt and uncle in Paris should the situation arises). I am deeply disappointed with how greedy some people can be despite the very fact that they are blood related. My mom and dad and my sister together may not be rich but we know what righteousness means. Family matters are complex I know but who in the right mind would go and take money from the elderly with the reason of: rather leave the money to the family than to the government? I said to my uncle in Paris, at least the government takes care of you, no? What has my uncle in Canada done for you for that matter?! Just keep the money yourself and live a comfortable life. Donate the money to a charity if you wish, just keep what is rightfully yours since you both are alone in Paris. My uncle and aunt from Canada even flew to Paris and helped my aunt and uncle in Paris to draft wills.  I am amazed at what people do for money.

Through this episode, I learn to treasure the family values that my parents have inculcated to my sister and I over the years. My sister texted me in the afternoon that my uncle in Paris asked me to have babies soon because life can be very lonely in the old age. I texted my sister back that since I have a sister like her to burden, my life is settled. She reminded me that when I am 84, she will be 80. I know my sister and I have each other. And that is all that matter when the time comes.

Gosh, I could actually write a book with the storyline inspired by this episode.  I said to my uncle in Paris that if by this summer they are still in Paris (as they plan to migrate to Vietnam very soon), Cynthia and I will visit them.  Otherwise, we will head over to Vietnam.

I was in tears when I talked with him over the phone. Reality can be cold at times.