Going to Indonesia

Holiday seasons is blossoming in the joyous warmth of summer. Dear Brian wants to play. My idea of fun includes the guitar and writing stories. I hope all of you have found your holiday passion that pleases the self and helps your society.

I am a Singaporean, that most of you would have known. By fact, I was once an Indonesian, and a savvy Indonesian middle class that loves the clean and green nature that permeates Singapore. By design, most of my relatives are Indonesian, and my paternal grandmother also lives in Indonesia. Therefore, in a close bid to keep in contact with my endearing relatives, Brian is going to Indonesia for a period of nine days.

This trip is more of a love opener for me, where my heart valve must become a compassionate salve, for my grandmother in her ripe old age is having a disease that while not life threatening, is affecting her quality of life. I love my grandmother. Therefore, I am prepared to spend most of my time in Indonesia to be her companion, her ears and her nurse. Well, this is an honour and a privilege for dear me to spend time with grandmother. For every time spent is a precious moment of life experience, for my grandmother needs to move on in her life journey, and one day, she will leave us temporary. For this, I have to pray, in the holy grace of God, who understands how to remedy and take care of the situation.

The best formula for longevity is a good serving heart

Well, from a scientific viewpoint, longevity is about keeping a healthy body. This includes sleeping eight hours, consuming two litres of water in a day, having good vegetarian nutrition, eating vitamins, and having some mild exercise. All this are key component of a good healthy body. Well, for me, I will follow this regime everyday to my old age.

The main idea of life is that we live for a reason. When our heart is planted in a servitute and loving attitude, God will have a reason for us to live to one hundred. My belief is that man may live to one hundred, but due to mistakes in life, both from health or moral point of view, give rise to a lifespan that is quite less than one hundred. Life in itself is ample being for lots of good experience when we consider our human average of eighty-years life span. Being a purposeful and value added person in society, is actually one of the fundamental for living long. This may start in a family, for children and grandchildren often depend on the elders for many good purposes of life. Some people may extend their retirement services to people in the community, for a charity or some form of voluntary exercise, and this is the essence of retirement-to slow down the tough work, but to keep continual good service for life. Even in friendly and good social contact with friends, there is charity. I chose to contribute by being a gardener in my old age. I hope everyone, in their compassion cherish for precious life experience, will navigate towards their longevity.

Inspiration from the poor

Better we delve further into this topic, I would love to iterate my quality background. I was borned into a middle class family, by two Master's Degree parent, and I started living in a three room HDB flat. Over the years, we have improved our condition and now, I am living with my parents in a corner terrace, a decent plot of land with each member having a room, a multi-purpose room, as well as a nice garden.

After being on world for about 23 years, I have made friends, both richer and poorer than myself. A fascinating fact of life is that sometimes, a concentration of virtues, hopes and dreams can be found in some of my friend, whose material wealth may not be as much as my family, but their life is truly wealthy. A poor man, prior to career era, who strive for excellence is seldom idle, and often take upon works like tuition, charity or socializing meaningly, be the activity over tea or a casual jog. He does not engage in vices, and he often spend time studying well or spending quality time with a family. A feel of post-modern kampong spirit can be felt at certain length in the HDB, where love abides and compassion rules. Well, a poor man with relationship riches is not actually poor, but truly rich.

I have heard of a few stories where poor HDB dwellers end up as president scholars, and they are the hope that a poorer background person who still succeed if given the chance and the passion, and this, I attribute to Von Bertelanffy Equifinity principle. During my Hwa Chong junior college time, most of my comtemporaries are HDB dwellers, and I feel a sense of inspiration that students from poorer families can actually be inspired by noble causes and actually put in the effect for life excellencies, and a lot of these friends, I still keep in touch, though I do not wish to name them for their privacy. For this, I admire them for their altruistic nature and humble outlook towards life, and this equally enforce the notion that true riches comes from the heart. Often, I am inspired by my materially poorer friends about life and about doing good for oneself. Well, I feel status is not by what you have, but by what you can give to others.

