Top 10 Foods to Burn Belly Fat

I am addicted now! I mean in good way having focus and good controls in reaching my goals of flat belly or a 6-pack Abs (for bonus) hahahaha...So guys below please check out the food that helps in burning belly fat! Enjoy.

Awesome and Funny - Job Interview

I just love this interview! Hilarious! We should follow this, why not? Enjoy guys!

A Journey Through Time: Puerto Princesa Underground River

This video makes me proud of the Philippines. Please help by voting online, just go and click this link to vote http://www.new7wonders.com/vote-2. Thanks Stephen for sharing this video! I had goosebumps watching it. Indeed it should be part as one of the New 7 Wonders of the World.

Watch live streaming video from ppurtv at livestream.com

Happy Ending Massage (Uncut Version)

You have to watch this till the end...One of the funniest videos I have ever seen! Next time be careful with extra services known as happy ending hahahaah LOL...Enjoy it.

Early Christmas Greetings Everyone

Thanks to you Big Bro Grash for sharing you Christmas Playlist. I am sharing it here in my blog because I know, I for one will be missing home this Christmas but this music will go me through this yuletide season. I hope my friends will enjoy this much as I do. Merry Christmas everyone!



Create a playlist at MixPod.com

The X Factor 2011 Auditions Emmanuel Kelly FULL

It's another moving and very inspiring story that brought me to tears again! I hope it will move you and change you the way we view things in our lives and the world. Peace on earth everyone.

Korea's Got Talent - Choi Sung-Bong

Korea's Got Talent - Choi Sung-Bong

Thanks Leandra for sharing this! This is very inspiring and moving. I wonder if the kid is aware how his story and his raw talent can move people to greater heights. This is the kind of story that always shows off my human emotions. It left me goosebumps and crying the whole time. I watched and replayed it many times. A lot of us who is whining and ranting about our situations can learn so much from this strong-willed, determined and passionate Choi Sung-Bong in overcoming life's adversaries. He is living in a difficult circumstance YET he is still standing. Destiny is unfolding as HE is going to light his own star. Kudos to you Choi! The world is after all round.

Share this guys to all your friends and networks.

Note: Prepare plenty of handkerchiefs or tissues when you watch this video!

Prevention is still key to eliminate HIV and AIDS

Thanks John for sharing this video. Nice one. Excellent presentation and the use of technology...

The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination

Thanks Aydel for sharing and re-posting this in your blog. A very moving and inspiring speech I have ever heard and read. It comes with perfect timing for me as I am in the middle of self-reflection and introspection.It's so inspiring that I can't help myself but share this speech written with wit and charm.
__________
J.K. Rowling, author of the best-selling Harry Potter book series, delivers her Commencement Address, “The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination,” at the Annual Meeting of the Harvard Alumni Association.

J.K. Rowling Speaks at Harvard Commencement from Harvard Magazine on Vimeo.

Text as delivered follows.
Copyright of JK Rowling, June 2008



President Faust, members of the Harvard Corporation and the Board of Overseers, members of the faculty, proud parents, and, above all, graduates.

The first thing I would like to say is ‘thank you.’ Not only has Harvard given me an extraordinary honour, but the weeks of fear and nausea I have endured at the thought of giving this commencement address have made me lose weight. A win-win situation! Now all I have to do is take deep breaths, squint at the red banners and convince myself that I am at the world’s largest Gryffindor reunion.

Delivering a commencement address is a great responsibility; or so I thought until I cast my mind back to my own graduation. The commencement speaker that day was the distinguished British philosopher Baroness Mary Warnock. Reflecting on her speech has helped me enormously in writing this one, because it turns out that I can’t remember a single word she said. This liberating discovery enables me to proceed without any fear that I might inadvertently influence you to abandon promising careers in business, the law or politics for the giddy delights of becoming a gay wizard.

You see? If all you remember in years to come is the ‘gay wizard’ joke, I’ve come out ahead of Baroness Mary Warnock. Achievable goals: the first step to self improvement.

