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nanny · marathon man

lunch with jerry, mw, jenifer, ahlian, and kris, at peach garden, occ. good food, started with some exquisite dim sums, then steamed grouper, abalone with kailan, lobster noodle. dessert was mango ice-cream in a semi-hollow dragon fruit - very nice.

jerry is big shot in a semicon subcontractor, a young guy in his 20's, son of the company's founder's brother. born in uk, raised in u.s., but able to speak mandarin. the founder of the company is here to attend the apec conference. so he follows.

chinese medicine, tcm was one of the lunch-talk topics. he said, "my chinese doctor is an old chap, 96 years old. still very strong. very good. when you visit him, you don't have to tell him anything, after the prognosis, he will tell you what's wrong with you. but you must take him seriously, listen to what he says and take the medicine he prescribes, else, he won't take you seriously also. the first time i visited him, he just treated me nonchalantly, gave me the medicine. then after a month of taking his medicine, went back to see him. this time he said, he's happy that i did take his medicine duly, and that my condition had improved. like i have passed his first test. from then on, he treats me like a friend, and i place my total trust in him..... he plays golf 3 times a week, looks like a 70-year old. pity that he does not have any students that can inherit his medical skill."

adrian said, "well, china has a lot of masters, like your doctor, they are old, and do not have any disciples. soon enough, these masters' skill will disappear when they pass away. why can't we have an organization to call up all these people and retire them from their works if they are still working, to ask them to pass on to the younger generation their respective skills."

marathon man said, "good idea. i know of a master also, who is very good in his trade. we should ask him to retire and go teach the youth his skills."

"what's he good at, and who is he?"

"he's good at empire-building, and he's non other than our mm lee."

nanny · marathon man

when somebody puts his temper before reason, before professional conduct, he would hurt himself deep. as always, people like to be on top. and when their position is challenged, they would shout and yell, curse and swear to show that they are still on top.

marathon man was one of this kind, and so is his colleague. ah bee, a hardworking and honest southern taiwanese, whose mind is straight, too straight to have some filters to stop his feelings from pouring out unreservedly. he always leaves himself in total nakedness, personality-wise, in the intercourse with his vendors. he used to be able to call his shots a few years ago, but for this one year or so, the vendor company changed its management team and also since the vendor is having some slack cut by ah bee's company because of capacity dependence on the vendor, he lost much of his clout over the vendor's representatives.

marathon man has told him not to take everything so personal, just do his part and let the rest of the things take care of themselves. in work or in life, some people are not born to be go-getters. unless you know exactly what you want, and you have the tenacity to get the things you want, you better measure yourself up and learn to work smart. by doing so, you still can get what you want, but with much less effort and with more respects from others.

marathon man went thru hard times in life and work, but he has learned much, since.

one time he was in taiwan, went vendor visiting with ah bee. during weekend, they went into the mountains in central taiwan, for the hot springs, for the wild foods and for good spas and for the fresh air. the air was super rejuvinating after the rain. the tall trees at the altitude cleansed the atmosphere, the surrounding was all very unworldly.

and marathon man met this gal. she was a tour guide leading a group of tourists. he was attracted by her healthy and joyous personality, and curious to learn more about the place from her while she was giving the tourists a guided tour. she noticed him. when she called it a day after sunset, she met up with him in a small, boutique tea-house near the hotel.

after ordering some local dishes and drinks for their dinner, he asked, "you like your job?"

"i do. but sometimes, some guests are too difficult to handle."

"how difficult?"

"like, they want my attention all the time. how can i give it to only one person and ignore the rest."

"did he get angry?"

"yes.... they even complained to my agency."

"so..."

"what i can do? i just do what i'm supposed to do, if somebody wants something unreasonable, i would have to put a stop on that."

"but you still like your job?"

"yes.... i used to be very brunt in putting down my guests unreasonable requests, but now i learned to be polite and diplomatic in handling such situations."

"how?"

"like, yesterday, this uncle wants to stop in the middle of nowhere to buy mangoes.... i said to him, it's not wise to do that, because there's normally wild dogs in the area and they will come out in packs after whoever encroaching their territory. i was only telling a lie to discourage him."

"wow, this is truely a white lie, which was told to cool down the situation."

