Welcoming the year of the Horse

The year of the Horse is here again! Wishing everyone a good year ahead. May fortune smile on you, and success come your way!

According to the fortune teller, this is not going to be a lucky year for me. So for myself, I just hope that I will be able to live peacefully through the days, and get by the year without ups and downs.

Anyway, did the usual walk around the floral centre nearby. This year, things are a lot quieter. The crowd was less, the atmosphere not as lively. It has been like this since they converted half of the floral centre into an open air car park, leaving half the shops in place. I wonder how long things can last... it is a bit sad, since Chinese New Year's Eve brings back a lot of memories about how I used to help out at the shop. Selling plants, helping out with the last-minute deliveries. I miss riding at the back of a lorry in the middle of the night as we did our delivery rounds. Time really flies by.

Giving up hope

I have stopped trying to ask for what I want. I have stopped trying to make my point about that post being my dream.

I have stopped trying to make her understand how I feel. I have stopped arguing.

In both instances, is it because I have learnt to accept the fact? Or have I given up hope?

When will someone reach out a hand and catch me from falling further and further into myself? From wasting away emotionally.

A cry for help. No one hears. Or pretends not to.

Surrounded by people, yet so alone.

Pine cone in the snow

Pine cone in the snow. That's how I feel.

Alone in the cold.
Fallen from up high.
Awaiting someone to pick up me.
Only to be fed into the fire.

Taking command responsibility

I have written about command responsibility before.

Today is when I take command responsibility for something that happened.

Winter vacation 2013: Japan

We usually spend New Year Day in Japan, with my in-laws. 2014 is no exception. So after our trip to the USA, we went back to Japan for the new year.

We welcomed the new year with the usual Japanese tradition of osechi. This was followed by a trip down to the nearby shrine, where we prayed for health and good luck.

We also made a trip to Kawasaki Taishi, to pray for health and good luck in the year ahead. Plus enjoy the nice food you can find being sold at the food stalls.

It was a short, quiet break for us, before we returned to the hectic lifestyle awaiting us in Singapore. It was time spent with family, chatting over dinner, over beer, over wine. Watching variety shows on TV. Reading books on my Kindle. Just taking things slowly.

Winter vacation 2013: USA trip

For the winter break in 2013, we flew over to the USA, visiting Legoland California (which we missed in 2010), spending Christmas with friends and touring Virginia City.

It was too short a trip.

1220 miles travelled on this Nissan Pathfinder, which we rented when we got to Los Angeles. Actual distance travelled was longer since my friend drove us around on Day 6.

Day 1: Arrived at Los Angeles. Drove down to Carlsbad, where we stayed overnight.

Day 2: Legoland California!

Day 3: Spent more than 12 hours on the road getting from Carlsbad to Sacramento on the I-5. All because of the truck traffic going through Tejon Pass. We started in the morning from Carlsbad, but by the time we made it through Tejon Pass, it was in the late afternoon. We ended up driving the rest of the way up to Sacramento mostly at night.

Day 4: Christmas Eve. A quick trip to the mall, before hitting the road, going east on the US Route 50 to get to our friends' place.

Day 5: Christmas with friends.

Day 6: Touring Virginia City, passing through Carson City, Reno and Lake Tahoe along the way there.

Day 7: Down the US Route 395, spending almost 8 hours on the road before we reached Los Angeles. Dropped by my cousin's place to say hi before spending the night at a hotel near the airport.

Day 8: Good bye USA!

Here's one of the lakes that we passed by while driving on the US Route 395. Think it is Mono Lake.

It won't be an over exaggeration to say that this is a Lego trip... we visited Legoland, we bought Lego at Legoland, we bought Lego at Sacramento, my cousin gave the kid Lego too! And he even had a Lego Christmas present waiting for him back home...

 

Winter vacation 2013: Virginia City

As part of our visit, our friends brought up around the neighbourhood, in the American sense. It was a day tour that took up up to Carson City, into Virginia City, where the main tour was, and then passing through Reno before we headed back home.

 

Virginia City sprang up as part of the gold rush of the 19th century. This is the wild west. There's even a museum, The Way It Was Museum, that depicted how life was like back in the days of the gold rush.

The Bucket of Blood Saloon is a famous landmark in the town.

And there's the famous Suicide Table.

 And this desk here was supposedly Mark Twain's desk.

Along the way, we passed by vast stretches of land, and even caught a glimpse of wild horses.

On the way back from Reno, we passed by Lake Tahoe. It's the largest alpine lake in North America, and has many ski resorts. Our stay was too short to go skiing, but that's didn't stop us from getting a few nice pictures of the lake.

Winter vacation 2013: Christmas

We last visited our friends at their place in Mechanicsburg in 2010. They have since shifted to Nevada, somewhere near Carson City. For the winter break in 2013, we decided to visit them and spend Christmas again with them.

