A Taxi Conversation

I went to visit my sister in Sembawang this evening. That essentially means 2 long taxi rides that cost me $30.00 in total. These visits to my sister are almost always the only times I wish I could drive... The MRT ride from where I live to Sembawang takes a little more than an hour and after that I would still need to get a cab or ask my nephew for a ride, so all in, it takes close to 2 hours just to get there! So, yes, call me a spoilt Singaporean if you will, but when I decide to go visit my sister, I take a cab. Both ways. Sometimes, money isn't every thing :)

So, today, I had 2 interesting conversations with the taxi drivers who took me there and back. The first one who drove me to Sembawang regaled me with stories centred around the theme "People are ungrateful and don't remember the good you have done for them". This involved various cousins and their families who had availed themselves of his services as a 'caster out of black magic spells' yet now did not want to have anything to do with him. While the tales of different cousins and the troubles they had gotten into and that he had rescued them from were entertaining, after the 4th story, I kind of got the picture. He was not just a taxi driver, he was a misunderstood saint. I was also suitably impressed by his insistence that he found Indians the best of all and unlike many other taxi drivers, he was NOT a racist :)

The driver who drove me back from Sembabwang to home, was a different personality altogether. I arrived at Dover with immense respect for the man. He spoke very well and it turned out that he had retired and was sharing the taxi with 3 other retired men who were all no longer dependent on the income from their driving. This gentleman said at 17 years of age he set himslef goals; he had worked as a crane operator in the Middle East drawing $7000.00 a month, volunteered to be retrenched during the 1987 economic crisis and returned to Singapore with a golden handshake worth $250,000.00. He has 2 children who are both aircraft technicians living in Australia, he has 2 grandchildren there and every 6 months he hangs up his car keys and travels to spend time with his children. He owns 3 houses in Johore Bahru, his flat in Singapore is fully paid up, he has no debts, his children give his wife $4000.00 a month which she saves for herself. The picture seemed similar for the other 2 men he shared the cab with - one had 2 houses in KL, the other had a bungalow in Malacca and they had all fully paid up mortgages on their HDB flats! I am truly full of respect for this man.

This taxi driver said when he was 17 he decided he would live by one main value - Discipline. As a result he said there were 5 Principles he lived by:

1. Not to be a 'coffee shop cabbie' (meaning he would put in the hours on the road and not idle at coffee shops during his shift)
2. No drinking
3. No smoking
4. No gambling
5. No womanising

He said by living in this way, he had a happy home, his children respected him, his wife was contented, he wasted neither time nor money and he had peace of mind. It seemed like a simple and maybe even a trite formula, but what I was hearing was a man who had lived his life well and was enjoying the fruits of his labour. It is a life to be emulated.

Where I Am

"Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards."

- Soren Kierkegaard

For all that has been, Lord, thanks. For all that is to come, Lord, yes.

Back from Travels

Soooo.... who missed me??? :) I'm back from a 10 day work trip to San Francisco and Vancouver. Like my gmail status proclaimed, I didn't want to go. I hated giving up my schedule (I had a CYAN retreat planned, there was the ICTLT Conference that I had registered for), I hated rushing around getting stuff for the trip (winter wear, boots, office wear....), I hated the thought of travelling with strangers, I wished I had more time to settle my household (pay the bills, stock the fridge... ). And most of all, I dreaded the winter. You see, I get really sad in winter. The day is grey, it gets dark by 4pm, it is so very cold and just to pop out and get a sandwich I have to put on layers of clothes and I feel miserable. I was also wary of the planned itinerary - it was a young person's itinerary, 3 cities in 8 days. I felt tired just reading it.

But yet again, God has taught me a lesson and I realise I need to go with the flow and stop resisting change. Schedules make me comfortable, predictability is safe. But maybe that attitude is shutting me off from exciting new opportunities. Maybe it is time to take some risks. Not foolhardy risks but risk trusting God to care enough about me, risk trusting that God means it when He says He is holding my right hand.

The verse He gave me was Isaiah 40: 29 - 31, a verse that Brandon shared on at CYAN. And it was assurance from God that He knows where I was, what I was feeling, what I was scared of. That He will give me the strength for the journey, that He was in charge. And that is what came to pass. The itinerary was changed a week before we left to just 2 cities, the weather was so mild that I used the bulky parka I bought only twice, the people I travelled with were extremely kind, the interview panel I sat on clicked and we were amazingly in synch in selecting candidates,the SIA flights were so well timed that I am hardly jetlagged. It was a good trip.

And what was the best bit of the trip for me? This - my hotel room...

I had an amazingly beautiful room to myself in San Francisco and Vancouver! And I loved having a king sized bed all to myself with soft sheets, warm quilt, comfortable pillows... It was the best 4 nights I had ever spent in a hotel. And in Vancouver I had the view of a lake from my window... Very shallow, I know, but I loved the sheer creature comfort of it all.

And the saddest? That it was too cold for me to eat the ice cream.....

So, now, I am back in Singapore. It will be work again on Monday. The predictability I had longed for will be back, I will be in synch with my diary again. But I am already looking forward to my next trip - Melbourne, 1 - 12 April....