"i don't want to confront my guests, but i have to discourage his unreasonable demand, many a time i would be telling him it's for his benefit not to do it, though it may not be the case. and i'm so good at that now, i enjoy my job, without much worry of difficult guests."

they talked and talked, and finally marathon man said, "how about we adjourn to my room?"

"oh.... you don't want me to do that."

"why?"

"my father is the owner of the hotel."

nanny · marathon man

stop in clementi centre. enter a new mall, like any mall, a lot of food outlets. it also has a game arcade, with the latest game jubeat - hit on the litted button when the music is playing to a certain beat. jog in ave 4, the big field next to blk 310 is new to marathon man. go down across the old railway, where people planting small-time crops. no way thru to the jogging path. go across the bridge to the other end of clementi ave 6. go into clementi loop, an industrial area with a few big factory/warehouse/office structures. very quite in sunday evening. jog towards pie(tuas entrance), no way forward. turn back and find a way to the ulu-pandan connector jogging path. go across the canvass-covered bridge to sunset way makan hub.

as the sun sets, people start jogging. though marathon man, a regular jogger, jogs so much, still not enough to keep his weight down. mainly he snacks after dinner; anything from nuts to cereals, to fruits..... the way to keep a slim body, is to stop snack anytime of the day, everybody says.

his jogging buddy, ah kong said, "you eat too much."

"yes. after dinner, i still feel that i'm not full, though i have eaten one bowl of rice plus and a few portions of other food stuff. i yearn for for tit-bits to munch on.... especially after a busy day."

"it's called the food-for-good syndrome, when you have some sort of stress, or anxiety you wld be releasing a whole bunch of corticosteroids. you have relied food to keep your corticosteroids in check. and carbo stuff normally will induce a sudden blast of endorphins in your system that keep you satisfied and feeling good."

"i tried to cut down snacking, but it brings my mood down if i don't snack, especially when i am infront of the tv."

"ok. you can try eat only half full, and substitute the other half with snacks."

marathon man thot it's a good advice. and he would try it.

nanny · marathon man

the end of the world - it seems, is no big deal. when you are prepared for it, nothing would scare you.

marathon man is not prepared.

he went to see 2012 in bishan junction 8, after an advanced booking one day ahead, when he did his jogging in bishan area. it was a hollywood big budget film - with alot of special cgi effects, and the same story line - that the disaster is going to strike, after some scientist makes some freak discovery, then a john doe somehow comes to figure out the scheme of things, and try his luck to salvage himself and the people around him....and all starts well ends well.... for these lucky people.

he watched the film with his galfren, ah maya.

after the show, she said, "i never thot that i caused so much trouble to the world..... i did not mean to say that the world would end on 21 dec 2012. my calander just says that's the end of a cycle where the star-positions in the sky would came back to the same as those 5126 years ago... why are people so clever to interpret things differently?"

marathon man said, "maya, you are a good astronomer, you are not a fortune teller. but people said the astrologer nostradamus did foretell that 2012 will be the end of the world, in his lost book. an astronomer and an astrologer both pointed to the same year as an eventful year, no wonder people were quick to conclude its the end of the world."

"if it's really the case, we ought to celebrate."

"what to celebrate?"

"celebrate we have the honor to witness this once in an earth-life-time event."

as they walked along the pasir ris park beach, the overcast sky opened up, myriads of sparkling lights streaked across the horizon. it's the leonid meteor shower..... ushering in the beggining of the end of the world!

nanny · marathon man

flu - not getting much sleep. and eating buah petai, for 3 days. run on the thread-mill. watch tv. taking conference call. sweating after 20 minutes. the morning seems so calm, and cool. but the mind is turbulent - too heaty.

staring at the small lizard on the wall two feet away. the little chap crawls a few steps, halts, waggles its tail a bit, head tilts to one side, tongue flips out and in a couple of times, waiting for any little bugs to fall within its foraging range, but nothing that looks like food appears. before the miunte ends, it wiggles away.

the day filled with meetings and conference calls. work is like - work. normal work, honest to goodness work. solid work, no non-sense work, hard work. when marathon man works, he really works. he works to fulfil his duty as an employee, he works for his living, and he works to fill up the time in his life.

no other things can be as fulfilling as a busy day of work. he talks and he listens, he plans and he decides, he reads and sends emails, attends meetings, conference calls, he deligates and he executes..... nothing is more meaningful as a good lunch time power nap. it freshens him up for more meetings, calls, listening, talking...... surf the net.... for the other half of the day.

then comes 5 - time to call it a working day.

