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Feb 17th 2024. 3 min read

author at Aolori Spring Rrsort, Dec 2025

I haven’t hit a low in my life for a long time. My recent incident in which I fell after skiing and looking at the wonderful nature around me caught me off guard.

So enamored with God’s creation which had me entangled over my skis as I tumbled while standing still, caused a meniscus and ligament tear in my right knee.

One reason was that I rarely fall and I don’t remember any of my past coaches ever taught me how to fall.

One more reason could be the skis and boots were old and they did not dislodge easily to free the legs.

Otherwise, I am quite a careful basic skier enjoying the sport and its seasons for the last ten years.

There is a saying that. “You can’t really understand another person’s experience until you’ve walked a mile in their shoes.”

Now, with my right knee wrapped in the latest support, taking painkillers and going for physiotherapy is a new life experience for an active senior like me.

I realized that every part of our body is so important and not to be taken for granted. Any activity has risk but that does not mean one should not do it but rather be aware and be trained for it.

The beginning of a new emotional experience started when you received comments that neither soothed nor angered you.

On my way to work, there were questions as to ‘ What happened?’ ‘You shouldn’t be doing this at your age’ and ‘Poor thing!’ ‘I told you so!’

You feel a gnawing ache that woke you up in the night.

You go at snail pace to do tasks that you usually could complete fast.

The. time taken to reach recovery would be months away.

Most important, I learned to be more patient with people who are physically challenged.

What is one to do? Best choice is to stay optimistic. So what good can come out of staying glum and gloomy?

You learned to lick your wounds since no one could really help you.

In the weeks ahead, I have been building stronger upper body strength and other parts of the body that do not strain my right knee further. It feels good that if I slide to the ground, I can still get up with one knee and with my stronger arms.

I took out my best clothes and bought elegant knee supports – could I possibly be setting a new trend? Stand in a more stylish manner with my equally stylish colourful walking stick? One must not be defeated by any event.

The injury was good for me. Now I would stand in the sun for 20 mins with my back to the sun instead of worrying about being wrinkled. I am getting my priorities right for my bones.

While Standing in the garden basking, I started to notice the beautiful creeper plants along the ground and climbers on the walls of the house. I appreciate my spouse’s green fingers and passion for nature.

The Buddha statues bought and displayed by him and there are many being positioned in the garden, in different poses, a symbol of serenity, detachment and wisdom.

My husband admires Buddha for his benevolence, peace. and intellect and strive to think like him though the closest he gets to being a Buddha so far is his belly.

Nevertheless, they are precious and inspiring to behold from his wise collections.

He says I do stupid things like going skiing but I know it wasn’t the skiing per se. It was the lack of focus at the point of standing aimlessly in the flat snow instead of getting off the skis. And failure to learn how to fall.

Given the state I am in now, I am still filled with pride for my attempt to do something most of my peers would not do.

I have experienced the exhilarating cold and the coolness of the sport.

I know I will eventually heal anyway.

Meanwhile, my spirit is upbeat, writing this article about my fiasco to medium, mull over my mistakes and overcome my fear one more time, next time, with wisdom, awareness and training.

At the beautiful town of Rye,Uk in late Nov 24

Take a gulp of moderation drink for a smooth, stable and serene day.

Moderation drink keeps you in a mindful state of calm and contentment and you will have a more successful day.

Being Happy, Sad, Angry, Fearful just to name a few common emotions will dictate the course of your events.

When excessively happy, one may lean towards complacency.

You may make the mistakes of speaking in excess of what you ought to say

Resulting in becoming superfluous, offensive and / or spouting nonsense.

When excessively sorrowful, one may lean towards pessimism.

You will be unknowingly stifled by this feeling.

Resulting in inaction, making the wrong decision and / or be in depression.

When excessively angry, one may lean towards irrationality of behavior. Resulting in injury to others, doing something regretful and / or self-harm.

When excessively fearful, one may lean towards negative thoughts.

Resulting in fight or flee response, emotional breakdown and/ or loss of opportunities from not taking challenges.

The key here is moderation. These emotions could serve us in some ways;

Happiness if not excessive when shared with people we love and care could motivate us and others to do better.

Sorrow if not excessive makes us appreciate our lives and moments to realize how temporal things are and challenges us to get back on our feet.

