Another eccentric post here but lately I’ve been wondering about a close affinity with another person who could be just next door or thousands of miles away. It’s happened to me a few times and it might have happened to you too.

For instance you’re chatting with them (either on the phone, instant messaging, Skype, whatever) and they mention they’re not feeling well, perhaps a bit of the flu or something like that. Well guess what, I have the flu too. Coincidence? What about other stuff like when they mention a song and you interject “Hey, that song is one of my faves too!” And on and on it goes, with other elements, like colors, food, hobbies, etc. And sometimes more philosophical stuff like their values, their dreams, their aspirations. You find that the more you know them, the more you have in common.

What I want to remind my readers is that no, I don’t want to be an exact copy of another person, sharing the same taste for things and life 100% of the way. That wouldn’t be too exciting, would it. It’s the unexpected flukes that make me sit up and smile. There will be times that we dare to be different (I’m talking stuff like bananas here. Yes, bananas. Someone’s probably shuddering now) and that’s what makes human interaction so fascinating—it’s always in a state of flux. Similar, yet different.

Dunno about anyone else, but I tend to gravitate toward people who have the same tastes as myself. It’s so weird that I can experience this even with someone who’s thousands of miles away—there must be some unique and wonderful disturbances in the temporal vortex*, but I like it!!

* Yes I pinched this from Star Trek.

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Maybe I screwed up. Maybe I should have stayed back for graduate studies. We make decisions in life which obviously can’t be reversed on a whim. When I left the University of Arizona after graduation I was only 24. Now I’m twice that age and am strongly thinking of returning to the States. Crazy isn’t it. I’m not definite about graduate school (the tuition fees now would probably kill me) but other factors are making me want to leave Malaysia, at least for a while.

I guess I could take a mini Sabbatical—haven’t had a proper holiday for years. Sometimes I am so tired of life here in Malaysia, I really am. Things are cheap, I’ll grant you that—but certain mannerisms about Malaysia and Malaysians never seem to change. I’m not going there because this is a touchy subject, ‘nuff said.

I know it’s senseless, or futile, but I keep asking myself the “What if” question. What if I had stayed back to do graduate studies? What if I had decided to remain permanently there in the States? Damn, my life might have been entirely different from now. Can’t quite forgive myself but what’s done is done. Can’t go back to the past but I can still look forward to the future with hope and determination.

Perhaps it’s not too late. I can’t turn back the clock—but at least I can revisit.

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I’ve known Alan and Liz Peacock for a long time. They’ve been frequenting the Penang Parkroyal for many years and I am glad to have them as friends. Alan is now retired after lecturing for years, both in the UK and here. He used to come out to Penang on working vacations, now it’s all holiday, no more work—wonderful isn’t it.

So today I took both of them to Chilli Corner in downtown Penang for a meal—wonderful food at this restaurant. Don’t be aghast with the picture, the three of us had much more than plain cucumbers (which was just the hors d’oeuvre)

I’ll be seeing both of them tomorrow night since they’re planning a dinner at the E & O Hotel. Great friends, and good times. Alan, you can take a deep breath now—you’ve got your 15 minutes of fame in my blog.

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Here are some pictures I took just before starting work at the 1885 (fine dining restaurant) E & O Hotel, Penang on Valentine’s night. Wine, women, and song (not necessarily in that order)

There’s my workstation above (wine not included)

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Seeing as Valentine’s Day is drawing near, allow me to present this clip of yours truly playing Dream a little dream of me. The lyrics are displayed below. Songs like this one are all about romance—and I love it. Not the “let’s get the sex part going” kind of thing, nope. And a kiss is the most romantic thing between two lovers, period. Enjoy, and Happy Valentine’s Day.

Stars shining bright above you;
Night breezes seem to whisper “I love you.”
Birds singing in the sycamore tree.
Dream a little dream of me.

Say nighty-night and kiss me;
Just hold me tight and tell me you’ll miss me.
While I’m alone, blue as can be,
Dream a little dream of me.

Stars fading but I linger on, dear—
Still craving your kiss.
I’m longing to linger till dawn, dear,
Just saying this…

Sweet dreams till sunbeams find you—
Sweet dreams that leave all worries behind you.
But in your dreams, whatever they be,
Dream a little dream of me.

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This is going to be an eccentric post, so please bear with me.