20 miuntes back home, dinner, a sumptious dinner infront of the tv, with eyes glued to "the simpsons", and later "the nanny" back to back.... then .... reads emails, writes his memo..... bathes, gives thanks for

another day - another dollar!

and for the flu bug:

another prey - another fello!

nanny · marathon man

flu peaks.with a lot of sour eyes, running nose, itchy throat, sore throat, but no aching bones. the whole day locked at home, watching tv, and some exciting dvd's.... the excitement does do alot of help to ease the misery for soemtime, but it wears off shortly after the excited moment is gone....watch race to dubai golf tournament - westwood plays like a robot, every shot hit fairway in regulation, hit green in regulation - boogie free round of 64, course record, and win by 5 strokes! like they say, when he's good, he's good.

the day before, play golf with golf kakis. weather overcast, some short spell of sun, slight drizzle halfway....

nite, pop a panadol, not sleep until after midnite. wake up at 5, sour eyes gone, running nose stop, itching throat soothed, throat still soar, but not as much... go back to office, to the familiar setting of that airconned room. the power nap sure help to hasten the recuperating process...

its like gone thru a guantanamo bay prison torture and back....

nanny · marathon man

after a nice beehoon, koytiaw, and mee breakfast at the punggol mrt terminal, marathon man started his morning jog. he turned left into punggol central, then punggol way, sengkang east rd, anchorvale st. hardly expected to see any exciting, new sites... thot that all hoohahs of punggol water project in the news recently were from the east of the mrt.... but there it was, the sengkang riverside park - a name he never heard off, poppep up right from the left side of anchorvale st. a piece of land, almost barren, beside the sungei punggol. looking at the entrance site map, this less-than-a-year-old park has 3 sites, the one that marathan man just landed was bounded by the anchorvale st, the east side of sungei punggol, then on the 2nd site was on the west side of sungei punggol, the third site was also at the west side of sungei punggol, but bounded by sengkang west way instead.

marathon man made it round the less-than-1-km track of the first site. he could not go any nearer to view the river, due to the bushes and mangroves growing on the river banks, blocking any access. but mid-way, thru some bushes, he saw a small, make-shift wooden hut built on the side of the river, not occupied. that's cool, whoever built it.

he crossed the river to the other side, the 2nd site of the park, where the visitor centre was located. there, half way he saw a couple of young chaps detoured into some uncharted bushes, next to the tpe. marathon man wanted to follow, but pulled back. this was probably due to the effect of aging - not taking as much risk as when he was younger - though his heart is still burning with a lot of things he wants to do.... well, maybe next time, when he gets better(after his bout of flu). there's some newly planted trees in the park, looked like fruit trees. there were 3 ponds in this site of the park. the ponds were almost surrounded by long reeds, and teemed with small cichlids. a family of 3, mother, father and a preschool kid were feeding the fish with a big loaf of bread... whenever a piece was thrown into the water, the fishes darted for it., some even popped out of the water, glided like a flying fish to get to the bread first. the fishes on the other end of the pond, at first were not affected by the commotion. but the fishes nearer to ground zero reacted to it by swimming towards it, led by the fishes nearer to it... before long, the fishes at the far-end also somehow swam towards ground zero.... although they might not know there's food for them - is that herd instinct?

he crossed the road to the thrid site of the park, where there were more fruit trees, accordingly there were durian and mago trees... he saw 4 crows kicking on two beer cans. apparently they had tasted beer and liked it so much, they wanted more. the floating island in the middle of sungei punggol was not yet completed. the foreign worker told marthon man, it would take another month.

sungei punggol, a river in the north east of singapore, carries a lot of dreams for many people - the punggol 21 project that the gahmen unvailed some 13 years back got a lot of people excited, living in hdb's in a garden setting with rivers, waterways, promenades, fruit ocrhards, parks, and many other cool activity-sites.... and the dreams faded away for a while due to slow developemnt in this area. but half year ago, it got revived by the gahmen again with the launching of the punggol 21+ master plan. looks like this time it's for real. a few big hdb projects can be seen here, some near completion, some half way done and some with site-plan put up... and the water project work is definitely going full force, by the activities carried out around the sungei punggol. all these are for the coming erection year, in two years' time.