Actually, I have wracked my mind and heart for what I ought to say to you today. I have asked myself what I wish I had known at my own graduation, and what important lessons I have learned in the 21 years that have expired between that day and this.

I have come up with two answers. On this wonderful day when we are gathered together to celebrate your academic success, I have decided to talk to you about the benefits of failure. And as you stand on the threshold of what is sometimes called ‘real life’, I want to extol the crucial importance of imagination.

These may seem quixotic or paradoxical choices, but please bear with me.

Looking back at the 21-year-old that I was at graduation, is a slightly uncomfortable experience for the 42-year-old that she has become. Half my lifetime ago, I was striking an uneasy balance between the ambition I had for myself, and what those closest to me expected of me.

I was convinced that the only thing I wanted to do, ever, was to write novels. However, my parents, both of whom came from impoverished backgrounds and neither of whom had been to college, took the view that my overactive imagination was an amusing personal quirk that would never pay a mortgage, or secure a pension. I know that the irony strikes with the force of a cartoon anvil, now.

So they hoped that I would take a vocational degree; I wanted to study English Literature. A compromise was reached that in retrospect satisfied nobody, and I went up to study Modern Languages. Hardly had my parents’ car rounded the corner at the end of the road than I ditched German and scuttled off down the Classics corridor.

I cannot remember telling my parents that I was studying Classics; they might well have found out for the first time on graduation day. Of all the subjects on this planet, I think they would have been hard put to name one less useful than Greek mythology when it came to securing the keys to an executive bathroom.

I would like to make it clear, in parenthesis, that I do not blame my parents for their point of view. There is an expiry date on blaming your parents for steering you in the wrong direction; the moment you are old enough to take the wheel, responsibility lies with you. What is more, I cannot criticise my parents for hoping that I would never experience poverty. They had been poor themselves, and I have since been poor, and I quite agree with them that it is not an ennobling experience. Poverty entails fear, and stress, and sometimes depression; it means a thousand petty humiliations and hardships. Climbing out of poverty by your own efforts, that is indeed something on which to pride yourself, but poverty itself is romanticised only by fools.

What I feared most for myself at your age was not poverty, but failure.

At your age, in spite of a distinct lack of motivation at university, where I had spent far too long in the coffee bar writing stories, and far too little time at lectures, I had a knack for passing examinations, and that, for years, had been the measure of success in my life and that of my peers.

I am not dull enough to suppose that because you are young, gifted and well-educated, you have never known hardship or heartbreak. Talent and intelligence never yet inoculated anyone against the caprice of the Fates, and I do not for a moment suppose that everyone here has enjoyed an existence of unruffled privilege and contentment.

However, the fact that you are graduating from Harvard suggests that you are not very well-acquainted with failure. You might be driven by a fear of failure quite as much as a desire for success. Indeed, your conception of failure might not be too far from the average person’s idea of success, so high have you already flown.

Ultimately, we all have to decide for ourselves what constitutes failure, but the world is quite eager to give you a set of criteria if you let it. So I think it fair to say that by any conventional measure, a mere seven years after my graduation day, I had failed on an epic scale. An exceptionally short-lived marriage had imploded, and I was jobless, a lone parent, and as poor as it is possible to be in modern Britain, without being homeless. The fears that my parents had had for me, and that I had had for myself, had both come to pass, and by every usual standard, I was the biggest failure I knew.

Now, I am not going to stand here and tell you that failure is fun. That period of my life was a dark one, and I had no idea that there was going to be what the press has since represented as a kind of fairy tale resolution. I had no idea then how far the tunnel extended, and for a long time, any light at the end of it was a hope rather than a reality.

So why do I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me. Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena I believed I truly belonged. I was set free, because my greatest fear had been realised, and I was still alive, and I still had a daughter whom I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea. And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.

You might never fail on the scale I did, but some failure in life is inevitable. It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default.

Failure gave me an inner security that I had never attained by passing examinations. Failure taught me things about myself that I could have learned no other way. I discovered that I had a strong will, and more discipline than I had suspected; I also found out that I had friends whose value was truly above the price of rubies.

