5 minutes to Christmas

Christmas.

The day people exchange presents. The day working people take a day off. The day people rejoice. The day people give thanks. The day Jesus Christ was born.

It is Christmas Eve and work is inevitable for me. Working part-time at Adidas Midvalley in case you were wondering. Right let's start. I'm here to share with you all a story about a passionate boy and his loving father.

A frail looking father helped his wheelchair-bound son through the entrance. As usual, the girls yelled out "WELCOME!!" without looking at the patronizing customer. Well, I tried telling them to at least look them in the eyes to express a minimal form of sincerity but crap, they won't listen. Anyway, a little detour there but don't mind that. Ok they came in and Gabriel, my colleague attended to them.

The boy was very intrigued by soccer boots. He picked a model, got him a size, tried it on, chose a pair of socks to go with, the father paid and they left. The father even insisted that Gabriel take RM10 as tips. (He decided to donate the RM10 back to the church) Then Gabriel came and shared with us the boy's story. The boy was playing soccer when he fell on a rock and got himself partially paralyzed. Now even walking is a big problem for him. He was a passionate soccer player and he still is. He watches the EPL on Astro and he probably supports a team. When asked, the father said he could probably never run again let alone getting back onto the pitch. It's such a pity something like that had to happen to him or anybody else at all. So in an effort to cheer his son up, the father is now getting him a pair of soccer boots of the boy's choice for Christmas.

It is God's will that things had to happen this way but God also gave him a loving and understanding father. I feel really sad for the boy. Even thinking about it makes me wanna cry.

So people, while celebrating Christmas this year, do remember that there's a boy somewhere lugging onto his soccer boots waiting and wishing that one day he could finally put those boots to good use. A simple prayer is the least you can do folks. Many others share the same fate so peeps, don't forget the true meaning of Christmas. Give thanks. Love and be loved.

Thank you dear God, for everything.



FAI

Compliments of the Season

Hello once again to all our readers.

We, the Tan trio would like to extend a hearty Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all! Hope all of you have a meaningful time with your family and friends.

Tis the season to be jolly~!

Hiresh

Recommendations

Taking back Sunday - Spin

Augustana - Stars and boulevards

Damien Rice - Cannonball

Dashboard Confessionals - A plain morning

Waking Ashland - October skies



FAI

The United States of Timonica

And who would have thought Americans are not idiots as suggested by Green Day in their song American idiots? Well you can stop mocking America you British hooligans who consider world domination as something that's bloody cool. No idea where that came from. The effects of jet lag come in many different forms I suppose.

RIGHT, back to the main topic. The US wasn't that bad. In fact it was great. So Fai you can now revert back to your typical self and start bludgeoning your treasured 'angkuku' readers with an arsenal of pictures.

You know I used to think flying to Australia is gonna be tiring (cos we're all going to Melbourne wooohooo!!). Blast that thought. Well, the flight to US was like the 4 of us being hit by a chain frost. Just that this chain frost won't stop jumping until we hit the ground. GG. We stopped over at Stockholm, Sweden on transit and even that took 12 hours.



















Stopped over at Stockholm's Arlanda airport.



















That says "No exit" in Swedish... Yea I'm just being lame.



















Well if "Hiss" means lift then does hess mean left? Swedish ain't that hard after all.



















8 more hours and we're in Queens, New York. Church in the middle of Chinatown.



















Then we saw these cute mini apples. Yes, they're apples.



















And this is even cuter. Too bad can't bring it back cos the US is just being a little too paranoia that it might be some suspicious liquid that I might use on the plane to assemble a bomb and blow em' jackasses off the skies.



















We're going on a road trip........



















This is one funny looking tree. And I thought the people here would have gotten over Halloween already.



















Godly sight only the sublime Almighty can paint. 4.30pm US time.



















Then we proceeded to the ever-so-colourful Manhattan.



















A whole building that resembles a gift box. I wonder if they have rubbish bins that resemble Jinn??



















...and so they do



















Well yea it says Rockefeller there but nope this is not the Rockefeller building.



















We won a lottery ticket!! Yea shortlived joy. Just $10.



















Manhattan by day.



















The McDonald's in Manhattan's Chinatown. I'd expect to see this in China, not here.



















Then we visited Ground Zero, where the glorious World Trade Centre twin towers once stood.



















Here remembering, 9/11.



















Walk on walk on, 15minutes from Ground Zero was Wall Street. They used real gold to coat those word, and so my cousin said.



















You know my Mum has a multinational family. From left: Aunty (Singapore), Mum (KL, Malysia), Uncle Ben (Long Island, USA), Aunty (Peking, China), Aunty (Toronto, Canada)



















Went to mini Vegas, the Atlantic City. Local laws required that you be 21 to be able to gamble. There I was, just turned 19 and I wasn't even allowed to set foot on those carpets. Cibai palia guards. And I thought only Sunway/Monash guards were palia



















Hard Rock Cafe Atlantic City. Definitely a very clearly worded warning sign. Red somemore.



















"The horizon has been defeated" (Jack Johnson, 2003)



















Well I shall conclude that the pigeons here have colossal balls.



















They even have Ruby Tuesday. Nope not Tuesday, it's Tooosday. Americans...



















I'm telling you, no wonder Americans are huge cos this is one person's portion of a plate of fried rice. Eh Jinn, come ah let's go to the US and we won't have to order doubles again.



















Sorry about the floor mat man... I was hungry and I thought a little nibbling wouldn't hurt. Heh



















I'm sure we're all familiar with liability limitation/exclusion disclaimers and so I present to you the declaration of liability and responsibility.


...to be continued



FAI