looks like the gahmen, had a panic attach, suddenly realized they were far behind on their promises, had to do alot of catch-up - just like marathon man, just two days, afflicted with a panic attack, when he was shown a letter to exclude him from a money making deal, and may put him into a money losing situation.... because he did not do his due deligence in signing the document. he called up the lawyer, and got it signed. not that he wasn't aware that he needed to sign, but he was hesitating, but when the push came to shove, he thot it was too late to do it. but he did it anyway.... before he lost two days of his sleep over the matter...and got stressed flat-out.

panic attack motivates - but it also ages a person by years of his life.... no fun.

nanny · marathon man

do not be worried and upset!

did you hear the voice? you may think it's not for normal people to hear voices. voices may not be just sound, it could be signs, it could be something you read, it could be somebody you meet, it could be a thot that goose-bums you, it could be a dream, it could be an incident.... it could be a moment, it could be anything that somehow impresses on you.

richard dawkins would probably be flipped out if he knows that experience is not restricted just to the 5 senses - there's something we call sixth sense.

what's it? i cannot relate it to you with normal language which originates from human's 5 senses... but here's it....

thanggam lrt station, where's this place? never heard of.
it's in a deserted location in punggol - actually near to lorong tanggam, in the jalan kayu area. you get out from the lrt, and walk across the bridge from the station to a hill, on a path that would lead you to lor tanggam. that's the 1st time marathon man stepped foot on this area, though he had made a couple of trips in jln kayu and some of its surroundings. he jogged down to senkang w ave, then up jln kayu, where he stumbled into a wanton noodle shop - heji. and attracted by its clean and decent decor, and its advert on the wall, he ordered a small($3.30) soup noodle. nice, but nothing special, though the noodle was the flat, tiny type, not that good of a bite, not that springy.

then he went into the jln tali lilin, jln tali piring, jln tong lee, jln tali payong, jal tali dulang, jln tali zapin, where he was fascinated by the serene setting of the place especially the houses further away from the tpe.

he came out to jln kayu, it was lunch time, alot of people patronizing the 2 prata shops - cafeela, and thasevi. he was not that crazy for prata. further more he was still quite full with the noodle. but his mind couldn't help to want to have it. he entered the restautrant, but couldn't find a seat.

as he was about to go away, a mother of two little babies, stood up and said, "you can have the seat."

marathon man said, "thank you."

as their eyes met, something jerked the back of his mind; the lady's face seemed familiar - who could she be, where could he have met her?

the lady was also having somewhat the same reaction.

"ah...." both of them simultaneously blurted out.

at the same time, super quick rewinding in marathon man's mind did flash out the answer - they met in the mrt a few years ago. at the orchard rd station when she was stepping into the fully packed coach. though she was pregnant, nobody near her gave up his seat to her. marathon man, sitting a few seats away, stood up and waved at her to sit down. she did and said, "thank you. "

..........

"eh.... we met in the mrt? didn't we?"

"oh.... ya..."

"are these your kids?"

"yes, twins. they were still here when we met." she pointed to her tummy.

before she went out, she said to her kids, "say goodbye to uncle."

"good bye, uncle nanny"

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now you know what's sixth sense, but do you know who had it?

scroll below..... for answer. unless you really have it.
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the twins had it.... and normally kids have it.

nanny · marathon man

maguindanau massacre - 23 nov 2009. some kind of signal to the human race, there's something very seriously sick with the human psyche - ie after all we are animals, but with much mightier power to eliminate our enemies!

we kill to survive, and we kill to get waht we want, and we kill to get to the top.

once you are at the top, you can kill more, with immunity.

the winning killer will be king, and the loosers will be the victims.

what makes man become a killer? a meditated killer. it's no freak incident like the bukit timah flood that happened 12 days ago, that minister yacob said, it would only happen once in fifty years. meditated killings systematically happen across the world, at anytime in any place.... in aftghan, pakistan, the somalia, even in the u.s. of a.......