The knowledge that you have emerged wiser and stronger from setbacks means that you are, ever after, secure in your ability to survive. You will never truly know yourself, or the strength of your relationships, until both have been tested by adversity. Such knowledge is a true gift, for all that it is painfully won, and it has been worth more than any qualification I ever earned.

So given a Time Turner, I would tell my 21-year-old self that personal happiness lies in knowing that life is not a check-list of acquisition or achievement. Your qualifications, your CV, are not your life, though you will meet many people of my age and older who confuse the two. Life is difficult, and complicated, and beyond anyone’s total control, and the humility to know that will enable you to survive its vicissitudes.

Now you might think that I chose my second theme, the importance of imagination, because of the part it played in rebuilding my life, but that is not wholly so. Though I personally will defend the value of bedtime stories to my last gasp, I have learned to value imagination in a much broader sense. Imagination is not only the uniquely human capacity to envision that which is not, and therefore the fount of all invention and innovation. In its arguably most transformative and revelatory capacity, it is the power that enables us to empathise with humans whose experiences we have never shared.

One of the greatest formative experiences of my life preceded Harry Potter, though it informed much of what I subsequently wrote in those books. This revelation came in the form of one of my earliest day jobs. Though I was sloping off to write stories during my lunch hours, I paid the rent in my early 20s by working at the African research department at Amnesty International’s headquarters in London.

There in my little office I read hastily scribbled letters smuggled out of totalitarian regimes by men and women who were risking imprisonment to inform the outside world of what was happening to them. I saw photographs of those who had disappeared without trace, sent to Amnesty by their desperate families and friends. I read the testimony of torture victims and saw pictures of their injuries. I opened handwritten, eye-witness accounts of summary trials and executions, of kidnappings and rapes.

Many of my co-workers were ex-political prisoners, people who had been displaced from their homes, or fled into exile, because they had the temerity to speak against their governments. Visitors to our offices included those who had come to give information, or to try and find out what had happened to those they had left behind.

I shall never forget the African torture victim, a young man no older than I was at the time, who had become mentally ill after all he had endured in his homeland. He trembled uncontrollably as he spoke into a video camera about the brutality inflicted upon him. He was a foot taller than I was, and seemed as fragile as a child. I was given the job of escorting him back to the Underground Station afterwards, and this man whose life had been shattered by cruelty took my hand with exquisite courtesy, and wished me future happiness.

And as long as I live I shall remember walking along an empty corridor and suddenly hearing, from behind a closed door, a scream of pain and horror such as I have never heard since. The door opened, and the researcher poked out her head and told me to run and make a hot drink for the young man sitting with her. She had just had to give him the news that in retaliation for his own outspokenness against his country’s regime, his mother had been seized and executed.

Every day of my working week in my early 20s I was reminded how incredibly fortunate I was, to live in a country with a democratically elected government, where legal representation and a public trial were the rights of everyone.

Every day, I saw more evidence about the evils humankind will inflict on their fellow humans, to gain or maintain power. I began to have nightmares, literal nightmares, about some of the things I saw, heard, and read.

And yet I also learned more about human goodness at Amnesty International than I had ever known before.

Amnesty mobilises thousands of people who have never been tortured or imprisoned for their beliefs to act on behalf of those who have. The power of human empathy, leading to collective action, saves lives, and frees prisoners. Ordinary people, whose personal well-being and security are assured, join together in huge numbers to save people they do not know, and will never meet. My small participation in that process was one of the most humbling and inspiring experiences of my life.

Unlike any other creature on this planet, humans can learn and understand, without having experienced. They can think themselves into other people’s places.

Of course, this is a power, like my brand of fictional magic, that is morally neutral. One might use such an ability to manipulate, or control, just as much as to understand or sympathise.

And many prefer not to exercise their imaginations at all. They choose to remain comfortably within the bounds of their own experience, never troubling to wonder how it would feel to have been born other than they are. They can refuse to hear screams or to peer inside cages; they can close their minds and hearts to any suffering that does not touch them personally; they can refuse to know.

