MY MUM'S SON...

Wooh... this weather suddenly 'decided to punish me' by getting colder...

The temperature's been zooming into the single-digit lows, although not quite reaching zero as yet...

There was even a tinge of snow falling this morning...

Been driving to work for the last few days due to not so much the cold...

It's more of the winds that gush in from the sea front...

While cycling, I sometimes felt like I was going to lift-off and fly away...

Will be having a party hosted by the University President tonight...

It is exciting for me because I get to meet most of the foreign students in the university...

The other notable development is that yours truly is set to head back to Bolehland for a short break...

It will be a combination of 'business and pleasure'... so to say...

Shall be shooting back on 22nd December, returning to Japan on 4th January...

This is the first time ever, for me to return home in the year-end, year-beginning period...

Been avoiding this period because the airports are usually super-crowded with Japanese tourists heading to places like Hawaii and Guam...

But what to do...

In my present capacity, I can no longer do my usual 'escape' during the spring holidays of February and March...

I now need to be around to handle things; otherwise, I shall be putting too much burden on my colleagues...

Anyway, one main purpose of my balik-kampong is to see my mum...

She is about 83 and weakening... no energy to cook anymore...

Mum was however, never known to be a good cook although she is a nyonya from Pulau Pinang...

Still, it seems that I have reached the point of having the privilege to enjoy mum's home cooked food taken away...

Kind of sad...

About 10 years ago, I was out on an Aichi-Foreign-Student-Association-organized ski-trip to Shin-hodaka Mountains in Gifu prefecture...

There, my friends enjoyed skiing, as I repeatedly fell over and over again...

I was utterly hopeless in skiing...

It was then that my dad had passed away while I bled in my nose from those clumsy falls...

Till today, I cursed myself to no end for not being able to be by his side...

Apparently, Chinese 'tradition' deemed that we had to crawl on fours around my dad's coffin a few times, asking for forgiveness...

As for my mum, I am more mentally prepared...

She has asked me to be by her side when we return this time...

But here I am, still dreaming of hitting the blue ocean when we return...