human life is nothing but a piece in a chess game. any piece can be sacrificed, except the king. so when you are the king, you have to protect yourself. or rather your people have to protect you.

maslow's hierachy of needs - 5 levels. but how do you achieve what you need? you do that by:

inheritance/gift
exchange
leverage
cheat
corrupt
grab

lucky people inherit wealth. honest people exhange their work for their means to live. but most people would just be scratching aliving with their honest work. smart people leverage - they put in little effort and hope to get bigger returns. and really smart people cheat like madoff who was commited this march to operate the biggest ponzi scheme the world had ever known.in the civilized world should not see corruption and grabbing, but we see them or rather we know they do exist even in the "cleanest" societies. and wars between nations and tribes and gangs and clans... are glorified ways of grabbing. glorified thru heroism of protecting one's country, clan, gangs....

hence if you look at the massacre in this light, it would not be hard to understand the motive of the incident. people just wanted to grab what they think belonging to them.

honest people exchange their work for a living. there's nothing wrong with it . if you think there's something wrong, you sure go nuts, and you would think that , cheating, corrupting, grabbing, or killing would be the right things to do.....

marathon man knows that all this wealth and power could be gone overnite just like the collapse of the dubai world one week ago.....

and he knows, precisely, that the fear of losing it all motivates people to want to gather in more and more, to eliminate whoever that threatens their possesions or positions - and that's what's happening in the maguidanau massacre.

nanny · marathon man

human invented language to communicate - and to do so, language supposed to have precise meaning in each word..... so that people can understand what you try to say. so when someone says, "i'm HAPPY." you know he's not SAD. but is that true? how do you know that he means he's really, really HAPPY and not SAD? but in actual fact, he's SAD.....

if you don't believe, you can try this with your thesaurus(the book of synonyms and antonyms). start with HAPPY, pick one of its synonyms from the thesaurus, in this case, it's CHEEFUL, then find one of the synonyms of cheerful, POSITIVE and so on......

happy
cheerful
positive
certain
specific
limited
narrow
tight
rigid
stern
grave
grim
gloomy
sad

see how HAPPY means SAD!

when he's not running about, marathon man likes to play this game of turning the meaning of a word to its opposite with the help of the microsoft WORD - Tool-> Language -> Thesaurus....

try it, it's boring..... you got it, i mean it's fun!

nanny · marathon man

"look the sun is rising!" his gal fren shouted excitedly, pointing to the horizon to the east of the straits of johor.

sea breeze blowing, the dark sky brightened up somewhat with the pale lighting from the orange obb. the food was good - lemak curry fish-head, kailan fried with scallop, black pepper crab, and meat-stuffed toufu.

"what? how can it be? how can the sun rise in the nite? it's the moon.... "

"oh... but look, it's so big and so bright. ya.... i think you are right. it's the moon...."

'bad moon rising', the backgroud music went.

but the nite was good.

dinner at gallery by the straits in saf yacht club in sembawang had a good start. the conversation topics went from tiger woods and his hole-some transgressions to tiger whips for people to boost their hole-some activities.

marathon man asked, "if you were tiger's wife, would you have gotten a divorce. remember the man is worth over a mil."

"maybe, maybe not, depends."

"on what?"

"on whether there's still love left between us."

"ok.... but even if there's this thing called love, would you not be tempted by that fortune that you could take possession of, if you did the right move?"

"well.... money is good for almost everything. but it can't buy love. in fact, money breaks up love. further more, she loves her kids...."

"oh... i see. difficult decision for his wife, indeed."

"don't worry....we, women will make a decision when we need to make one. we have the intuition to make the right decision."

"you think so? why?"

"because, we are holely!"

nanny · marathon man

singapore marathon - he arrived padang at 7.15am. but not allowed to run from starting point; he's did not register. went all the way to marina blvd, towards the marina barrage. the so-called marina bay was now surrounded by tall buildings from the marina square hotels, the shenton way banks, and now the SAIL, asia financial centre building, marina residences, and the IR. it looked more like a pond. the planners must be regretting when they did the land reclaiming years ago, they did not envisage a grander vision to make the water a real bay of magnificent size....

when he wanted to give up the run, and turned back to town, before he entered shentopn way, he met up with the starting group of runners of the 10k run, followed by the bulk of the slower ones. he joined them. the route was a familiar one - the benjamin-sheare bridge, the area around republic blvd, then back to the durian, ended up infront of the old pariahman house. when he was about to reach the finish point, a mashall stopped him and asked, "where's your tag?"

