The cemetery ...

I went to the cemetery this past Friday (27 April - SA's public holiday, Feedon Day). Now,before you think strange of this statement, let me explain. In the Chinese culture, there is plenty of emphasis on paying homage to the family members who have passed on. On Friday, I went to pay my respects to my grandfather, uncle and other relatives.

The cemetery used to be a very special place for my "living" family, both immediate and extended, totalling as many as 23, including grandma, uncle, aunts and cousins. We would go to the cemetery as often as once a week on a Sunday. Besides being a place where we would come and pay our respects to our relatives who had passed on, it would also be a gathering place for us to chat, gossip and just catch up with each other. After we had done our rounds at the cemetery,we would head off to Chinatown for lunch.Later still we would go to one of the uncle's or aunt's house to go swim, ride bikes, play games, sing karaoke, play station, listen to the kids play music, watch TV, play pool, play mah jong, make dinner or have a braai (BBQ). It was great family bonding time! Those were the good 'ol days...

I took this picture of my mom and aunt walking at the cemetery. It is what remains of our once HUGE family. The family's been torn apart by personal grudges and misunderstandings. Gone are those days of gossiping about others.It's now replaced with gossiping about each other.

My Uncle Terrence, who immigrated to Oz with his wife and daughter, came back briefly last year for a short visit. He said that we should appreciate the time we can spend our family, purely for the fact that we can now.
Inevitably, the rounds in the cemetery will become longer, as we'll be visiting more relatives who pass on.

Family is important...it is vital.

I hope my family start burying those grudges first before we start burying each other.

Test of an IT Manager

I do endeavour to try and do one post a day. This one is to test my technical abilities (or lack thereof), especially since I'm suppose to be an IT manager (hey, I manage people and the IT THEY do)!

My experiment is to check if the email subscription from Feedburner is working or not.

So, here it goes.....

Kendo...

The South African Kendo Federation (SAKF) will be hosting their Annual Kendo Workshop this weekend (28-29 April) at the Japanese School in Emerentia, JHB, South Africa. Ishimaru sensei, 7th Dan, will once again be the main sensei to host the seminar. It's a pretty intensive workshop that involves 2 days of gruelling Kendo training!

The last time I went to this workshop was in in 2005, the first time ever for me! I remember getting ready to do some some keiko (sparring) with someone and Ishimaru sensei watching on from the side. Then, on my initial attack, screaming as loudly as I possibly could, my foot got stuck in my hakama (Japanese skirt like apparel) and I went first flying into the air, then tumbling down into the hard wooden floor! When I got up, I say Ishimaru sensei laughing away! So much for first impressions! Up until that point, I think I was pretty credible and looked pretty good in my Kendo gear, however, doing my version of Goth-gone-crazy head-bang, and seeing the sensei all slit-eyed from laughter, made me realise that, hey, we're all human still and one must never forget that humbleness is the root of all good!

So, I'm looking forward to this year's seminar. This time, I'm going to make sure that my hakama is pulled up beyond my knees so as to expose my sexy, hairy calf muscles and ensure I don't do my impersonation of that Goth ever again.

Day one....

My first post ever on a blog..hmm...what to say??!!! I must admit, this involves more hard-work than I originally thought! Not as easy as some of the other people make it out to be. So what exactly can I waffle on? Just got out of a really long meeting (+- 2hrs). It was in a dark, warm boardroom. For my friends who know me, yes, I did doze off slightly. HOWEVER, I did manage to keep my pen-hand writing to appear as if I was writing in my notebook! The beauty of being Asian with small eyes, is that no one can really dispute your eyes were closed cause we have such small eyes anyway! har har! :p Sorry, stupid Asian joke that only us Asians are allowed to use! Anyway, I did write sometime down.....wait..ok, just confirmed, it's nothing readible anyway.





I have training tonight at my Kendo club. Our annual seminar is this weekend. More on that later. Our webmaster recently revamped the site: www.sankawa.co.za.





Also, our cool logo was designed by my sister (see left):