The vegetarian wave

Today, I had a vegetarian lunch with a friend whose name is JianXiong, and the good news is that both of us are vegetarian. Praise God for this. I went to his place and I chauffeured him to a place near Race Course Road for a vegetarian meal. This is indeed a great place for us. Komala's Place, a neo-classic Indian styled Fast Food that packages food in the manner of a distinguised restaurant while keeping prices affordable. The setting is nearly like traditional Kentucky, only that the place is more Asian in cosmetics. The food is good and the mannerism of service is gracious. We came on a time where there is enough people to mention the quality of the place yet we can have a good convenience queueing time for the food.

The vegetarian movement is indeed a movement worth going for. About an amazing 5000 people in United Kingdom are becoming vegetarian each year, and more and more vegetarian restaurant are opening in the world each year. For good, you are ensured of a safe, healthy, more economic, and conscience clear food that will inspires people to embrace the green movement and the animal rights advocacy. Secondly, we are actually designed for vegetarian meals, from our gentle denture, and to embrace animals in a natural peace-loving relationship. We are also going to live longer as a vegetarian, and thank God for the light that shines for grace. Look at Carl Lewis, a world class athletic who builds his body on a vegetarian supplement, and Albert Einstein, a person who is remarkably intelligent by vegetarian nutrition. Mohammed Gandhi is a vegetarian, who is an epitome of peace and grace on Earth. For the females, we all understand people like Alicia Silverstone, who feels self esteem and self worth by being a vegetarian. A good body is a body that feeds on good nutrition, and we, the living creatures of Earth, is good as one body in constant interplay of love.

My Daddy made Swensen sweeter without the ice cream galore

On Sunday, my father is going back to Surabaya to ready his gear for work, and both my mother and me supported him by sending him to Changi Airport Terminal 2. After my father arrived at the airport Singapore Airline business class check-in, the counter took care of his registration details. My father usually flies by business class, not by choice, but by the boss' design, which is an exchange my father gives by his robust work.

We went to Swensen to eat a sumptious meal by Western standards. I chose the vegetarian version of spaghetti and truly, simple mushroom adds flavour to the meal, and I truly enjoy this vegetarian delicacy. Both my parents went on to purchase an ice-cream meal, a Coit tower for my father, and a Banana Split for my mother. Both of my parents savoured their ice-cream and I guess they enjoyed the sweetness of taste that ice-cream promises. For me, I knew better. Due to my health condition, I had to refrain from eating desserts for the long term health gain.

The highlight neither the ice-cream nor the business-class arrangement, but the fact that my father told us that he loved the family dearly, and felt the need to put family before his other priorities, and that moved me. He told my mother that his love for her will always be true, and he will always support her in good graciousness, and this promise, I knew, was done in sincerity and genuine trust. I knew my mother received this as a blessing, and I hope my parent's relationship, which was in disarray, could be mended well, and be repaired again. My goal for them, is to see a golden anniversary celebration for their re-engagement. Well, many things in life is unpredictable, though love is always the silver lining for enjoyment.

Empathy that moves a customer service officer

Dear Brian needs to fix his HP laptop, and he made his way to Alexandra Industrial Park to visit HP service centre. The laptop may no longer be under warranty, though a repair is worth the two to three years time that the laptop may endure when in good order again. Well, the issue for this fixing is a faulty hard-disk, and I, Brian, thank God that several hiccups to my laptop at other moment could be remedied by a rest and a restart.

Well, for now, Brian feels the love that corporate HP provides, an air-conditioned waiting time with mineral water, tea and coffee for buffet while waiting for the queue. There is even a computer terminal for the hitch-hiker computer avid. I just need the time to rest. When the time comes for me to visit the computer customer service officer, I told him my problem, and he is affable to attend to me in his customer oriented manner. I understand that in today's ongoing world, being busy is a common trend, and my customer service officer is feeling tired trying to adjust the system to my request. I gave him a few words of comfort from the heart, and he smiled simply. This is enough for him, who is tired, and for me, who is also exhausted. At the end of the transaction, after a fair understanding of the trade is done, he passed me a MacDonald ice cream coupon for goodwill. Such is the calling of kind words, for I am amply rewarded and heart-assured when I received this gesture of thanks. Sometimes, we may not realise the goodness that kind intention gives to us in return.