I might be tempted to envy people who can live that way, except that I do not think they have any fewer nightmares than I do. Choosing to live in narrow spaces leads to a form of mental agoraphobia, and that brings its own terrors. I think the wilfully unimaginative see more monsters. They are often more afraid.

What is more, those who choose not to empathise enable real monsters. For without ever committing an act of outright evil ourselves, we collude with it, through our own apathy.

One of the many things I learned at the end of that Classics corridor down which I ventured at the age of 18, in search of something I could not then define, was this, written by the Greek author Plutarch: What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.

That is an astonishing statement and yet proven a thousand times every day of our lives. It expresses, in part, our inescapable connection with the outside world, the fact that we touch other people’s lives simply by existing.

But how much more are you, Harvard graduates of 2008, likely to touch other people’s lives? Your intelligence, your capacity for hard work, the education you have earned and received, give you unique status, and unique responsibilities. Even your nationality sets you apart. The great majority of you belong to the world’s only remaining superpower. The way you vote, the way you live, the way you protest, the pressure you bring to bear on your government, has an impact way beyond your borders. That is your privilege, and your burden.

If you choose to use your status and influence to raise your voice on behalf of those who have no voice; if you choose to identify not only with the powerful, but with the powerless; if you retain the ability to imagine yourself into the lives of those who do not have your advantages, then it will not only be your proud families who celebrate your existence, but thousands and millions of people whose reality you have helped change. We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better.

I am nearly finished. I have one last hope for you, which is something that I already had at 21. The friends with whom I sat on graduation day have been my friends for life. They are my children’s godparents, the people to whom I’ve been able to turn in times of trouble, people who have been kind enough not to sue me when I took their names for Death Eaters. At our graduation we were bound by enormous affection, by our shared experience of a time that could never come again, and, of course, by the knowledge that we held certain photographic evidence that would be exceptionally valuable if any of us ran for Prime Minister.

So today, I wish you nothing better than similar friendships. And tomorrow, I hope that even if you remember not a single word of mine, you remember those of Seneca, another of those old Romans I met when I fled down the Classics corridor, in retreat from career ladders, in search of ancient wisdom:
As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters.


I wish you all very good lives. Thank you very much.

First Birthday Reflection

Hello Guys,

Am back and in defo in shape! Before I go further, allow me to express my deepest gratitude for the thought and good wishes on my birthday. Indeed it was a record breaking greetings from across the globe.

Anyway, I have promised myself to do a self-reflection, assessment and change direction setting which is currently done every night (LOL) - I am serious about this, trust me. So my first post is about financial freedom and I am posting herewith stories of rich and successful men in the world. Thanks Jovy for sharing this. I hope you learn something from this post as I do and praying hard to be able to put in practice what tips is trying to teach us.

However, I kind of agree with tip # 4 because for me what is wealth and money if you don't have a good relationship with your family.

Good luck everyone.

Top 5 Tips to Build Wealth and Success
Peter Gorenstein and Farnoosh Torabi
Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Warren Buffett is worth $45 billion. That wealth isn't only a factor of savvy investing and good business — the "Oracle of Omaha" is also known as a penny pincher. Buffett still lives in the same Omaha, Neb., home he bought in 1958 for $31,500.

Follow his frugal formula, and you too may wind up with a lot more money than you ever dreamed.

This week Financially Fit covers five tips to build wealth and success.

1. Live Below Your Means.
Being wealthy isn't just a product of your salary or investment prowess; it's learning how to save. "We can make a lot of money, you can make a little bit of money, but the second you spend all the money is when people get into trouble. Saving is the key to preserving your wealth," says Ed Butowsky, managing partner of Chapwood Capital Investment Management, a firm that manages money for wealthy individuals. As many Americans realized during the booming real estate market, just because you think you can afford something doesn't mean you should buy it. Keeping an eye on your bottom line will pay dividends over the long term.

2. Bounce Back From Defeat
With nearly 15 million workers unemployed right now in the U.S., it's easy to get discouraged. Don't! Most successful and wealthy people have overcome obstacles and failure along the way. Steve Jobs was ousted from Apple when he was 30. Today, he's a billionaire and a legend. Plus, after getting fired, he created another billion-dollar media company, Pixar.

