On Friday night, my wife ‘dragged’ me to attend this ‘sharing presentation’ from her friends in Singapore together with their ‘upline’ from Perth at De Summit on this wonderful health supplements from the US. Though not exactly new to ‘Multilevel Network Marketing’ having joined a couple over the years (who hasn’t in Malaysia, the world’s MLM ‘dumping grounds’, must be living in a hole): I was nonetheless pleasantly surprised to learn that USANA supplements had been independently tested to be the ‘best’ in the world. If that’s true, then it’s a no-brainer as I currently take supplements (Vitamin C, B Complex, Vitamin E, Cal-Mag0 and I would only want to take the best. So if I do sign up; then those of you who may want to take supplements can then contact me and be my ‘down-lines’ thereby making me a ‘diamond’ in a couple of years with 5-figure passive income … and so the ‘story’ goes.

On Saturday, Azmi had to take emergency leave to help his dad sort out some land matters problems in Sibu leaving me to take the Jones’s from the UK for some rainforest kayaking in Borneo Highland. Fortunately Lars, a Norwegian, whom I had recently met with his local wife who hails from Kg Semadang was able to help out to be my ‘shuttle’ driver. But unfortunately my car battery died on me in the morning (I also had battery problems with my camera. Coincidence?) I had to ‘jumper lead’ start my car to get a new battery delaying the trip by over an hour. Fortunately the Jones were understanding and didn’t mind the delay. (Actually one of them had a bit too much to drink the night before and was glad for the extra rest!) I had bad luck with the car battery but wonderful luck with the weather with clear blue skies after a rainy week. The Jones siblings absolutely love the kayaking trip and would be telling the whole wide world (or rather the Lonely Planet) about their ‘fantastic’ experience and what a wonderful guide I am … blah blah blah! They labeled themselves as ‘our most satisfied customer’ and wanted to sign our Guest Book, which unfortunately we do not have and which I will now get! They were particularly impressed that this country boy can speak the engrish as well as them! Wait till they read my blog! Ho ho ho!

I was organizing a re-union dinner on Saturday night for one of our schoolmate whom we had not met in over 30 years! There were no phone signals in the Borneo Highlands and when we reached the 13^th mile, a flood of sms came in! The original restaurant that I booked screwed up - they have no table for us as they are overbooked and want to tuck us in one corner with a big birthday celebration; so I had to hurriedly find another place for us to meet and to inform everyone else accordingly. *sigh* We ended up in Jambu Restaurant which everyone later agreed was a good choice for the ambience and food.

I do not know why I’m always the de-facto organizer for these dinners but I’ve made an interesting observation when I send out invites first by email, then sms and when I still do not get the courtesy of a reply, I would then call the person up personally. More often than not I would get the following disheartening replies:-

• Too tired or ‘sian’ to go out lah! TV or vegetating at home is preferable to re-acquainting old friendship.
• Too short notice. I wonder how much notice I should give. Surely we are not so super busy high flying executives that one or two weeks notice are required?
• Too busy and from the tone of their voice - don’t bother to ask me what I’m busy with …
• Sorry but the weekends and evenings are ‘family time’. Hello? You mean I do NOT spend time with my family? (Actually my wife and kids are sometimes glad that I'm out of the house!)
  

Unfortunately most people are too caught up in their own self-importance and this ‘me-first’ mentality rules their life. But generally I just politely ignore them - to me these people are just being old. But never mind.

I got home from dinner and my wife wanted to know if I’m able to take the Australian couple from perth’s three young children kayaking. So I called Bev late and mercifully she was able to help as Azmi (who was supposed to be back on Saturday evening) who I learned later had car problems and was stuck in Sibu.

So on Sunday morning I went to pick up Stephanie 5, Sarah 12 and Keith 14 with Stephanie talking non-stop from then till we (gratefully) returned them to their parents! We decided to throw in a surprise for them at the end of the trip – where we would take-out. The trip is actually a reccee as we have a big group booking on Monday (more on this when I find the time). We put-in at Krokong with Bev taking the 2 girls and Keith with me. Stephanie, though noisy, asked the most penetrating questions and we delight in her company. We finally reached the take-out after collecting some unique looking pebbles along the way. The take-out was at the “Mini Wild Animal Farm” where we were met by an ostrich which had somehow escaped from the enclosure. I had to use my paddle to shoo it away! The kids and Bev had a wonderful time looking at the animals which included goats, wild pigs, deers, camels, eagles, horses, etc while I sorted out the kayaking gears. After a nice lunch we drove back to Kuching to drop off the children with Stephanie keeping us amused with her incessant questioning!

I had ordered a few more kayaks but they had not arrived in time; so I had to borrow/rent kayaks from my fellow kayakers. So after a quick dinner I had to go and pick up the kayaks for the big trip on Monday all the time wondering if Azmi would be back in time to help me to handle this group. As a contingency I called up my old kayaker friend Ivy to see if she would be able to help – and she could! Yipee. And more of this story on my next post. Now I’ll see if I can sort out the photos to go with this post … failing which this shall be one of my rare ‘no-photo’ posts. Hmmm

Labels: General, Kayaking, Life, Rantings

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