Happy belated birthday, you old boy

When you are young, time seems to stand still. You are always anxious and impatient about something. But as you get older, your life starts to fast forward. It is  scarily true.

I looked up what I wrote during my last birthday. It seems like yesterday! I still remember very clearly the  phase I was going through at that time. It’s like a “just got bitten by a radioactive spider” kind of phase. See last year’s post here.

Looking back, I am glad I took steps to change things. So things have changed. It really did!

Is it good or bad? Well…

Now my plans are not built around school holidays. It is built around public holidays, and public holidays that fall on weekends. If Saturday is a public holiday, then I get to claim a replacement leave. If it falls on a Sunday, then Monday is an automatic holiday.

You don’t get a full week off for Chinese New Year anymore by default. I’m already thinking of Chinese New Year. And it isn’t even Christmas yet.

Now I leave home for work when it’s dark, and come home when it’s dark. Soon, I will probably forget how the world looks like when the sun is up.

My wife says I don’t have funny jokes to tell anymore. And she feels I have now become “like everyone else.” Nothing special to say, nothing to be proud of.

It’s an upside down world. If your work is one that changes the world for the better, you get paid peanuts. If your work does little to impact the world, you get paid so much more. It is like two sides of the same world, but its value is inverted.

If you switch from one world to the other, you will get no respect in the new world. It works the same, both ways.

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Running wise, it has been hard to stay on the game like I used to. I don’t have time anymore to hit the roads or go on LSDs. My Standard Chartered maiden full marathon did not happen. A minor ligament tear in my left knee threw it all away. It was a very sad thing.

It was very hard to pick myself up again after a 60-day lay off. But now, I am slowly getting back in shape. I’ve done two 10k races to jump start my engine. I’ve been hitting the treadmill at the gym, while I wait out the jam after office hours. Now, I’ve pulled myself out of the gutter and can manage 50 minutes on the treadmill. It is nothing to shout about, considering what I was able to do before. But it’s a start.

Past disappointments aside, I’d like to think that my Standard Chartered full marathon was not a failure. It just got postponed.

Sure, you may hit the pits every once in a while. But the Miracle Miler’s spirit never dies.

Bangkitlah!

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I looked up the list of famous people  who died young again. It’s turning into an annual ritual. Here are those who died at 29…

Hank Williams

Percy Shelley

Hmmm… dunno…

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Other notable people who died this year…

Amy Winehouse. Did you know she was half Jewish and half Russian?

Steve Jobs. He invented something before a need for it existed. Now he will  forever be remembered as a visionary. He worked all his life at something he enjoyed doing. And changed the way the world works along the way.

Muammar Gaddafi. He  had it coming.

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We were walking about mortality rates in the office. I commented the Bible says man’s days are numbered at three scores and ten. Soon, my boss showed me a picture that he said I will like…

I’m learning one thing very well. Everyone is human.

It is the same in my old world, it is the same in my new world. Both sides, some things don’t change. Things are never what they seem. If it is one thing I am losing, it is my faith in humanity. There is no such thing as “good”. Really. There isn’t.

All this underscores a very old truth. To err is human, to forgive is divine. That is why we all need grace. That is why we all need a Saviour.

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