It's starting to get cold again...

Daylight savings has just kicked in and the first sight of a really chilly winter has emerged.

Well, technically it should still be Autumn, but the snow has set and it's become really cold coming to work on the bicycle this morning.

Which shoes are we in?

Everyone wants to be 'somebody'. But what exactly is the meaning of 'somebody'? Is it determined by the shoes we wear?

People argue about classifications, but then again, who sets the class? Who set all these laws?

Law is the same as History. What really matters is who your audiences are and how you are able to influence their perception. I've always said that there are two sides to a story (sometimes more!) and different people react differently to similar scenarios. In the matter of Law, if you are guilty but you have hired your lawyer to prove that you are innocence, your lawyer will then start building a case to prove your innocence.

So, in terms of a business sense, accountants are experts with monetary laws and when you hire an accountant to help you save costs or 'manage your accounts' they will let you know ways in which you could escape being taxed on certain things, as long as you meet certain criteria. Technically, you could say it is an official or legal way of laundering money.

But then again, it depends which side of the fence you are on. Or which shoes you are in...

Borders

One of the things that fascinates me till now are borders. Within the South East Asian region, there are a couple of countries with almost entirely different languages - Thai, Filipino, Malay, Vietnamese, etc.

Over in Europe, there are even more languages with a lot of history to each of their own form of languages - The Scandinavians share some old Norse which is quite similar to Old German, which is in turn similar to Olde English. Then we have the Latin based languages like Italian, French, Spanish, Portugese, etc. Furthermore there are the a couple of languages in Eastern Europe that share similarities to some Russian.

What is really unique about all these different countries is how patriotic they can be at times. An example is that all these so called regions would love to benefit economically from each other creating free trade zones amongst neighbouring countries. However, like everything with human nature, nobody wants to lose out, so typically during the current banking crisis and economic environment, these independent governments cannot stop bickering to agree on ways to solve the problem.

Looking at it from a micro point of view, it's just like having house mates - when everyone is doing well, earning money and contributing to the leisure time of one another everyone is happy. However, if either one drops out from work for a couple of weeks, will any of the other house mates feel obliged to help out?

Stabbed

One night I sensed it, so I asked her - about her seeing her ex boyfriend again. Yet somehow, she managed to make it as if it was not her fault.

"You knew what you were getting into from the start!" she shouted. I felt awful at how it seemed that I was in the wrong knowing that she hadn't had a clean break from her past in the first. Like a detective going through a crime scene investigation, I demanded to know all the finest details.

She tried to avoid eye contact. I could imagine being part of The Killers latest single, "Mr. Brightside". Images of him with her flashed through my mind. I wished the world would just open a hole and suck me from my misery.

"We used a condom," she tried to reduce the irrepairable damage with a hint of honesty. It was as if everybody did this everyday like they use the toothbrush. "It didn't mean anything," she continued, as if our relationship did mean anything at that point of time.

I tried to see if there was a way to work things out, but ultimately - the questioned needed to be answered. "You have to choose, I give you till the end of today to sort things out". But deep down inside I knew. This was the end.

Cheating on someone does not make things better, it makes things worse. To me it's like a knife that cuts through our chest. The wound would heal someday, but the scar will forever remain. And everytime you see a knife - the same fear will strike again.

There were so many questions I wanted answered, but it just didn't come out. After being together for the time we had, I knew I could not go back with her again. For every relationship there needs to be trust. From that moment, I knew I could trust her as much as I could trust the love of a whore in Amsterdam.

Lesson of the day was that, if you rush into infidelity you have to be prepared for the damage. It was because of that I knew I could never, ever cheat on the woman I loved.

from the novel "Understanding Keith King" 2005

"Good Night, don't let the bed bugs bite"...

... I used to think this saying was so cute. In my mind there were images of cuddly cartoony images of insects known as bed bugs. That was until I was almost eaten alive by a bunch* of bed bugs.

From my experience, here are some words of advice:

1. Throw away the quilt
2. Throw away the pillows
3. Throw away the bed sheets and pillow covers
4. Throw away the mattress (if you are feeling rich)
5. Buy a new set of everything above.
6. Use repellant on all possible places in your room to ensure the bed bugs are stunned or die.
7. Vacuum the whole room to make sure you get every possibility of a reproduction out of the way.

If these seven steps don't work, I guess we would have to call in the professionals to make sure there is no repeat of being eaten alive.

In the meantime, I will continue my daily ritual of applying sudocream on all my bites to sooth the itch and the pain.

Oh, and some piriton to make sure I don't scratch the itch in the middle of the night.

"Good night, don't let the bed bugs bite!"

*Bunch = based on the 50+ bites I had on my hands, legs, feet, ears and neck respectively

Death of the DVD Salesman

There was a time when I used to think that DVD salesmen were so cool. As a matter of fact, there was a time when I actually strive to look like a DVD salesman. I had the funky haircuts with the bright dyed hair. I had the designer pouch to match along with the attitude as well. Oh not to mention the name too!

Then when I came to the UK, I realised being recognised as a DVD salesman was a derogatory term used to describe Chinese people. It was weird as I am proud to be Chinese yet I despised being termed in such a manner.

I guess in some ways, overseas Chinese usually suffer from this confusion which is to be seen as Chinese or to be seen as more western? Some examples would be most if not all Chinese around the world are most definitely proud of the Olympics in Beijing recently.

However some resent the fact to being termed or viewed as the backward type usually made fun of.

It ends up such a dilemma - who are we really?