Anger if not excessive may be used for its energy to channel one’s focus on a task to accomplish it well.

Fear can be protective, making us aware of potential pitfalls and dangers of a situation so that we can take measures to be guarded.

In summary, too much of being overwhelmed by a feeling is bad. Temperance in our emotions is key..

In daily living, I experience greater clarity of mind when I keep excessive emotions in check no matter how provocative a situation is.

Solutions surface surprisingly.

You find your day goes smoothly, your feathers unruffled and people around you are also affected in a pleasant and positive manner.

I even think that you will appear stylish and sophisticated.

4 th December 2 min read

Coco, author’s pet chicken

It was many years ago. We attempted to keep a chicken as a pet. Though we would have loved a quiet, dignified looking chicken strutting her stuff in our ample garden, thinking she would feel lucky, she turned out to be a renegade.

Being happy was not her game.

Coco was her name. The days ahead were filled with chaos

She would not get along with the cats and the dog at home.

When thirsty and hungry or moody,

She struck by repeatedly turning over the water bowls

Once boundaries were opened

She became the fierce disperser of cat sand

The indiscriminate territorial marker

Flying over the neighbour’s fence even scaring their dog

A defiant Lone Ranger, never once stopped to sniff at the plants nor the flowers nor peck at the worms

A true blue free range chicken in a wrong location.

With such a domestic animal, it sounded like a whole lot of baloney when I had to tell my friend that we could not meet because I had chicken trouble.

21/11/24 2 min read

One sure sign of aging is when you run out of arm length during reading and you need to throw the book on the floor to read the words!

However, aging brings lots of benefits.

One perk of aging; you look at the amount of photos accumulated since childhood and feel qualified to say that great sounding phrase, “Ah, I have an archive!”

Aging either makes you crazy or a better philosopher.

The good thing about aging is that when the eyes, ears and teeth (first three systems of the body) go, we would finally see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil.

(* *) -( )- ( x. )

One advantage of aging for middle aged adults is that relatives and friends will stop asking if you are going to have more children because you have run out of ‘eggs’.

Another advantage of aging is that generally your wallet would become fatter like your hip would become wider and you get treated with respect as a customer with purchasing power.

A further advantage of aging is that you start to look at the time that is left hence you become more appreciative of life. Carpe diam!

Certainly, it’s an advantage that as you age, you forget what you were angry about.

You realises that there is so much to celebrate about being alive and that the obstacle to happiness is yourself.

24/10/24. 3 min read

author at Baking Academy

I am a paniphile – or a bread lover. There was a time when I broached the subject of bread-making to my older sister, and she said, ‘ What a hassle. I will just buy my bread.’

I am glad I was not deterred. When my retired older brother insisted to learn about bread making, I was quite hesitant at first. But knowing that he likes working with his hands and is a perfectionist, who knows? He may turn out to be a very good baker with the potential for a second career.

He has always being proud of his hands, building his craft, painstakingly designing and creating water fountains and painting statues for his customers.

When his shop folded due to high rentals, he was bored to tears.

I tried to enroll him into a bakery course funded by the Govt for seniors to upgrade their skills.

At the baking academy, the waft of freshly baked bread struck me immediately as we entered the premises.

Nothing could be compared, not the world best perfume nor the world best cooked dish. Its distinct scent soothed my soul.

The soft, savory, and scented waft of the warm bread baking in the backroom. of the bakery drifted to us at the reception. I decided to enrol as well.

It was a workshop of three Saturdays from 10 am to 6 pm.

I was happy that the instructor was detailed to bring the basics of baking to us which included the principles of making bread, equipments involved, materials required.

It was indeed comprehensive as he emphasised on how the different flour may produce different results. Even the same type of flour with different protein content requires different amount of water that can affect its texture and consistency.

The rate of whisking the mix into a dough, checking when the dough is properly proofed which is allowing the yeast to work its magic of making the dough rise is critical. The handling of the dough must not be over managed.

I love the exact science and art of baking. It teaches me to be dead accurate about measurements, the importance of the speed of whisking the mix and proper handling of the dough.

To smell the aromatic mix, then manipulate it into the desired shape with just the right amount of gentle pressure and then patiently leaving it aside to proof before baking.

I have never tasted such joy in touching a proofed dough. As soft as a newborn baby’s skin, I think it’s softer, with a life of its own!

