Eve of New Year’s eve. Finally, I am back home, spending the most significant Chinese festive period with my loved ones. The feeling is priceless. It’s been so long since I have been home. Rewind to this time last year, I was celebrating Chinese New Year in an Islamic country (what more, inside an SAF camp), with a bunch of drunkards over a home-made steamboat, Need for Speed Most Wanted (black edition) and Tequila (the best feeling in the world is between the third and fourth Tequila) - saying it’s memorable is being way too modest. Later in the evening, most of our steamboat dinner resurfaced. I told you it was memorable.

God created alcohol to make men brave and women loose.

Okay, let’s rewind a couple of days to the most celebrated day in the history of love- Valentine’s Day. After three years, I am spending it with another someone. It feels so surreal, holding the flowers and walking over to her place. It brings back memories (some fond, some not so fond). We spent Wednesday night on Orchard Road, walking from Far East Plaza to Plaza Singapura. We started the leisure stroll at eleven. We talked and talked. I really wanted to hear her thoughts (and understand her better). I think I managed neither. We ended up trying to buy Macdonald’s at Plaza Singapura to fill our empty stomachs, but it was closed! Can you believe it? And I thought all the Macdonald’s in Singapore never sleeps. So, we walked (all the way back) to Shaw Centre and bought Macdonald’s there. Then, we took a cab home, and that was it. The day was neither eventful nor memorable, but it doesn’t mean I love her any less than my previous Valentine dates.

Happiness is not having what you want, more so it’s wanting what you have.

Rewind a few more hours before Valentine’s night, and I was in JB with Ayu. The purpose of his trip was to enhance the Malaysian economy, while mine was to collect Audrey Hepburn. Both of us kind of got what we both wanted. But, Ayu being Ayu, he always has regrets- either he spent too much money, or he didn’t buy enough stuff. A little contradictory. Yes, that’s Ayu for you- he balances me out. Like Arsene Wenger and Sam Allardyce at Reebok Stadium.

Opposites attract.

Rewind to eighteen hours back, and I was with Jackass, Huimin and Chinawoman at JEC. We had dinner, watched ‘Just Follow Law’ and then Jackass and I hanged out at Macdonald’s till around eleven. I enjoyed talking to Jack- I always have. We can hold really interesting and in-depth conversations. He gave me some advice concerning my love life. I cannot be more grateful.

Love tears us apart, yet we are willing to sacrifice everything for love.

Audrey Hepburn.

Since 1929 to 1993.

She cost me RM499.

David Robert Joseph Beckham has done it again.

He has proven his critics wrong again.

Just like the way he played when Manchester United won the Treble.

After getting himself sent off against Argentina in the World Cup.

Just like the way he led England into the World Cup against Greece.

When there were murmurings he was too quiet a captain.

Just like the way he played for Real Madrid on Sunday.

After those harsh words from his coach and president alike.

He has proven once again that he is the one to look to in time of need.

He is the one to show the way out of the darkness.

He is truly a man above men.

For this, I salute him.

Long live the King.

Okay, I have to admit I have been rather busy these few days, and my life nowadays revolves only around her (want to say a big sorry to all my friends- hopefully you all will understand me better at the end of this blog); so, naturally, this blog entry will be about her.

She will be leaving for Bali on 29^th April. As we all know by now, times flies, doesn’t it? First things first, she is a simple girl of twenty-one. She is short (as always, whenever a girl is beside me, except for maybe Maria Sharapova), plain, girl-next-door. But she really makes me laugh (a lot) - that may be due to the fact that we work at the same place. But then again, not many girls have been able to accomplish that for three years now (Tigress came close, but you know). And I enjoy her company thoroughly. Okay, let me tell you how our romance began. She has been consistently pestered by the Malay seniors (it was a verbal sexual harassment sort of thing) for some time. Then one evening, she broke down (I wasn’t around as I was assigned to another station). When I returned, she was unusually quiet and irate (we normally mess around a lot, as we two are the only ones of the similar age group). After work, she confined in me that the abuse got real bad and she cried just now when I was not around. I was at a loss- should I confront my seniors (even though I don’t understand a single shit they are saying to her) or should I just pretend I didn’t know anything (she wanted me to keep quiet, since she will be graded on this attachment before her graduation). I treated her as a friend then, but I was naturally pissed. I so wanted to help her, as I am genuinely a kind-hearted sort of person (like Michael Scofield). Nevertheless, here is a girl from Bali, all of twenty when she first arrived on shores of our sunny island, on a six-month attachment with no kin and friends whatsoever, clocking six-day weeks (with at least ten hours a day) and getting paid no more than six hundred Singapore dollars a month. To top it off, these constant harassments by the insensitive opposite sex is simply inhuman. It really makes my stay in Brunei seemed like a holiday. I pity her so, so much. Furthermore, I sincerely wanted to give her a better impression of Singaporean guys (sounds bull right? But you all Singaporean males know I can be a shining example for you, don’t you?). Therefore, I wanted to help her, as a friend (trust me!). So, I gave her my number (trust me again!)- the call-me-if-you-want-a-listening-ear sort of thing, not for asking yours truly out on a date. Which is exactly what she did. And slowly and surely, feelings developed.