"no tag."

"cannot finish."

so he went sideway and continued running, anyhow.

as they said, you run, when encounter a block, take a break and run again.

szhcornan73 · Diamond Member

Popped by, read a few articles with wisdom in this thread, say hi and that's life.

Regards, and thanks for sharing.

nanny · marathon man

nanny · marathon man

the helix, a new bridge opened yesterday by minister of national development, mr mabok tan, together with another bridge, the bay front, across the bay from the esplanade to the sands ir. it was a 280m long, with most of it already opened up for people to walk, except for the last 50m or so that joined to the ir, that's still closed up.

he met a photographer, in his 60's using a sony dslr camera taking pictures of the bridge and the background ir, and the bay.

he asked him, "what camera do you have?"

"an old sony one."

"what you reckon to buy for a beginner."

"must buy canon or nikon. spend a bit more to buy the camera with more features so , no need to change body later on."

"how long have you been into camera?"

"20 years.... still very much into it.... one thing about camera is, you buy more types of lenses, over the years, but still using the same camera body.... unlike woman, with your same lens, you want to screw different bodies."

"you mean the same LAN screwing different babes?"

then this lady who heard what they said, said, "ha.... you men, everyday screw this , screw that. even the subject of photography can turn into some weird sexual screwing thingie..... i think your minds really like this helix bridge, totally screwed.

more blogs from :
http://runsingapore.blogspot.com/

nanny · marathon man

proff - not any tom DICK or ali....
a few friends received the wedding invitation from their professor.

they were pooling to give him a combined gift.

since the proff is already in his 70's, they were thinking of giving him something that's good for him both in the bed room and outside.

they chose a tongkat ali.

he can use the tongkat as a walking stick when he is moving about and he could also chew on it to give him the oopmh when he needs it to help him carry out his duty as a real man.

they thot it was a clever idea.

after the wedding, the proff returned the gift to them, unused, with an invitation which said:

"SONs, thank you for your well-thot of gift. here's is another invitation to meet your 'brother' in 5 month's time."

- surely the proff's ting is not any tom, dick, or ali's thingie....

for more of marathon man go to:
http://runsingapore.blogspot.com/[/url]

szhcornan73 · Diamond Member

nanny · marathon man

istana - a very good layout, just like a corner of new york central park. there's a 9-hole inside, there a small pond, a fountain and of course the istana.

his camera ran out of battery, and he wanted to take some more pictures. he saw an ang moh holding a camera like his, so he asked, "are you using a sony camera?"

"yes."

"let me take a look." he did.

"oh.... different model. i thot to borrow your battery for a couple pictures more. my battery just ran out."

"just not the same size."

"you see, even the same brand also using different size battery.... what those people's trying to do? profiteering! for digital camera, handphone, laptop, they make money on the battery, for printer, they make money on the cartridge, the airlines make money out of fuel charge, convenience charge, toilet charge, anyhow charge.... and for tv what do think they make money out of?"

"tv? hmm... i don't think they make a lot of money out of the so low prices they put up."

"no... they make money out of not selling it, but just putting up un-reasonably low prices, so people come.... and they sell other appliances."

- as they say, hang goat head, sell dog meat

for more of marathon man : http://runsingapore.blogspot.com/

nanny · marathon man

happiness addict - i'm what i'm
perhaps the man knew all. but he wouldn't say anything.

they beat him, kicked him, tortured him.... threatened him.... but he just wouldn't say a word.

it's the things that he had to take in order to uphold the happiness of mankind.

he sacrificed himself.

then when he was asked, "What cause did you die for?"

"the cause of upholding human happiness."

"what's so important about being happy?"

"isn't it all we were there for?"

"what if you get your happiness but could not live thru it? would you be happy?"

"as long as i was doing what i thot was right, i was happy. and as long as i was happy, a minute of happiness was worth many life-times of mere existence."

"sounded like some happiness addict.... now you are here, are you happy?"