Then to dust each shaped dough with flour and perform some art by slicing it any which way you like with a sharp razor. The various shapes would split open to reveal their individual designs.

Finally, they were ready to be baked. I liked that the instructor was so intelligent and rational. He sprayed the shaped dough with water as well as the inside of the oven which was to prevent the bread from drying up.

The oven was preheated to the exact temperature and the tray of bread then inserted into the oven.

To watch the bread brown and anticipate its taste was an ascend to paradise.

When the bread was ready, our patience was further tested as the thermometer inserted into the bread showed 90 degrees so they were not ready to be sliced and eaten.

When the temperature finally reached about 40 degrees, we used a bread knife, one with sharp jagged edges in order not to crush the bread slices.

Then we applied butter, jam or any spread you like, and savoured it. It was an indescribable joy, one that restore our spirits.

Baking bread is a blissful activity. You are engaging all five senses – sight, smell, taste, touch and sound(if you consider the timer. used.) You may even develop your sixth sense – an intuition or hunch of better things in life.

Author at 7th longest river in the world

I have finally agreed to come to city X with my husband on 20th Sept 24, after much indecision and trepidation.

They were alot of news about being whisked away or kidnapped at some point to a remote border with its neighbouring country and coerced to become phone scammers under daily beatings which did hog the news for a period. A few detainees who have escaped recounted the harrowing details.

It was much to the chagrin of my spouse who wanted to come back to city X and see how things have changed over 14 years and I was pushing the idea away. Then, in a moment of madness, I agreed and he immediately booked the tickets!

My fate was sealed. I googled ‘ Is it safe to go to X’ and it turned out to be negative news. Then he googled the same thing and read out all the positive aspects of it (selective reading), dismissing negative points as just normal cautionary advice to tourists. Talking about blind spots! He had skimmed over the words ‘unsafe’ and ‘dangerous’.

When we landed at X International airport, he insisted on getting a Grab taxi though we were accosted with many smiling taxi drivers.

Our driver delivered us safely to Courtyard Marriot hotel for which I insisted he be tipped handsomely. and I was already bugging my spouse to arrange a safe trip back to airport on departure day.

Over the next few days, we walked incognito (not to appear like tourists)on the streets of X, dressed in dull colors following our motto: don’t stand out, don’t become targets, and don’t be blur.

I suggested that we both carry the hotel umbrellas(it’s monsoon season anyway) and that could be doubled up as weapons; to jab the eyes, throat, private parts, I said if attacked and proceeded to demo it. My spouse laughed but we knew in our hearts that I might be right.

Over the next few days, we became watchful instead over the hazardous traffic for at the bends of the road, a motor vehicle would often loomed up and screeched to a halt inches before me. The grounds almost tripped us due to uneven paths and unobstrusive obstacles. There were some side lanes laden with uncollected rubbish which contributed to the stench.

Notwithstanding, we did not come across any unsavory characters. We were alerted by the hotel not to flash our handphones on the road which is the case in many countries these days. And to avoid late nights outings.

City X has morphed into a quaint city, a far cry from those days when it was much underdeveloped. Now skyscrapers appear on the horizon amidst old ramshackle buildings and the city looks set to modernise further.

Nice eateries and cafes dot the streets at intervals which is a pleasant surprise. There was good food to be had. There is even a beautiful multi storey giant mall with many shops showing how widespread global. brands have become.

We found that people in city X friendly, respectful and gentle. Locals. generally went about their daily activities in a quiet manner and no unpleasant events were encountered.

A few people may look menacing but they soon gave way to smiling countenances , approval nods and folded hands. A sign of gratitude and welcome gesture. We did the same. They appeared adorable to me.

I had begun. to feel foolish for my deduction of the place as being unsafe from my presumption, imagination, rumours and news even though there was some truth to the occurrences mentioned. Unfortunate events could happen anywhere.

In any case, one must stay positive, do our research as to how and where to move around safely in any country for that matter and not draw unnecessary attention to ourselves.

Assuming the worst would lead to inaction in stepping out of one’s comfort zone. It also increases fear in exploring another country’s history and beautiful culture that could enrich our knowledge and understanding.

Fear is a huge emotion to overcome. Nothing in life is to be feared. It is to be understood and managed.