We got to their place in the late afternoon of Christmas Eve, after 2 hours of drive up US Route 50 from Sacramento.

At the entrance to their new home was this cute little sign. We took up the offer of cookies and cocoa.

Walking around the house on Christmas morning, we discovered these tracks. The small ones belong to a rabbit. The big ones? The neighbourhood bear, apparently.

Here's Rudolf in the kitchen. All ready for Christmas dinner.

We had a turducken for Christmas dinner. That's an interesting dish. Throw in the rest of the dishes and dessert, and you will know why dinner had to start at 2pm, else we would never get the dishes done before bed.

It was great being able to catch up with old friends. We didn't do much, it was a short stay, too short a stay. Most of the time, we were chatting over meals, watching TV and DVDs together, getting a tour of the house, chatting over coffee. It's not the things that you do, but the company that you are with.

Pine cone in the snow.

Winter vacation 2013: Legoland

3 years ago, when we visited California, it rained out during our stay, and we didn't manage to go to Legoland California proper, though we managed to visit the SEA LIFE Aquarium instead. So Legoland California has been on the wish list for a while, and it was top of the list in our visit to the USA during the winter break of 2013.

As it was just before Christmas, even Legoland was all ready for winter and to celebrate Christmas, with an event area dedicated to the snowy season, even though there wasn't any snow in Southern California.

But even without snow, we still managed to enjoy a tube ride down a snowy slope, created specially for the winter season. It was a mighty short ride compared to the one we took at Furano Prince Hotel when we went skiing at Hokkaido in 2011.

Here's the budding driver, learning to drive in a blue car at the Junior Driving School.

At Miniland USA, we saw Lego replicas of famous places in the USA, such as this one of Treasure Island at Las Vegas.

There's even a replica of Washington DC. All decked out for Christmas. Brings back memories of our visit 6 years ago to Washington DC.

And at Legoland California's Miniland, there is a section dedicated to Star Wars. Lego blocks were used to reproduce famous scenes from the Star Wars movies, from Episode 1 to 6. The pathway leading to these scenes were lined with Lego replicas of famous Star Wars characters like Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader and R2D2.

Here's the red and green dragons. Wonder which is more scary?

And there are many many rides at Legoland, most of which are kids-friendly. I think we managed to take all the coaster rides (these aren't my thing, so I stayed on the ground taking photos).

We ended the day having a cup of coffee at the lobby of the newly opened Legoland Hotel. Guess who was there beside the giant Lego Christmas tree?

My last watch at sea

Today, I kept my last watch on a ship.

For the past 11 years, since 2003, I have been serving onboard ships.

The last watch was uneventful. I was helping to train an understudy, and that was as eventful as it got. No close calls, no incidents, just getting the job done.

It was uneventful because it was the culmination of 17 years of training. A good ship handler doesn't get himself into situations in which good shiphandling is required.

I will miss the life at sea.

Reviewing goals for 2013

I set some goals for 2013:

- Learn Korean.
Partial achievement... close to very little... I can read the Korean alphabet, but vocabulary and grammar is close to zero.

- Visit South Korea.
Achieved! Managed to catch up with my Korean classmate and enjoyed the Korean hospitality.

- Help my taiji teacher write his book.
Zero progress...

- Attempt qualification exam for taiji instructor.
Didn't managed to do this because I was not around in Singapore during that period.

- Visit my mentor at his new home in Nevada.
Achieved! Trip report will follow.

In all, I achieved less than 50% of the goals... guess I need to do better, or be less ambitious.

地上の星 by 中島みゆき

風の中のすばる
砂の中の銀河
みんな何処へ行った
見送られることもなく
草原のペガサス
街角のヴィーナス
みんな何処へ行った　
見守られることもなく

地上にある星を誰も覚えていない
人は空ばかり見てる

つばめよ高い空から教えてよ
地上の星を
つばめよ地上の星は今
何処にあるのだろう

崖の上のジュピター
水底のシリウス
みんな何処へ行った　
見守られることもなく
名立たるものを追って　

輝くものを追って
人は氷ばかり掴む

つばめよ高い空から教えてよ
地上の星を
つばめよ地上の星は今
何処にあるのだろう

名立たるものを追って　
輝くものを追って
人は氷ばかり掴む

風の中のすばる
砂の中の銀河
みんな何処へ行った
見送られることもなく

つばめよ高い空から教えてよ
地上の星を
つばめよ地上の星は今
何処にあるのだろう

One of my favourite songs by one of my favourite Japanese singer/song-writer.

Welcoming 2014

Happy New Year!

A big welcome to 2014! May the new year be a new start and bring new hope!