Top 20 Malaysian Doctor Blogs

Wah, I just realised that my blog has been listed as one of the top 20 Malaysian Doctor Blogs on the MMR. Last year, my little blog made it to number 8 on the MMR list.

So pai seh la.

*clears throat*

I’d like to thank my parents for their support, my siblings, my family for their love and patience (for the time I spent in front of the PC instead of in front of them!), my English teacher who thought me that good English is important, my tuition teachers, especially the one who tried to teach me Jawi (!), my Maths teacher who hauled me up one day and knocked some senses into my thick skull (after that I was a Math Genius – sort of), my students who made enough bloopers for me to write an encyclopedia if I have the time, my patients who taught me so much by their ailments, the MMR for giving me more than I could ever imagine (including mobile blogging ~ heh heh!), and the many people who I could not possibly name tonight!

Thank you one and all.

*Bow, bow, wipe tear from eye*.

Love ya all!

Tues, 130508 @ 2100; memo to self: lay off the Shandy…. “Hick!”….

Indiana Jones and the Canopy Walk

A couple of weeks ago, my church organised a day trip to FRIM (Forest Research Institute of Malaysia) in Kepong, Selangor.

One of the highlights of the trip was the canopy walk. After a one hour hike up a small hill, we came to the station which was the beginning of the famed canopy walk. The guide who took us did not mention that only people above the age of 6 are allowed on the walk! My son is 5 and there were other children in our group who were younger than my son!

And so, we had no choice but to cross that suspension bridge. It was merely a wooden plank suspended by cable wires about 50-100 meters above the ground. I didn’t like the thought of getting my son across but I had no choice. The walk was interspersed with a few ‘rest stops’ built around tall trees which could, at the most, take the weight of 4 people at any one time.

We were instructed to walk in a single file, about 3 meters apart from each other.

My daughter (in red) was the first to step on it. The one in front of her is her church mate, aged 6. I could see my kid was terrified but she put up a brave front and walked on.

Next came Jimbo and son (Ryan). Now, I have an inbuilt gene called acrophobia and at that moment, 99.5% of my body and soul resisted the idea of stepping onto the swaying canopy walk! But Ryan who was right behind me, one hand clutching to my Bermuda pants and the other clinging on to the wire mesh on one side, was clearly ecstatic at the prospect of falling to death from that height.

He said “go, daddy, go!” and I thought, “oh well, now is a good time as any to fall from this height and break into a million pieces and perish into oblivion“. The remainder 0.5% of me said, “Now is the time to confront you fear! How else will you climb Mount KK if you can’t even surmount this little bit of height!”.

I listened to the 0.5%.

Saying a little prayer, and almost literally seeing my entire life flashing past my very eyes, I took the first step….

My wife (the sun got in her face) was definitely a lot braver than me. Here is she crossing WHILE carrying a precious cargo of cold 100+ and cold Milo cans in the cooler! Off and on, she would yell “will some one please stop shaking the bridge please?!!!! AAAArrrggghggghghghhhhhhhh!!!!!”.

Of course, that ’some one’ was my son who was having a whale of a time. To us adults, the small wooden plank could only accommodate one feet at a time and so we had to walk placing one foot in front of the other. On the other hand, to Ryan, with his tiny feet, the plank must have looked like the North-South Highway as he happily walked with both feet and causing the bridge to sway unevenly left to right.

There was high adventure when the lady in front of my daughter (she was guiding my kid to the next pit stop) got her handbag caught in the wire mesh! She had to let go my daughter’s hands and struggled to free her bag from the mesh. After what seemed like eternity, she got free and they got across uneventfully.

I had my own high adventure as well. I was so busy praying and gripping onto the wire that I didn’t even take in the sights (which must have been beautiful). In my mind were played over and over again the limited Bible verses I managed to store in my limited space in the brain. You know, verses like:

“Yea, though I walked in the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil….”

and

“The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD, though he fall, though he fall, he will never be crushed…”

And then suddenly Ryan, his tiny hands still clutching to my now wet backside (wet from sweat la, not urine!) exclaimed excitedly:

“Hey, daddy! This is exactly where Indiana Jones took out the sword and cut the strings and every one fell off the bridge ho?!! (He is a big fan of Indie you see)

I mumbled a “ya, ya, let’s move on”, not wanting him to imagine more than that. His daddy is not about to brandish any sword and definitely was not going to do any bridge wire cutting!

After what seemed like 2 centuries, we finally made it to this last part of the bridge. The guy above was one of the fearless teen in our group.

Right after we touched down on solid ground, my son said “That was so fun, let’s do it again!!!”

Ummm, no thanks…

Tues, 130508@ 0700; more pictures later.