Christmas 2007
24/01/08 14:59 Filed in: Christmas Letters
Dear family and friends,
This is my 2007 Christmas and Thank You letter. I have never been so late in writing my Christmas letter, but last year was unlike any other year. In addition to being busy, I wasn't in much of a Christmas mood.
2007 was a “funny” year. It was a strange year. It was a year of extremes. I met some extremely nice people, had some very wonderful experiences overseas, but it was also the saddest and most painful year of my life. At some point during the 2nd half of the year, I did a count on the number of people I know (or know of) who died during the year. The number came to about 11! How can it be a good year??!!
If you don’t already know, my father passed away on June 28th, from complications arising from a gastroscopy. 6 days before that, he was diagnosed with cancer in the liver. Without boring you with all the details, he passed away very quickly and peacefully. It was a double shock for us. We thank God that he didn’t suffer any pain.
Dad’s been gone for almost 7 months now. We all miss him very badly. When I go to work every morning, I could still hear him saying to me “drive carefully”. Sometimes I think maybe this is a hoax, that dad would just appear and say “gotcha!”. If only.
I created a montage of music and photos to play at the funeral – there was no way I could tell people the things dad did for his family, especially for me, without breaking down and cry. So I thought I would let the pictures do the talking. If you are interested, you can view it here: http://video.fotki.com/BevanT/31676/
I take this opportunity to thank all of you for your support and expression of sympathy, especially during the initial weeks of these difficult times. I did intend to reply all of you, but the emails piled up so quickly and I’m now so far behind my emails, it might be 2010 before I get to do them!
On to other news. I lost weight! Dad had been going to a Chinese doctor to treat his high blood pressure. I thought I’d go see her and do the same but she said I should try losing weight, which should then improve my BP. So from 1 March to 30 June, I followed her weight loss program, which was a combination of acupuncture, massage, Chinese medicine, various types of machines and exercise (supposedly, but me? Exercise? Forget it!).
Originally, I thought I would give it a try for a couple of weeks. If it didn’t work, I was going to just give up (when she told me all the things I couldn’t eat and drink, I said to her “what’s the point of living?"). But I was consistently losing about 1 kg a week, so I kept going just to see if I could lose another the following week. After about a month, I told myself I wasn’t going to spend all that money and have nothing to show for it! Final result: I lost 15 kg in those 3 months. I’ve put back about 1.5 kg since then, but I can live with that. It's under control.
2007 was also the year I re-established contact with some of my high school friends and teachers. Through one of my oldest friends, I found out that my junior high school was organising a reunion in Singapore. From that came the phone number of one schoolmate, which led to another, then another and so on. I managed to get in touch with my maths teacher. 27 years after leaving the school, I finally had a chance to thank her. She took us, from a bunch of no-hopers failing in maths, to everyone passing the state maths exam with either an ‘A’ or a ‘B’. I owe her my gratitude.
Nothing exciting to report about my work, but I did travel to Taiwan 4 times, twice to Shanghai and one trip to Barcelona. I have travel logs which started out as emails I sent to my family when I’m travelling, to share with them my day (especially the time when I was in India). I have travel logs for all except the last trip to Taipei, because my family was travelling with me. You can find the logs here: http://journals.fotki.com/BevanT/
I had the most fun in Taipei. Work was not, but staying in the hotel definitely made it worthwhile. I stayed at one of the best hotels (which is also my favourite) and met some very nice people. I learnt some very interesting things about the hospitality business along with a reminder of some simple, yet important lessons in life (which I think is one of the reasons why the hotel is so successful).
Shanghai is my favourite Chinese city, probably because of its history and turbulent years made famous by the Chinese TV series “The Bund”, starring Chow Yun-Fatt long before his Hollywood days. I had long wanted to take a panoramic night view of The Bund. I had my wish during the second visit last year. Here it is:
Barcelona smelled of sewage! But there were some nice things to see. Here are some photos:
Last October, my family came with me to Taipei. This is my 4th visit to the city in one year. I had to go there for work; they came along for a short holiday. I had hoped to bring dad to Taipei and envisaged him sitting in the hotel lounge sipping Chinese tea with 2 of his oldest friends, but it wasn’t meant to be. But the family made the trip and we met up with dad’s friends. Over lunches and dinners, they told us about the fun times they had with dad while growing up and in university. It was a bittersweet experience.
On our way home, we stopped by Hong Kong overnight and were lucky enough to meet up with almost all of our relatives there for a reunion lunch. All in all, a memorable trip, especially since it’s the first trip we travelled as a family without Dad. It took mum’s mind off things a little.
Our Toastmasters Club celebrated its 30th anniversary in March and its 700th meeting in December. I prepared two music slideshows to be played at these two special meetings. You can watch them here: http://video.fotki.com/BevanT/24097/ and http://video.fotki.com/BevanT/40815/
It would have been a good year otherwise, but I know at least 10 families are without their loved ones for the first time. For the first time, I actually know how they feel.
“It has been said, 'time heals all wounds.' I do not agree. The wounds remain. In time, the mind, (protecting its sanity), covers them with scar tissue and the pain lessens. But, it is never gone.” - Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy
This must be the most boring Christmas letter I’ve ever written. But perhaps you now understand why I didn’t write it before Christmas.
Hope your 2007 was a better one than mine.
Time to say goodbye.
Your friend,
Bevan
