of the diarrhoea and the skinned knees...



So I had really bad diarrhoea over the weekend after foh shing's wedding dinner.
Multiple attempts to trace the source of the pain was futile,
so i'm jus gonna put it down to bad luck...

but something else happened, something bigger i felt
i'm on the road to recovery, but perhaps not as fast as I thought as I tried in vain to finish a really big dinner. A visit to the toilet was required after that big dinner and Mom commented "see? u shouldnt always order macdonalds at night, it's cos of all that oily food that your havin diarrhoea"

I remember a time when i was a little boy
and always running around at the playground
and like all little boys, i would fall and skin my knees
at the first instant, my mom would run over
"SEE?!?! TOLD U NOT TO RUN AROUND!! NOW FALL DOWN LA!!"

now, i'm sure in both instances, diarrhoea and skinned knees,
they mean well, and are geniuinely concerned.
but the way that they express it,
i feel therein lies the difference between my generation and the one above ours.

They play the blame game.

It's something that caused this, if you hadn't done that bad thing, you wouldn't be suffering now. Yes I love you, but before I check and wash your knee and put a plaster/bandage on it, i'm gonna berate you first, so you won't run around wildly and fall down again in future.

let this be for the record.
one day
one fine day
when i am a parent, and my son falls down and skins his knees at the playground.
I will check if he is alright and put a bandage on his knees,
and remember that it happened to me when I was a little boy too, so it's ok.

Some amongst us argue, that since we are the products of our parents
we are like them, and we will one day raise our children like them.

I disagree, my dad is the greatest dad in the world.
When i was 21, i told him that one day when i am a dad,
i hope to be the kind of dad to my son, that he was once to me.
But that doesnt mean inheriting everything, good and bad.

The one thing that sets us apart as human beings, from animals,
is that we are able to think, and ponder, and reflect.
and we take the things that are good and we do them some more
and the things that are bad, we never do them again.

So, if one day, you my friend reading this blog
catch me screamin at my son for skinning his knee,
do me a favor and remind me, that once I said all this.



I must.



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Labels: boy, dad, diarrhoea, parent, playground, skinned knees

of the end of reservist...



so it's done.
we did river crossing
there was a whole ton of waiting and rain and mud

But the one thing I brought away most here is that -
after discussions with alot of my army pals,
we've decided it's a conspiracy, to remind us men that life ain that good after all,
that sometimes u've got to go thru shit to really appreciate all the lil things we all took for granted.

and the biggest consolation to the girls out there?
worry not.
i am convinced that altho we might not run as fast as we could when we were 19-yr old army boys, and we bitch about reservist all the time?
when push comes to shove, most (a big big most) men will wear green again and take up arms to defend this land.

This much I am sure.





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Labels: reservist, river crossing