"Bouncing back from defeat is something all great achievers have. They have this undying belief good things will happen and will continue to happen," says Butowsky.Take Michael Jordan. "His airness" was cut from his high school basketball team. Motivated by the rejection, Jordan became a star the next season. The rest is history.

3. Self-Promote
Regardless of the profession, the rich and successful tend to have a strong sense of self-worth — key to skillfully navigating an upward career path. Mark Hurd, who was ousted as CEO of Hewlett-Packard in August, couldn't be kept down for long. Using his business skills and connections, in September, Hurd was named president of Oracle. (Hurd and Oracle founder Larry Ellison are known to be close friends.)

4. Have Street Smarts
Bernie Madoff lived the high life for decades, scamming unsuspecting clients, with a money-making formula that proved too good to be true. Only afterward did we learn that with a little due diligence, most clients could have easily uncovered the fraud.
But it's not only the swindlers and the con men you have to watch out for. Many times, friends and family take advantage of the rich. Whether it's a handout or an investment idea, Butowsky advises his high net worth clients that in most cases, it's wisest to just say "no." The best way to do that: have someone else do it for you.

"You need to really set up a wall between you and your family," he advises. "If you don't want to give them (family or friends) money ... saying no is probably a good idea."

5. Buy Cheap
The rich can afford to splurge, but that doesn't mean they do.
John Paulson, a billionaire hedge fund manager, bought his Hamptons "dream house at a bargain basement price," according to Greg Zuckerman, author of the Paulson-based book, "The Greatest Trade Ever." The story has it that Paulson eyed the home while it was in foreclosure. Finally, on a rain-soaked day, he purchased the home on the Southampton town hall steps. He was the only bidder.

On New York City's Upper East Side, Michael's— The Consignment Shop for Women— has been a bargain-hunting destination for more than 60 years. "We have a good percentage of women who can afford to shop on Madison Avenue but really like the idea of saving that money," says proprietor Tammy Gates.
From Chanel to Gucci and Louis Vuitton, the store specializes in high-end designer merchandise for a reasonable price. Speaking of her clientele, Gates says, "they're wealthy for a reason. They recognize that bargains keep people wealthy. Paying top dollar when you don't have to doesn't make sense."

Source: http://financiallyfit.yahoo.com/finance/article-110926-6907-5-top-5-tips-to-build-wealth-and-success?ywaad=ad0035&nc

Damming the Amazon River on 60 Minutes

I had goosebumps watching this report and can't really help but cursed to death the leadership of Brazil for allowing such a devastating project. I felt this is a strong development issue that need support from the international community. We need to rally behind the Indigenous People living within and depended their existence on the the river and the tropical rainforest. Such a beautiful and breathtaking nature gone soon and replaced by a towering dam...Damned them!

Looking up ahead

Hello everyone,

My sincere apology for not updating my blog since May. I was frantic and juggling my time when I was in the Philippines preparing for my "come back" here in China. Now I am here and was occupied with re-adjusting in a highly and fast urbanizing City - the Spring City of China - Kunming in Yunnan Province.

To be honest I was beset with career plans, love and sex affairs LOL - something I wanna deal once and for all. And so while this update is sharing with you what I have been up to, I will also give you a glimpse of what am gonna post in the following days. I felt I am up and ready to share what's going on with me in the various aspect of my life as a development worker, a colleague, a son, a brother, a friend and a lover LOL.

Exactly one week from now is my special day and I am planning to have a silent day on that day because I am planning to have a reflection/introspection, self-assessment and change direction setting. Why? Because plenty of things are happening and I feel and want to control the pace of things that are going on with me. Are you excited? You should because this special activity will tackle important dimensions of my life - family, career, education, love and sex hehehehe... So I am definitely going to keep you posted on those subjects. So watch out for it. Until then.

Hugs and kisses everyone.

