2005 – Page 93 – Peter Tan – The Digital Awakening

Living Outside My Comfort Zone

Anxiety always precedes when I have to travel alone. One thousand and one things can happen that will render me helpless in an unfamiliar surrounding – Murphy?s Law. The last time I did that was almost six years ago when I went to meet Wuan and my IRC buddies for the first time. Nothing untoward happened. MAS have well-trained staff and facilities to handle people with disabilities like me who are travelling unaccompanied. Taxi drivers are no less helpful when I needed to get around. Generally, people are kind to me and offer to help but the fear still lingers.

I guess I have mollycoddled myself too much by only doing things within my own sphere of comfort. Can I survive outside that zone? I believe I can. I will just have to brace my nerves and do it. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. That said, I have confirmed my trip to Kuala Lumpur on January 8. Wuan will be picking me up from Sentral Station. I will be there for a couple of weeks. First in the agenda is of course to spend some quality time with Wuan and then to meet Marita and Grace the following weekend. I would love to meet other bloggers too. Date, time and venue are still tentative. I will update again when everything is confirmed. Suggestions are welcomed.

Waves of Death: Please Help

Church Bulletin
Cathedral of the Holy Spirit
1, Tingkat Besi Satu
Island Park, 11600 Penang.
Tel: 04-6584909
Fax: 04-6564309

A great tragedy has struck our region and country. More than 125,000 dead, 66 in Malaysia. An unprecedented scale of mobilising of aid and relief work is underway throughout the world. On our part the Catholic Church in Peninsular will have a second collection at all Masses on 31st December, 2004, 1st & 2nd January, 2005 for this purpose. In the spirit of Christmas please give generously. Donation by cheque, please draw in favour of “Diocese of Penang” and write “Tsunami Relief” at the back of the cheque.

Penang Office for Human Development (POHD) in response to the urgent pleas from the Sri Lankan Embassy is collecting dry food, water, clothes, medical supplies specifically painkillers, cough, cold and fever medication etc. for the survivors of horrific Tsunami. If you wish to donate at this parish please contact the following:

For medical supplies and surgical gloves, please contact: Dr. Marina David – 012-4816191
For clothes please contact : Mr. Sebastian Pillai – 012-4073121
For food etc please contact: : Mr. Anthony Yong Wong – 016-4876936

You may also bring your contribution to Ground Floor, Pusat Keuskupan Katolik, 290 Jalan Macalister, Penang. Make your contribution by January 7, 2005. The POHD is mobilising a container of posthaste to Sri Lanka.

Lucia had blogged about this here. Her entries at TsunamiPenang are here and here.

Gurney Getaway – Day 1 (December 27, 2004)

Gurney Hotel, Penang.

The suite at Gurney Hotel had been booked well in advance. We were apprehensive initially. The staggering number of deaths reported in Malaysia, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and India were daunting enough. We had heard and read that Gurney Drive was pounded by the tsunami. We were not sure if any life was lost but the fatality elsewhere in Penang had us worried. The thought of Penang being hit by aftershocks and another tsunami weighed heavily in our minds. Yet, we were curious, wanting to see for ourselves the real situation there. Wuan and I checked with the hotel several times and were assured that the hotel was still operating.

View from the hotel’s pool deck – crawling traffic below.

Like babies, we took small cautious steps when we reached the hotel with Peter’s family whom Wuan had invited to join us. We looked around. The sea was calm. The road was clean. Evening strollers wandered leisurely at the promenade. There were no hints of anything unusual except the traffic. Crawling vehicles snaked the length of the road as far as our eyes could see. We guessed a lot of them came to see the gravity of damage the tsunami wreaked. We Malaysians are a curious lot. We slow down to watch motor accidents but seldom stopped to offer help. And now we visit disaster areas for the same purpose.

Shadow of Gurney Hotel cast on the surface of the sea at Gurney Drive

Shadow of the hotel against the calm sea.

The view from the hotel’s pool deck on the seventh floor was breathtaking. Small boats bobbed in the distance. Tankers and cargo ships anchored in the middle of the channel. The sun was setting. Birds were returning to roost. The strong cool breeze that was blowing in ruffled my hair. Indeed, it was the Gurney Drive I had always known. I had come to get away from the grim footages of destruction and death continuously being broadcasted by CNN. Still, I could not shake off that feeling of gloom and doom. Those images distressed me greatly, as was the death toll that continued to rise by the hour. We retired early that evening, exhausted by the macabre events of the past two days.