Breaking out the news

News are generally divided into 2 categories – good or bad. Well, good news is good, no matter however way you decide to break it, it will still sound good. Same as sweets, kit kat, Cadbury.. no matter how you chew, kiss, munch or lick it – it’s sweet.

Now the next category – bad news – I’ll divide into 2 subsets : poor prognosis and dead. Poor prognosis is the time when the patient is apparently critically ill, and you’ll have to prepare the owner. “Be prepared…” but if she started crying, I can always end the sentence with, “There’s still a chance anyway…” and to be more honest, perhaps I’ll add a few more final words, “Though the chance is extremely slim…”

Not so bad to convey this news. Not so bad indeed…

Now the worst kind of news anyone can hear would be, “He’s dead.” It will not have mattered if the doggie's owner had wanted him dead. But then again, if so, he wouldn’t have brought doggie to the vet in the first place, will he? To save my blog space, let me just conclude: most owners want their doggies/ kitties alive n healthy.

Now, what will happen has finally happened. Little doggie died. How am I supposed to tell the owner? I’ve thought and ran through many methods which can be applied over the phone… and still thinking of better ways. Here are some examples (my imagination):

Option A:
Vet: Harlow! How are you doing?! Hahahaha… I'm fine I'm good.. how's life?

Owner: I'm busy. Very busy right now. (indifferent)

Vet: Oh ya.. ok.. I just called to say that kitty has died.

Owner: What?! Oh no!!! (started deafening you with his cries, and you started wondering, why the sudden change of tone?)

Option B:

Vet: Hello… I'm calling to inform you about kitty. (solemn)

Owner: How's my kitty? (anxious)

Vet: I'm sorry… he left us last night. (sobs)

Conclusion: Words and tones used are sensitive enough. Owner may feel that you’re in the same boat with her – sharing her sorrow. But what if the owner replies with this? “Where did he left to?”

Option C:
Vet: Hi… remember what I told you yesterday?

Owner: Er.. you used more than 500 words yesterday.. which one do you mean? (scratching his head)

Vet: That your kitty may die.. he died.

Owner: I remember you said there may be a chance!

Vet: I told you the chance is slim.

Owner: But a chance is still a chance! You said you'll try your best! How can he die? It's either zero chance or you didn't try your best! I'm gonna sue you! You liar!!

Conclusion: Use less word in such situation. More words = more confusions = more misunderstandings = things will turn out sour.

Hapi Deepa Gatherin

It’s been a long time since I last seen my smkb frens. Wow! That deepa gathering was terrific, thanks to Ma n Su, ha.. I finally got to see my long lost frens’ faces – esp CKS. Haha, yep, it’s tru. I’ve never seen him since.. F6, maybe? He’a changed.. fairer.. and a little bulky. Oh yeah… *slurrrp!

Ok. The 2nd good thing about this type of gathering was it was a platform of sharing – about almost everything – ur work, mood, problems.. etc, you name it. Except that some things which were supposed to remain P & C should not be brought up to the table. It was a fun time. Asking one another how do they de-stress themselves, motivate one another.. having a good laugh together, for once. =)

Now, this part happens almost at all gathering. When ppl started throwing questions like, “Where do you work now?” “Where are you studying? What course? When graduating?” “Oh, you changed your job? So what’s your new job now?” “Oh, what business are you in?”

Of all answers from the above questions, honestly, I remember only 30% of them. Yep. Once YJin even slapped me with this, “OK, let’s make this very clear. I no longer work with Sxxxx, and I’ve never worked with Syyyy. And my new company is Szzzz. Everybody clear?” Truthfully, at that very moment I was enlightened, truly. But ask me now, I can’t tell you where he works. :P

A fren of mine once commented that the reason why I can’t remember the details was because I’m not interested in them. Not true. I’ve been “specially” interested in a few ppl, and yet I forget about many of their details. Ask me abt my idols, and I can’t remember his wife’s name, his DOB, his POB. But I can surely tell u the songs he sing, and roughly the number of albums he’s published. =)

Ohya.. a bonus from the deepa gathering – me, PGaik n Kar actually stepped into SMKB (now SMKKB)! It felt like going thru the tunnel of years. Watching all the memories flashing back unto you, it was great, indeed. Once we found that our old Bilik Pengawas was gone! Replaced by St Johns. I’m glad tat SJAM finally got their office. But…. Where’s Bilik Pengawas? We searched the entire school and still couldn’t find it. Finally I went to ask Mr Pak Guard – only to find tat it had shifted to a larger, air-conditioned, beautiful room. All smiles. =) yea yea….

But one sad thing – most of my beloved murals are now gone. GONE!!!! Why?!!!!!

Anyway, this was wat one of the murals which I painted says,
“Ask not what the school can do for you,
but what you can do for your school.”

It was a nice, sweet one, with birds and flowers, and the colour was so-oh-how-harmony! Thank God, praise God, I’ve got the murals captured in photographs – all laid in my museum, “Colours of My Life”. (in short, my photo album la…)

becareful when near the road

i'm not running any campaign for our government on road safety, though i'm on their side.

It happened one day that i was about to cross a main road, looking left and right before crossing. As the traffic relaxed abit, and i was about to cross the road, all of the sudden i saw a car zooming right across me.

What dropped my jaw was, the driver was not looking forward! He was looking down, i wonder if he's removing his shoes or whatever, zooming about the road without looking forward. Imagine if i were a child trying to cross the road...

cycling in ktn

haa..finaly.. today is the first time, ever in my days here, tat i got up, exactly the moment i heard my alarm clock ringing. wow! it took me how many months! for the past days my poor clock was slammed quiet everytime it rang.. but today, somehow my wil power got hold of my laziness. and there i was.. waking up at.. 7.30am! haa...

it was difficult indeed, my mind was still stirring about - maybe i should sleep for another 10 minutes? the other part of me was saying, hey 10 minutes won't mean anything ok... while the other part, "i'm sure it'll be wonderful cycling abt early in the morning, here in the breeze-ly ktn."

10 minutes later i was on my bike, wondering speeding about my housing area. i felt wonderful, indeed. ;)

perhaps i'll do more so in the coming days. no more laziness. get into the dustbin you the-thing-called-laziness!

i want to claim more will-power!! POWER!!1