Boredom is the theme of the day. When I am bored, I get all fidgety, anxious and depressed. Raiding the fridge did not yield any comfort food or at least one that could calm me down. The three cans of 100 Plus looked inviting but I was craving for something with a stronger flavour. The lone Heineken sitting beside the trio beckoned but I do not drink beer during the day. They make me tipsy fast. I regretted having depleted my cache of frosty cold Vanilla Coke and A&W Root Beer too soon. There I sat, feeling dull, mineral bottle in hand, fulfilling my daily plain water intake quota, and mentally listing down the junk food I am going buy on my next shopping trip.

Although it had been raining on and off the whole of yesterday, the winds felt dry today. I know it because my palms and the soles of my feet are not feeling like they normally should. They are a tad smooth. Small items required more effort to pick up and grip. My feet kept slipping off the footplates. I am glad that Dr. Liong, my urologist, changed my prescription from Ditropan to Detrusitol. These two drugs are used to relax an overactive bladder. They both produce similar side effects in me, namely dry mouth and blurred vision. These problems are exacerbated during the dry season. The side effects from Detrusitol are far less pronounced. I get through the day with very little discomfort as compared to the days when I was taking the former. Now, as I think of those side effects that had made me so miserable, I am thankful for little blessings that have been coming my way. My dull day did not seem that unexciting anymore.

Back in the days when Bayan Lepas was still a wide expanse of muddy padi fields, there were no Tamagotchis, Gameboys, PS2 and computers to occupy our leisure time. The two forms of electronic entertainment were the radio and black and white television with two channels. Now, Bayan Lepas has become the Silicon Valley of the East. I can live my wildest fantasies in computer games while channel surfing the television and replying to an email from half a world away, all at the same time. Times sure have changed. Nevertheless, I still miss those good old days when as kids, all we had to play with were mostly what we could find from around the vicinity we were playing at.

Parents back then were creative. They could make simple toys that kept us entertained to no end. It did not even cost a lot. The materials were easy to get, mostly things we used everyday. One of the more impressive homemade toys that I remember was the spinning water caltrops. This weird looking nut is also known as lin kok in Cantonese. It is only available from the market during the Mid-Autumn Festival. The shell is black, hard and looks like the horns of a bull. It is cooked by boiling in water. Some effort is needed to crack it open to reveal the edible nut inside that tasted faintly like chestnuts.

The materials for making the spinning water caltrops is simple. All that is needed are a few water caltrops with really hard shells, a lidi and a length of string. On the other hand, making it needs some patience as the nut inside needs to be removed bit by bit. I have forgotten how it was made but it was fun when it I was playing with it that time. It may seem to be a mindless toy to children now but during those times it was something novel for us during the Mid-Autumn festival apart from parading the neighbourhood with our lanterns.

The convenience of the modern day technology has irreversibly enslaved me. No doubt these things have made my life easier; it has come to a point where to live without them is unthinkable. The mobile phone I am using is acting up intermittently which got me tearing my hair out looking for a solution. The phone�s reception bar showed a full signal. Sometimes I can dial out, sometimes I cannot. Likewise for incoming calls.

Switching the SIM card to my old Siemens C35 phone yielded the same problem. At least I know that the new phone is not at fault. Celcom’s customer service, although polite, offered no immediate pacification. I was told that my complaint will be looked into and hopefully resolved within three days. In the meantime, I have to restrain my compulsion to chat with Wuan over the phone, which we do many times per day. This had left me restless for most part of the afternoon and evening.

That is a photo of my phones. The Siemens’ battery cover is broken. It is being held together by a rubber band. This is almost like my broken camera battery cover which is being held shut by my tripod’s quick release plate. I tend to drop things a lot because of my weak grip. A lot of the things that I use are extra large in size so that I can hold them properly but mobile phone nowadays are getting smaller and smaller. Using one can be a problem at times. It is ludicrous that such a small piece of technology can affect me that much - pathetic but true.

Angelina (2nd from left) with her award.
Photo courtesy of The Star.

Here is wishing hearty congratulations to P. Angelina, reporter for The Star�s In.Tech, for winning the second prize of the Sony Malaysia Media Achievement Award (SOMA). Angelina won the English category prize for the article that she wrote in October last year. This is an excerpt from The Star on the SOMA:

Angelina said she was surprised that she had won an award for her article, Sharing Life�s Recipes Online, about how a paralysed man was using the Internet to live his life. �I had not expected to win anything since this was the first time I was taking part in the competition. I�m happy to have been selected. It�s always nice to be recognised for one�s work,� she said. ….. Soma 2004 received 91 entries from newspaper and magazine journalists. The contest aimed to encourage journalists to write news on audio-visual, information and communication technology (ICT) and IT networking in the broadband era. The Star, September 25, 2004

In the hubbub of everyday living, I tend to forget who I am. There are bills to pay, things to get done, meals to cook, groceries to buy and a thousand other things that run through my mind from the moment I awake in the morning until the second I fall asleep at night. Caught in this mad rush to go through each day, I also lost sight of who I want to be. A mechanical being is what I have become, doing things in set ways day in day out every day of the week. The humanness in me was slowly being chipped away by these daily drudgeries.

There were also times when I got arrogant. I wittingly let little accomplishments get to my head believing that I alone can achieve those feats without needing help. I allowed myself to grow into a self-centred and vain person. Those are not good traits that I want to possess. The times that I realised my follies, I felt ashamed of it but they were soon forgotten and repeated. Old habits die hard.

My ego needed to be pricked constantly to bring me back down to earth. The innocence that I used to possess had to be rejuvenated and the perfunctory temporarily discarded. These I must do to bring the simplicity back into my life again. I discovered no better way than following one simple rule of abstinence. I have been observing Meatless Fridays for the past three weeks. Meatless Friday is an age-old Roman Catholic tradition that is not strictly adhered to anymore now. For me, there is more to it than its religious significance.

It takes a conscious effort to become a vegetarian once a week. This deliberate self-denial brings realisation to the question mark of whom I am and who I want to be. As I tuck the vegetables into my mouth, I am reminded of the purpose I am eating this meal. I am constantly prompted to thank God for the little blessings that come my way every so often, to practice humility in my dealings with everyone and to recognise my limitations. Vegetarianism teaches me patience and self discipline, two virtues which I yearn for in myself.

Forgoing meat brings back the essence of humanness into my life. I am reminded that every life is sacred and should be treated with respect irrespective of species and whatever their purpose to us the Divine had intended. It is also an opportunity to give my body a rest from the other unhealthy meals that I have been having for the rest of the week. For a moment the chores that had been depressing my days to no end seemed to melt away. For one day in the week, I can feel alive again. Worries are furthest away from my mind. Life has become simple once more. If I can, I will be skipping like a little child come every Friday.