"i'm just what i'm.... happy, sad, angry, contented.... all are just excuses of not wanting be my real self."

nanny · marathon man

the scent is so strong, and intoxicating, you can't help but think that the air is hosting a feast of la parfum to your nostrils. it's the flowering season of the tembusu tree, the bundles of little yellow flowers. its scent is so concentrated that a little bit more, you would have thot that it's from our king of the fruit.

in the middle of the nite, after a short spell of drizzle, the humid air settled heavily with this unpretentious fragrance disturbs one's concentration. every breath you take, your sense of smell is greatly impacted by this stench, so much so you want to protest to nature that she has violated forcefully one of your 5 senses.

but that's nature - it's not always trying to suit man's whims and fancies. many a times, man just loathes what nature has in store for him. diseases, bad weather, natural disasters..... but the smell of tembusu flowers definitely cannot be ranked as such.

after some time, the nose cannot take it any more. it stages a protest, and blocks up its passages. the brain tries to tell the nose to ease up..... but it won't.

so the brain says, "hey nosey, if you continue to close up your doors, i have to ask the mouth to open its, and the mouth may not like it."

"i have enough of the stinky smell.... the mouth has to take over, it doesn't have any sense of smell, anyway."

the mouth is awaken by the loud noise from the talking, "what's up man?"

"i need your help. the nose is going to call it day, i need you to take over the job of breathing."

"well, i have to eat...."

"but it's at nite, you can eat tomorrow morning."

"if the stomach doesn't mind.... hey tummy, are you still full?"

"what? just wanted to doze off.... what? full.... now that i'm awake.... i feel like eating some porridge...."

"no, no.... you guys don't try to be funny.... i'm your brain, the director here.....listen to what i tell your guys to do, else everybody will suffer."

"hey, boss, i'm hungry. if i don't eat, do you think you get what you need to assume your position as the boss?"

"well.... that's the point, i'm your boss when everybody is awake. now, it's nite time, it's time for me to take my boss-cap down, and let my brother, subconsciousness, teh sub-boss take over.... and i want you guys to do whatever is necessary to keep things in order... that's my order before i go sleep."

"boss, you are a control freak, the sub-boss not even dare to take your place at nite...."

- another long nite....with the boss wide awake.

nanny · marathon man

Butanding watch is not an effortless recreation - wake up at 530, breakfast at 630, walk to butanding centre to register. the centre is a stone's throw away from their resort - jolee resort which is ps1000 per room per nite, add ps80 for breakfast and ps100 for lunch(check out after lunch). the peak season is over - around jan to april, soon the whale shark watching season will be over, sometime end of may. the hotels around will close for the rest of the year until the season begins in nov. and donsol, a small village will be lulled into its slumber again. the whole place has only one restaurant in its downtown, selling pizzas, local food and such.

it opens at 710. they finish register at 8, watch a 10minute video about the butanding and the do's and dont's on whale shark watching, get a see-thru-bag for underwater camera, they head off to the ocean at 810.

Within the 1st half hour, they have their 1st sighting. whale watching boats, as many as a dozen of them, quickly gather around the area where the sighting is. and everybody gets very excited. the bio(butanding interact officer - the guide) herds the people to one side of the boat, and when it's time, he shouts "jump!".

he jumps into the water equipped with snorkel and flippers. in a state of excitement, and no warming up to the this experience in the big-wide and powerful ocean, all he could see was the color of the water around him. then the bio takes hold of his hand and pull him along.... he lowers his head and there it is - the big and graceful thing, gliding ever so majestically below him. boats quickly

Without life jacket, he cannot keep up with the BIO pulling him to the where the happenings are. he sees the thing underneath him, having an unperturbed gliding thru the turquoise water. unbelievably, at some point it's just within his reach. he reaches out his hand, wanting to touch it, the bio pull him away; he's not suppose to do have any body contact with the shark. there's small, slim, long, white fishes swimming along the shark, going after the gill flaps... which filters ton of water per minute for the plankton, that's abundant in this area of the ocean.

he hangs on behind the shark, with the bio pulling him along, for about 5 minutes. feeling very tired breathing thru the mouth, constantly blowing water from the mouth piece, kicking those extended plastic limps awkwardly, he wants out... feel the lungs going to collapse, gulping in sea water uncontrollable...panic, he takes out the mouth piece, pull the goggle away to have a deep breath thru his nostrils. the boat was a good 200m away, can he make it back? he flings his hand loose from the bio's grip, throws his hands up, and yells, "enough, enough, let's go back to the boat......" the bio calms him down, "relax...RELAX....", after a few more gulps of water, struggling in the water, with a calmer mood, he makes it back to the boat. thank GOD.