This year’s Chinese New Year falls on the same day as Valentine’s Day (February 14) Do I give a hoot about the former? No. The latter? Yes Anyways, I’ll be working the whole weekend…I prefer it that way. The only nice thing about Chinese New Year is that I get to take a break from my teaching, so that’s definitely a plus point (this is one of our major Malaysian holidays, Miss Miller, and yes I do work)

It was very nice of my music school administrator to give me this New Year hamper (or basket, for my American friends) There’s a variety of stuff inside, including edibles and dunno what else, LOL. And yes, I’ll open it later. The picture was taken as usual with my Canon PowerShot SX120 IS; I just love this camera, the colors are so vibrant.

I’ve written two new posts for My Musical Life, my other blog. Please have a look.

I’ve watched Avatar twice…once by myself and once with my Mom. Since the tickets only cost $1.80 per adult, why not? I thought Mom would doze off halfway thru the movie but my word, she was glued to the screen! She said it was a good flick. Rumors are flying about the Internet that James Cameron will make a sequel. Of course I’m not going to hold my breath (it took him 7 years before Terminator 2 hit the screens)

Unlike all the other citizens here, I am not a fan of Chinese movies. In fact I absolutely despise them with a vengeance, especially the Cantonese soaps and serials—yuck! Give me NCIS, Fringe, CSI, Criminal Minds, and Bones any time—these are my favorite TV shows.

Music? My current fave is Katherine Jenkins, the Welsh singer. Beautiful voice, and her latest album Believe is pure magic. My favorite songs there are Bob Marley’s No Woman No Cry, Richard Marx’ Fear of Falling, and Queen’s Who wants to live forever. Buy this album, it’s superb.

Unfortunately I’ve had to cut down on my swimming—the doc said I was overdoing it, can you imagine that? So I now swim maybe about 3 or 4 times a week, 16 laps maximum. And I’m supposed to eat more protein, so all you chickens had better watch out. My glucose levels have actually decreased, which is good since my Mom’s diabetic. My cholesterol level has dropped from 5.8 (2 years ago) to 5.4 now. I’ll be guzzling the oatmeal for sometime yet!

I still give thanks to God for everything that I have, especially my health and my eyes—it’s been months since my cataract operation last year and I still can’t get over the fact that I wake up each morning and can see clearly when I open my eyes!

I’ve been having ham and cheese sandwiches for breakfast, besides oatmeal and peanut butter sandwiches. Bananas are my favorite fruit because they’re good for…oh well never mind (don’t blech, Miss M) And Tudor Gold dark chocolate is simply wonderful, full of antioxidants and it does elevate my happiness levels.

There are challenges coming up for me this year—I don’t like them, but I have to face them. Might as well get them over with.

Penang’s weather is awful at this time of the year. Hot, with very little rain, and pollutants make my nose itchy and sore—ugh!

For you lovebirds out there, yes Love does make the world go round. My favorite quote for now is this one: “You don’t love a woman because she is beautiful. She is beautiful because you love her.” Happy Valentine’s Day.

Told you this would be a quirky post.

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It’s amazing how often people meet like ships in the night, and then drift away…it happened to me way back in 1981 when I met someone whom I liked a lot…our paths crossed for a brief semester at the University of Arizona, we went out for one solitary date, and then she just—disappeared. I was completely dumbfounded—she was a person I would have liked to know better. Slowly time made me forget, since I had other friends in college. Our two ships set their own different courses in the sea of life.

Fast-forward to 2009, and I was writing my blog series about my years in America. I intended to include some of my American college friends in it, and suddenly she flashed into my mind. Oh what the heck, since I’m on Facebook why not humor myself and do a Facebook search? Something just prodded me on, so I entered her name and clicked on Search. Lo and behold, the search results came back (there were several hundred entries) Gosh, am I going to search through all that? Again something urged me on, so I clicked on the first results page—nada. Second page, third page, fourth page, nope. And then there she was—slightly older no doubt (so am I) but there was that recognizable smile.

I hastily penned a message about adding her as my Facebook friend and clicked on Send. I remember writing something like “If I’ve got the wrong person, I do sincerely apologize.” A day or two later, I received an email from her, and eagerly opened it (I half-expected it to say that I’d got the wrong person) But fortunately it was her! And she remembered who I was. Thanks to the miracle of Facebook, two ships have managed to steer back towards each other, after an absence of 28 years.

We’ve been using WLM to stay in touch since then…it’s delightful to know about what has been going on in her life, while I tell her my own gory details. This is not a publicity campaign for Facebook (and it doesn’t need it) but without it two friends would not have reconnected again. Friendship transcends all barriers, be they physical or otherwise. There is nothing more congenial than knowing and confiding in a good friend. Friendship is truly the best ship of all. Thank you for being my friend, Crystal.

“Without friends no one would choose to live, though he had all other goods.” Aristotle

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