So, what attracts me to her? Considering the numerous possibilities, it has to be the joy and innocence she emits. Her smile never fails to make my day (no girl since Chiling has made me feel this way). She is so gullible, and yet at the same time, such a great liar, and that is what makes her so sweet in my eyes. And she is exceptionally diligent (I have no doubts she would make a great maid) and she is the type that do not dare to toe the line (which kind of balances me out, doesn’t it?). Contrary to popular belief, she is neither Muslim nor Malay. She is sort of like a Hindu from Indonesia. I didn’t really care to inquire much- I love her, not her religion. In fact, she hates Muslims (the Extremist type- now, we aren’t that different, are we?), for she holds them responsible for the deaths of countless locals in the Bali bombings.

Now, more on what I don’t really enjoy about her. Number one, she is such a girl! She is so sticky, and she doesn’t trust me one bit. When enquired, she says it’s because I am a bad boy, and according to her, girls are suckers for bad boys like me. Wait, let me clarify (stop nodding your heads in agreement). Firstly, I am not a bad boy (I have never done anything that bad in my life), or a player (I am about as faithful as David Beckham). Secondly, Singapore girls are suckers for rich boys, not bad boys (come on, I know this much, no?). Thirdly, girls always flirt with the bad boys, but they only marry the good ones (the battle of kept-in-cages Cyclops and wild-at-heart Wolverine rages on in Jean Grey’s heart). So, no worries. No girls will want me (shake your head in disbelief now).

Number two, she is very possessive (VERY). To explain that, I got to sidetrack a bit. Erm, she has a boyfriend of three years back home (no, it’s not like what you think, let me explain myself first!). I do not believe in breaking up relationships to be with the one you love (I have learnt the hard way- if she can leave one him for you, she can leave you for another him); but neither do I not believe in depriving oneself of the opportunity of true love (true being optional here). A bit of a conflict of interests, yeah? So, I left it to her to decide. Well, I did not pursue her relentlessly (I do not need to- most of the time, it’s the other way round), I simply made known my feelings. Moreover, I very specifically stated we can remain friends, and I will have no qualms whatsoever about that. But, she chose the hard way (everybody loves GuangHui, no?). Which makes me wonder- what in the world did I do in like 3 months to replace a guy of three years in her heart?

She said I was especially caring towards her. Well, as I have already explained, I am basically a kind-hearted young soul out to spread the love, and what I did was purely out of friendship and friendship alone. I think she misunderstood my intentions (who wouldn’t?). Anyway, she fell for me before I fell for her (I just got the news today). But, her being her, she wouldn’t have done anything about it had I not come forward first and proclaim my love. Anyway, all that is history now.

Anyway, back to the possessive part. She hates her boyfriend for controlling her- she wants him to let her go out with whoever she wants in Singapore; on the other hand, she wouldn’t allow her boyfriend to go out with any girl in Bali (told you she is such a girl). I guess this have to be great news- she has made me swear off smoking, drinking and clubbing. I am a changed man now (cheers!). She gets jealous real easily- she scanned through my inbox now and then, and she kept enquiring about the photograph I took with Tigress at DT’s Christmas party. But, it makes me feel wanted, no? Anyway, she wants me to visit her in Bali in May (yes, May 2007)! Oh my God. I mean, she really sees a forever in both of us. Frankly, I will say that is not at all impossible (never say never), but not now. I cannot get married now and move to Bali with her! I got to get my ducks in line first. Get my career on track first before I can start a family. It’s the ten-year plan. She thinks so like the me of five year ago- love can solve everything, love can save you, love can make miracles. And, she’s such a breath of fresh air, I have to confess. She perfectly illustrates my point that we all love differently as we grow older, mostly due to the changes in our idea of love. She loves shopping, she loves pink, she has no clue what her future holds for her. She is just so different from the typical Singapore girl. She thinks that the someday-future love she longs for actually exist, and when it comes, it will complete her life. She is just so simple that it’s lovable. Analogy- if you keep having nice, expensive food every single day, and one day, you sit down at the neighbourhood coffee shop and order a plate of three-dollar Hokkien mee, and you find that it actually taste better than all the good food you’ve been having. Well, that is just about the way I feel now. Get it?

So, you can see, we are from two completely different worlds, we have two totally different set of thinking, yet somehow along the way, I managed to fall so truly, madly, deeply in love with her. Love is just amazing, isn’t it?

To enlarge or illustrate the power and effect of love is to set a candle in the sun. – Robert Burton