The second sighting was a 10 minutes after the 1st, have not taken enough rest yet, let others have their chance.

The third sighting is after 2hrs of the 2nd. he's not fast enough to get prepared, miss jumping into the water, boat sailing away after dropping the people that are fast enough to jump in. in this game, timing is everything.

The 4th sighting was mere minutes afterward, jump into the right time with life jacket on. Face to face with the shark. its toothless mouth opens as wide as a oil barrel, as if waiting for him to put his head in. But it's a brief less than 1minute encounter. as he paddles madly with all the drag of the life jacket, trying to keep up with the shark, it disappears into donsol water, just soon enough for him to admire the creature's graceful glide into the abyss of the ocean depth.

the last sighting; he jump but see nothing, not heading the right direction. the boat makes it back to shore after a solid 3 hours circling in the donsol water.

all 5 of them who come out for the whale-shark watching do have their fair share of close encounter with the sea giant swim-pet. michael, the kid, who says he's good simmer and diver, ends up with a pale face, after the 1st jump into the sea - the ocean is too much for this pool-swimmer, and he's overwhelmed, and dares not go into the water until the 4th sighting, where assisted by the bio, he says he sees the big shark below his gait when he's standing in the water, and when asked what color is the shark.

he says, "blue."

"sure or not, blue. it should be grey."

"i had my goggles knocked off, i saw with my naked eyes... it's blue."

well - they say he did not see the shark. but the boy insists he saw it.....

- seeing is believing, but how do you tell someone to believe or not believe what he sees? or for that matter what he thinks he sees?

watch video here

nanny · marathon man

At 1am, makati ave was a quiet and almost empty street; compared with the daytime traffic(in fact late into the nite, the traffic had been bumper_to_bumper). At the front of the pussycats rogue bar a few young ladies in revealing outfits posting in front of the entrance, were soliciting for business. He went by. One of them approached him.

"you from korea?"

He kept quiet and kept walking.

"Come in, we have the most beautiful and sexy gals in town."

He did not budge, though her perfumed scent and clevaged, hot body did arouse his male animal instinct somewhat.

"Come...we have very hot show tonight,"she pulled his hand, and bummed her boob on his shoulder.

"don't want lah. i am going to my gal fren's place."

"oh, may fren ka yo? ok.... but, can have some fun first, before another one with her."

"don't want lah, she will know."

"come.... you just touch here... here..." she said, as she held his hand and let it cup onto her softly laid conical bun.

"see, she won't know."

"hmmm... ok... just half an hour lang...."

he followed her into the bar, sat down, and ordered a drink.... there was some sleazy performance on the stage.

he said,"what? that's it? nothing so cock-teasing."

she said, "ok..ok... half an hour won't buy you any shattering enCUNTer.... just some so-so encounter..."

"so you reckon i should stay longer?"

"sure. let's see what we can do in one hour?"

"ok...."

she held his hand and led him into a small room, switched on the light, and put on some music.... and she began to gyrate her body in front of him....

he did not react, because he was too tired. and he nodded off.

"hey.... mr.... wake up.... time to go, your gal fren's waiting for you."

"hmm..... what time is it now?"

"2am."

"how did you know my gal fren was looking for me?"

"she sms you while you were sleeping... saying, darl, your pussy cat is waitin 4 u..... come now or it will go to sleep...."

as they said, "wild pussy, home pussy, as long as it satisfies the teetee, it's a good pussy".

but for marathon man, too much wild pussy makes the home pussy a better pussy - he paid, and rushed out of the 'pussycats' for his gal fren.

patgoh · Moderator

Hi marathon man,

Interesting encounter.

May I seek your permission to post the pic here to satisfy some of our forumers' eyes ?

nanny · marathon man

pat,
you're wlecome.

nanny