World Environmental Day

Yesterday, on the 5th of June, is the World Environmental Day. This is a day that marks the importance of Earth's sustainance in the field of greenhouse gas control, food allocation, scarce resource maintanance as well as protecting the ozone layer.

In truth, the nature of Earth design can last throughout the aeons, while man, after the industrial revolution, is fasting changing the Earth climax at a rate that is surprising in statue, that Earth may be at risk of becoming unsustainable for current human population growth well into the 22nd and 23rd century. We may see tomorrow, though if we do not change our method of living, I fear our great-grandchildren may be facing a revolution of survival in an Earth that may only cater to a population of an estimated 3 billion when all of us understood that today's population is already 6 billion and growing.

Well, modern day scientist, architect, engineers and politician have seen the severity of this problem. New technology is fast embracing the recycleable nature of material, the reduction in pollutions and new strains of food produce that may sustain food for a growing population. At present, from a vegetarian insight, saving Earth is possible when everyone on Earth becomes vegetarian, for 10kg of plant crop is needed to sustained 1 kg of animal meat, and thus, by being vegetarian, I feel that the food cycle is much more efficient and balanced. The only issue in this case, is to control the animal population level by humane means. Another insight is more crops available actually contribute to a more favourable balance of greenhouse gas and crop rotation helps to alleviate the soil fertility. From a scientist point of view, cars and factories may embrace biofuels resources for cleaner emission, though in my heart, I believe that hydrogen fuel cell that may be available in 2050, will be the savior for the future, as energy becomes as free and clean as water. Architecture should embrace sustainable in design for energy renewal, clean source of energy conversion, like solar voltaic cell and wind power and many other intricacies in design that saves, store or allocate energy with efficacy.

Friends, at this moment, I understand about the entropy issue being a field of concern for man. Many scientists stick to the old notion that entropy can only increase in a higher disorder direction, though I understood that apart from entropy transfering from one source to another, I feel that entropy can actually be reversible, and this may ascertain the joy that planet Earth may live in glory for many centuries from now.

Compassion and tolerance

The weighs on the scale of lady justice shows a balance of justice on the right hand, and the feel of compassion on the other hand. From justice, more righteous man are formed for a healthy interplay of life. The Universal Declaration of Human Right mentions that all man should have their inherited human rights and shown justice packaged according to the humanist altruism. Justice is mandated in fairness though we should be careful with the judgement that words of speech may bring. The soft face of the lady justice exuberates the feel of hope as true compassion actually promotes and advances justice, and justice gives the joy of lovely compassion, which extols the fragance and the bliss that colours life as a serenade of grace.

Life according to human is about wise compassion and the toleration of each other, as people come to understand each other in fairness and peace, promoting the feel of love, and tolerate the difference that may come from the individualism. After all, God in his perfection loves a good variety of traits, all according to the realm of peace, love and grace, and man should embraces similarity and differences alike, according to wise and sound decision. Tolerance is needed for man to understand each other, in the standard that society befits for gracious living. Therefore, may the peace be with you, and embrace tolerance, for a fairer world and for a life of longevity. Be rich at heart.

Sai BaBa fortunate donor

Sai Baba organization is involved in the affair of hospital charity. Many compassionate acts of free medical treatment, discounted treatment and alternative medication can be found at Sai Baba medical centre. This is an act where the basis of spirituality is for healing and to help prolong life. Based on good spiritual fundamental is the basis of the healing, and many are saved from diseases by good treatment.

Founded on the basis of compassion, Sai Baba received funding mainly from a well-known restaurant chain known as Hard Rock Cafe. Now, this is a news that surprise me for the good, as this theme restaurant inspiringly contribute to health and spiritual. Hard Rock Cafe may seem to be a restaurant based on a Rock and Roll theme music with fried food, though the essence of this restaurant is subtlely based on a faith in humanity, for the management based huge amount of donation to the Sai Baba medical organization. This is an investment in human trust, and we understand Sai Baba is like one of the saints on Earth, being one of the guide of the light, and this reveals the heart of Hard Rock Cafe. Afterall, a seemingly worldly organization has an intent that is actually noble in purpose.