UNIVERSITY FESTIVAL & CLASS REUNION

Yeap, it is that time of the year when we are celebrating our University Festival...

I like it... mainly because we get a few days off without having to do anything...

But still, here I am at my office... tapping away at the keys and listening to horrid 'music' by the students...

The male singers are a little tolerable...

But when the girls take over the stage, oooh... their screams make them sound like they are being strangled alive or something... real yakky...

On another front, just received notice of a huge reunion being planned for our Class of 1976...

As they say, every doggo has its day... we were young and clueless...

Now, 30 years down the road, who in their right sense of mind would want to miss such a promising event?

I for one, would love to compare my remaining precious few strands of 'hair' with the guys'...

And of course, to see whose belly is the most bulging of them all...

Would also certainly be prowling around to see what damage father time has done to those lovely, petite girls who hypnotized us into tripping over ourselves silly...

Yeap, thirty years ago... when we were but open-jawed and wide-eyed...

Man... life is fun...

GROWLING AND HISSING

Hmmm... these days, yours truly is busy like a bee, yet hungry like a ghost...

Been inundated with loads of work...

The list of 'to do' items don't seem to taper off...

On another front, went for a curry lunch today...

Those familiar with Japanese curry would know that it is not really the 'real' stuff...

Anyway, ordered an extra large portion...

When the plate came, the volume looked so ordinary that I had to confirm with the waitress...

Yes, that is extra large, she said...

But after gulping down that plateful, my stomach was still growling...

Hmmm... what now?

Stopped by a noodle shop and devoured a bowlful...

Now, that feels more like it, my stomach seemed to hiss...

I know, I know...

As man ages, he should pay more attention to the consumption volume...

Otherwise, the stomach would burst out, bulging in no time...

Hmmm... if not for the heaps of work, it'd be nice to sneak off for a little 'python' snore eh...

ON-THE-JOB TRAINING, STILL...

No kidding...

Took me ten years to come out of the classroom with a feeling that I have done a pretty good job 'teaching'...

I cherish walking right up to the students' faces, prodding and nudging them with questions...

I derive much pleasure from this interactive mode of 'teasing' the students...

Well, self-satisfaction, you could say...

But looking at the almost instant response from a rather large group of students remaining after the class to ask questions, yours truly couldn't help grinning from ear to ear yesterday...

Job satisfaction, I'd say?

The topic... Migration into Japan: its possibility and problems...

The class is big... almost 150 students and some latecomers had to sit on chairs taken in from classrooms...

My thoughts are thrown back to an interview I conducted with a company man while a doctorate student...

I asked the man how many years it would take for him to be considered a skilled worker...

His response... 15 years...

Man, I still have five more years to grind before I can scrape past that hurdle?

MAKING HISTORY IN JAPAN?

While holidaying in Malaysia last month, was asked by Kagawa Prefecture through the email if I could assist them to hold a meeting...

Without going into the finer details, I said ok... (it was terrible to read Japanese in romaji text...)

Turned out to be quite a high profile meeting with the purpose of discussing how to make Kagawa Prefecture 'a more livable place' for foreigners...

'Assisting to hold a meeting' turned out to be 'my consent to be chairman of the meeting'...

Hey, I didn't read that part!!

Anyway, first time to chair such a meeting with the top guns of the prefecture attending...

Learnt later that yours truly is the first foreigner to chair such a high level meeting in the prefecture...

Weeeehh... I am making history?

But... there's always a but...

The Japanese are understandably not really keen to take in foreigners into their shores...

They have been so for the past hundreds of years...

So, the proposals are more like limp, ad hoc measures... stopgap devices that are tuned more towards short-term stayers...

While short-term residents can be quite a problem (they don't know how to separate the rubbish... they party too late into the nights... they use too much oil to cook... the spices they use are too smelly... they commit too much crime...), the focus on long-term residents is somewhat superficial...

Anyway, we are due to meet two more times to thrash the proposals out...

Am looking forward to seeing more 'fire' in the discussions between the local and foreign members of the meeting...

PROUD TO BE A 'LIM' TODAY

Malaysian affairs has been and is still graced by quite a few of the 'Lim' clansmen...

Lim Chong Eu, Lim Keng Yaik, Lim Kit Siang, Lim Guan Eng, Lim Ah Lek are some of the prominent ones...

If I am not mistaken, Ling Liong Sik also shares the same Chinese surname... no?

Sometimes of course, I feel embarrassed to be 'associated' with them, especially those in the ruling coalition...

Times when they appear so weak and patronizing to you-know-who...

But today, I feel proud...

Dr. Dr Lim Teck Ghee has quit ASLI...

That's integrity for you...

I am proud that my 'braddaaa' is standing by his work and telling the concerned parties to go and rot...

Says he, 'It is the fundamental right of the Malaysian public to question all government statistics and policies, more so when these are not transparent or defensible.'

I salute you, brother...