The Summer Palace

Hi guys, apologies for the long absence!
Everything was in limbo with me and the coping was a bit challenging but definitely I am trying to manage my own disasters. As the song says "the winner takes it all" and for sure am not quitting. It's almost middle of the year and I am looking forward and positively for a good, challenging and exciting rebound. As a post after hibernating, let me offer you a fantastic and relaxing view of one the most visited tourist sites in Beijing - the Summer Palace. Until my next post. Enjoy everyone.

Yunnan University

Awesome architecture at Yunnan University which dates back more than 100 years ago. If there's one thing I miss in Kunming, it's definitely the relaxing and beautiful landscape of Yunnan University filled with endemic plants and flowers. Amazing!

Snow-capped Mountain

One of my favorite scenic sites in Gongshan (bordering Tibet)- The Snow Capped Mountain. Simply refreshing!

The Stone Forest

Gong Xi Fa Chai, Kung Hei Fa Choi, Xi Nian Kuai Le, Happy Chinese Lunar New Year

As my tribute to a Country I dearly love and for the fantastic experience living in China for more than three years, I am posting a picture for you to take a glimpse of the famous Stone Forest located three hours away drive from Kunming City in Yunnan, Province.

The Strength of an Elephant

Looking at this picture puts me in nostalgia, bringing good memories of African days. This picture was taken in Kruger Park in South Africa - amazing!. Elephant is one of the big Fives of Africa and yes indeed true just by mere looking at this picture gives me some kind of strength I can't describe. Maybe...maybe for all the trials and challenges that came my way - I think I have the strength of an elephant! Indeed I'm strong!

Fave Chinese Food

Sha Guo Fan - one of my favorite Chinese local food...Uhhhhmmm just missing it...my taste bud is salivating just looking at this picture!

When everything goes tough!

When everything goes tough, we need to break a leg and laugh our lungs out! This video is courtesy of CEE LO GREEN of you tube. Just find it hilarious! Hope you like is as well! Have a nice and relaxing weekend everyone.

The Great Wall - Up Close!

One of the perks that you get when you do volunteering is the chance to visit one of the greatest wonders of the World - the Great Wall of China and the chance to see it up close like this picture.

In Their Midst

IN THEIR MIDST
By: Dolly Saniel-Lumbab

There’s a great mystery shrouding their faces…Looking at them often leaves me wondering as to what’s really going on in their minds? The moment they occupy their favourite seat in the day room, they start to wear that very distinct gaze towards the distance. Each one of them appears to wear a unique mask of mood. And believe me, they can change this mask as quickly as a whiff of air, from a gentle and meek spirited deer, to that of a feisty and aggressive lion. I have witnessed numerous changing of masks. If one is not familiar as to how it happens and when it would exactly happen or what’s going to happen, then it can be an extremely daunting experience.

You might be puzzled as to what I’m talking about. This is my personal tale as an overseas health worker in a private nursing facility for the elderly and mentally infirmed, specially those suffering from Alzheimers and Dementia. So far, this is the most humbling and challenging job I’ve ever tackled. I used to teach care giving, and never in my wildest imagination did I ever consider to perform the things I’ve taught in the confines of my classroom. I often told my students to brace themselves to the demands that this job entails, only to find out, that I, myself, have never been prepared till now.

As a nurse, it became an unsolicited pressure to work abroad, especially in the US or UK. So, when an opportunity came, I grabbed it without second thoughts… leaving behind a promising and well paying job, a flourishing family business, the company of my dearest friends, the familiarity of the place, the taste of great food, the comforts of my home and most of all, the presence and love of my precious daughters Eartha and Dancyl.

The first few months were so depressing. I am just a mere mortal. I get affected when upon entering a resident’s room, I am greeted by the sights and smell of faeces scattered all over the place, or worse still, when it is painted all over their body. I get annoyed when I’m called by foul names and mind you, I get so upset when they physically hurt me even if I’m fully aware that they really didn’t mean to do it. How would one appropriately react when they see their resident choking because big portions of sticky stool are stuck in their throat? It’s not one of the most pleasant situations to be in, in fact, it is totally gross. But I don‘t have the luxury to turn my back and run away. I am duty-bound to muster enough courage, take initiative and trust my instinct to prioritize the safety of my resident. I have to ignore the churns of my stomach and the propulsive force of regurgitation. In such a situation, I will have to focus my actions as to how I can carefully and gently extricate the sticky stool in the throat little by little until everything is cleared, and there will be no more risks of aspirations. It seems unbelievable, but I’ve encountered and handled similar situations on numerous occasions.

