because the family is gold

it's the beijing olympic opening day today! sharp on 8 Aug 08 at 8.08pm.

wow it was such a great opening ceremony. i just loved the fireworks shaped like a foot step, shot into the sky one after another along the highway as if foot steps walking towards the bird's nest stadium. 29 steps altogether symbolizing the 29th olympic stop. creative right?

overall, it was such a grand, yet very culturistic performance. i think the performance managed to show the world what china is all about in just one evening. it was orchested by zhang yimou, so what do you expect?

it's almost scary how they managed to mobilized tens of thousands of people to create such a perfect show. i guess it helped that china has the most disciplined and most patriotic citizens i've ever known. seriously. i mean, hang the malaysian flag out of you window and you'd just be stamped as badawi ass-licker in no time.

i had just came back from a few days escapade in kota kinabalu. yes, again. twice in the last 3 months which is so unlike me, because when it comes to travelling, i prefer a one night stand approach. but this time was to bring my parents there.

to tell you the truth, i never thought a time off with my family would be so fun. not that we are not in good terms or anything, but things just somehow tend to get formal whenever i'm with them.

perhaps it all traced back during my childhood time when i used to be scared of my parents. i was the kind that ordered plain water during an eat-out session because i was afraid that other drinks would be too expensive.

in fact, now that i think about it, i was afraid of many things when i was little. ever heard of students getting caught smoking in the toilet, or skipped classes to sniff bicycle gums behind the school block? i never did those things because that would be against the norm and i so afraid to commit them.

that is why now when i'm all grown ups and no longer live with them, stepping my toes out of line feels like disneyland. freedom embraces me like drugs, i could get half of the singapore population into my bed and nobody's gonna even bother.

except those times when i'm in my parents company, when all these invisible rules come swooping back and haunts me like a lingering poltergeist. before i knew it, every words i said sound like work interview replies, and the shower room can expect me no later than 7pm everyday again.

so forgive me for being sceptical about this particular family trip at first. especially after i realized how fun it was spending time together, be it in our joined le meridien room, or while walking along the waterfront to find eating place that suited them, or even inside the cramped toyota uncer that brought us through 2-hours of bumpy ride to kundasang.

to make the trip even better, i managed to do thing that i missed out during my last visit. like spotting the raflesia, the world's biggest flower at kg kokob near ranau.

this flower takes 15 months to bloom and it lasts only 7 days

or so it was said because the version that i saw was just slightly bigger than a pensieve. nevermind that we had to pay RM10 per person just to see the flower, and we couldn't even get near to it to smell the stench.

the island outing also was better because this time it was all clear and sunny compared to heavy storm the last time i went. i believe that previous weather bitch must have had her ass kicked by the mt kinabalu bobohizans. we chose mamutik island because we have never been there, and it still has live corals.

where we managed to spot nemo! yeah apparently we don't need to carry like a tonne heavy air tank and dive to the sea bottom to spot one, just enough by glancing from the surface.

pulau mamutik escapade in such a blessed weather

at the end of the day, i just felt fulfilled. i mean after all, people might come and go, in and out of our beds but family will always be there to stay when you need them.

no wonder when sarah brightman sang the olympic song just now, i wished it was 'keep it together' by madonna instead.



...ed