Lobo's Lessons

Tired... Weary... Burnt-out...   Some of the adjectives to express my current state of mind and body. It is now 7.05 in the morning, and I am at 32,000 feet, soaring through the clouds... The wisps of angelic fluff litter the landscape, encompassing the horizon, as the deep blue shades of the South China Sea meld with the growing light of the coming day... The rays of the sun reflecting off the surface of the clouds, lining the tranquil scenery with multiple shades of gold... Yet, through all the beauty emanating through these closed circular windows, I am unable to fully enjoy the view... It has been too long that I have been away from home during the weekends... Usually this was the time I would get up in the morning to play with my bubbly little boy, watching him jump up and down tapping my face to wake me up... This was the time I would usually get up in the morning with my wife and go brisk walking around the lake gardens, and have breakfast at the local Mamak res...

Saturday - 7.30 pm. At last, a long day of assessments finished. I don't think anyone outside the education industry really has a firm idea of what superhuman effort is needed to sit through 6 hours of hearing students give a presentation on a topic of their choice. Some of them do try hard, bless their souls. It's always a pleasure to get students who try their best, even though they don't deliver a superb piece of work. Bravo to them. However, you do get the other side of the spectrum, where even after being given 3 weeks the best they can come up with is a scrap of paper that was just jotted down a half an hour before their presentations...sigh... Anyway, I'm rambling. Back to reality. 7.30pm, and my student Rackford agreed to send me back to the hotel for a long-deserved rest. Upon reaching, I straight away did a flying dive for the bed... perhaps on par with the Malaysian diving team, but with the grace and style of a hippo belly-flopping into the water...

This title is in direct opposition from my Nordic friend's title... It's an early weekend for her... Aaahhh... if only I were so lucky... This is what Fridays have been like for the past month or so for me: 8.30am: Drive to work. Mild traffic jam, but usually bearable. Enough for me to read a few chapters of a book before arriving to work. 9.00am: Arrive at my office. Yawn once before opening the door. Enter room.  Strategise what to do with the day. Start doing what needs to be done. 5.00pm: Drive home. Honk at the customary road hogs. Give the occasional finger here and there. 5.45pm: Start packing for my trips to KL or Sarawak (Actually start pointing finger to what needs to be packed, and the lovely missus takes care of the rest, bless her heart). 7.15pm: Drive (fly) to the airport. Always a blessing if the cops are on holiday during this time. 7.30pm: Check in. Smile at the pretty girl at the check-in counter. Walk to departures. Smile at the not so pretty p...

At last, I managed to piece together another song I wrote in 1997 (though there are gaps here and there that I still can't remember [indicated by the XXX]... Believe it or not, I composed this song in a single night to sieze the moment) After I got to know what I needed to know from the girl (not the one from my first song), I rushed back to my room and locked myself in... Just me and my Yamaha classical guitar that had become my trademark as the wandering traubedour... and a tape recorder... Slowly but surely, the words flowed from my pen... An irrepressible flood of emotions that I could hardly contain... And then a melody jumped into my head... I smiled... I knew I had a winner... After a few hours I emerged from my room, with a cassette in hand... Holding it like one would hold a newborn... Tenderly... Preciously... Full of hope and expectation... I passed my baby to a mutual friend with the message "Please pass it to her"... A look of understanding and a sense...

I crumple to the floor... My superhuman strength of will drained, as I stare in disbelief at my computer screen... No sooner did I finish pressing the 'publish post' button on for my tag, another tag hits me like a 10-ton truck carrying a nuclear payload...Courtesy of The Nordic Convert ... Must...gather...strength... I pull my limp body up to the chair again... I sit...slowly...painfully... I flex my fingers...as deft as a concert pianist about to present a recital... The tag: 8 Random facts about me 1. I was born 2 months premature. I was a TINY baby, but looking at the hulking mass of lubber in front of you now, you would never have guessed. 2. Ever since I was born, my parents (God bless them) never called or condoned the shortened local variations of my name (Abdullah) to 'Dolah', or 'Dol', and even once wrote a letter for me to pass to my standard 1 teacher, requesting her to do so as well. I remember the amused expression on her face as she read the let...

Alamak... begini ke rasanya kena tag nie? Hatiku panas membara kerana telah ditag oleh studentku sendiri... Sampai hatimu Tiqa... tidakkah daku cukup memberikanmu kasih sayang dan perhatian dalam kelas? isk...isk... (There goes my drama skills kicking in...hehehe) Anyway, it looks like I've been tagged... and the topic is... 'The age that I wish to go back to...' I think with me there isn't really an age that I would go back to just to change anything, because to me, all that has happened in the past has shaped me into the person I am today... However... I would like to relive the events that happened to me when I was 22... Yes... That was one heck of a good year... Canterbury, Kent... England... A year of love gained and love lost... A year of the best friends a guy could ask for... Enrique Garcia Ruiz...Maria Isabel Poveda...Cindy Barquero...Katherine Fiallho... Junji... Takako... Ainara Andueza... Miguel... Jayne Ann Kilvington... and a host of others too numerous to...

Sometimes it's really frustrating when you try and access some crucial data from your hard drive, and then you hear a 'click...click'... and you know you're doomed... All that data from the past gone up in smoke... Kinda pretty much the same as my brain I'd say... lately, I'd been trying to muster up the lyrics of songs that I wrote a decade ago... and it's really frustrating cos most of it's coming up empty... However, I did piece together most of the words of the first song I ever wrote... (XXXX represents parts of corrupt memory... I really can't remember these parts) Here goes... Look into Your Heart We've been friends for so very long Our friendship's so strong But I don't want to end it today By what I have to say I've been waiting half my life For something to arrive XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXX Chorus: Be careful what you hide Please don't take me for a ride Just look into your heart And you...