A lot of my colleagues would dream of working here. But I nearly ended my life, just to get out. It took me four long years…moments of internal struggle…tears and regrets…mentorship from my life coach…and the inspiration of my soul mate, to finally be able to find the joy of doing this work and accept the fact that I would be in this job until I’ll reach the goals I’ve set for myself.

I had been slapped, pinched, spat at, shouted at and my hair has been pulled too many times. But what can I do? I cannot fight back. I am expected to maintain my composure, despite their seemingly threatening behaviour. I must learn to rise above every tricky situation and control my temper with all my might. Afterall, they are described as people who are disorientated, confused and have lost their cognitive faculties.

Another setback of working in a nursing home, specially for people as passionate as me, is the tendency to cross the boundaries of a professional level of relationship. I have grown to get attached to a few of my residents, and have put more warmth and affection to our affinity, beyond what is just necessary. Allow me to mention one of my beloved residents. She was nearing her 100th years, the fact is, she was just 5 months away from that momentous centennial celebration. But my hopes of seeing her smiles on that memorable day were shattered when she breathe her last one cold and gloomy dawn due to pneumonia. I was totally heartbroken, it’s as if I lost my own maternal grandmother. For two weeks, it became uncomfortable for me to go to work knowing that I won’t see her anymore sitting in her favourite chair. I dreaded the thought that I won’t be wheeling her anymore to her room, tuck her in bed and recite a short prayer. I grieved and was sad for quite some time.

In my younger years, I used to say that I want to be spared from old age. When thoughts of wrinkly look, dry rough skin, bended posture and arthritic pain creep into my mind, a shiver runs down my spine. However, after witnessing the grace of aging and the beauty of peacefully awaiting death, I have no more qualms of embracing the inevitable no matter how long it will be. I will have no more apprehensions to face the sunset nor will I desire to take a shorter route.

Now, on my 7th year of working here, I can honestly say that every single shift has been so meaningful and life enriching. I take pride that I have hurdled the obstacles along the way. Of course, the credits does not solely lie in me. There are my colleagues, my staff, the management, families and relatives of my residents, my life coach, my soul mate, my friends, my sister and my daughters. When I finally retire to my homeland in a few more years, I can look back to this once in a lifetime experience and say that I have been so privileged to be working in the midst of my lovable residents…. To God be the glory!

Thanks Nai for allowing me to post this article and for sharing your gift!

Zebras in Kruger Park

Beautiful Zebras in their natural habitat in Kruger Reserve Park in South Africa. I just love them.

Let's save them.

Anxious but Hopeful

When I am anxious and wanted to be hopeful, I just want to lay down under this huge hundred years old tree in Yunnan Province, China. I love the place because of its soothing, relaxing breeze.

The tree tells me its triumphs over the time's harsh realities yet it stand proud and tall!

Kruger Park

One of the amazing places I miss is the Kruger Park in South Africa. I just miss this natural game reserve. Amazing stance of a Giraffe!

Next Photo post: Elephants in in natural habitat. Watch out for it.

The Secret

Another very inspiring book that comes as well in film is the Secret. What is good with this book is telling us maximize our use of positive energies and disposition. It's basic principle uses the "Law of Attraction"...which means like attracts like. Whatever we think positive or negative will generate the same. So let's be careful with what we think of of what we imagine because the universe will conspire to make it a reality.

So envision only good and positive things and let's work hard so our dreams and ambitions becomes a reality!

Thanks Gaga again for allowing me to borrow your precious book and film.

Inspiration

I am not feeling very well at the start of the new year but it's minor cough and colds due to drastic change in weather conditions. I have not written an article yet so I was thinking of posting cover of Paolo Coelho's Like a Flowing River which proved to be helpful to me in lifting me up, inspiring me when I need it the most.

So let's be positive!

Happy New Year!