The Final Chapter of little Green kite

I've decided to cut the invisible string and free the little green kite.
I realized now that my arm is sore from holding its strings too long and too tight.
I know that it is no longer mine, never meant to be.
So quickly I released little kite to fly free.

As my palm released its little string, it danced away...

In flash, a new flyer stumbled upon it, jumped up grab it out of the sky.
I quickly grab a match and lit the ends of the string.
The flames quickly travelled up the strings towards little kite.
And I watched the new flyer released it in shock.
Little kite then fell into a patch of mud.

As I turned around and walked away, I felt a nudge at my wrist.
A new string leading to a new kite ...

A Story of little green kite

Recently, I met a man who was very similar to a Kite. Let's call him little green kite. The first time we met, he hovered around me with his goofy twist and turns. And I found him amusing.

Being a kite, he's always on the go and had little time to rest. So, when there were days when the winds were slow, he would rest and enjoyed time on the ground with friends, families and his current kite flyer at the time.

When it came to my turn to be the kite flyer, I knew what I was getting into, which was just to temporarily enjoy flying this little green kite. Knowing that this kite was a very pretty kite and has been flying out and about for a long time, both I and the kite knew that it was in the nature of the kite to fly freely, far and wide...

Little green kite always believed that it was a kite that flew without a kite flyer, without strings. However, the nature of a kite was that it always need a stable flyer or a peg to ground it so it does not falter or loose control if the wind got too strong or a storm showed up out of nowhere.

Through out the years, little green kite has gone through various hands and relish in the experience of different techniques, skills and places. Some enjoyable rides, others bumpy near the end. Kite flyers around the world got to fly this pretty green kite, but often only for a only for a short little while because when its strings got too tight, little kite would escape.

Some kite flyers have enjoyed flying this kite so much that they tried to get the kite's attention when it's far away by...

* yanking and pulling on the kite's strings
* playing string guitars to entice the kite to come back, or ...
* reeling in the kite like a fish

However, this would only agitate little kite and the strings would snap on an instance and off the kite would go, never coming back.

Some kite flyers even had to cut the strings to get much needed attention or relief from holding on the strings for so long.

Flying little kite for the long term, however came with a price and the effect on kite flyers varied.

One kite flyer enjoyed flying little kite so much that she agreed to fly it on a rental by day basis, with no strings attached. This was fine for the rental by day flyer (RBD flyer) because she enjoyed flying many different kites of different size, shape, colors....and needed to fly a kite everyday and often multiple times a day. This is something little green kite could never give to RBD flyer. Also, little green kite can also explore flying experiences with different kite flyer around the world. Both would then share their experiences together as friends over brunch or during their kite flying activities. The agreement was mutual.

Unfortunately, one day when little kite came back to the local park, it saw RBD flyer flying 4 or 5 other kites at the same time. Little green kite got disgusted and decided cut the strings from RBD flyer's hand. And RBD flyer hadn't had the slightest idea why. Little kite was just never available for rent anymore and decided to stay away from anymore promiscuous flyers.

Sweet and steady was the preference of little kite and every time the kite felt that its strings were held too tight, it would tell its current flyer that it is a kite with no strings and enjoyed the freedom to fly whenever and whereever. However, as always, each kite flyer could see herself holding on to this string as real as though there was no strings to little kite.

Some kite flyers got frustrated and gave the kite a strong yank and the kite often fell into a patch of mud. And that was the end of most flyer's flying activity with little green kite.

Other long term flyers enjoyed flying the kite so much that they just kept waiting and waiting for little green kite to come back to the local park for flying practice and hopefully, one day, if they practiced enough flying, and waited long enough, they would be the owner of the kite. After years, these long term flyers would then find themselves at the local park and seeing little green kite moved on to flying activities with new and upcoming flyers. Of course, after seeing little kite out and about without a care in the world, these long term flyers would feel distraught and depression would set in.

Little green kite saw this and would then panic. It would then gave its long term flyers the same speech over and over about it having no strings and wanted these flyers to find a stable kite to settle down and have little kites of their own.

Although little kite believed it has no strings, this was in fact the opposite. There were dozens and dozens of strings attached and this grew years after years. As each connections was made, a new string would grow and some eventually mesh into a rope with inter-locking strings, twisting and twirling. When one string got yanked, depending on its location, little green kite would react differently, but often the power of the rope always win.

For instance, if a new the string emerged and the other strings within the rope knew about the new string, the tug and pull of the rope as a whole would be more forceful than the pull of the string. Often, when the new string gets entangled with the rope and not mesh well, it would be cut loose. Little kite had all the stability in the world of a rope, hopping from the comfort from one string to another within the rope. It had the best of both worlds.

One day, something happened. Little green kite met a new kite flyer. However, little that it new, this flyer was in fact another kite. Little Pink kite.

The fact of the matter was that two kites could not last as there were no stable anchorage. The pink kite knew this, but was amused by the dance of the green kite, so it played itself as a flyer. Throughout the park, words that little green kite and little pink kite were flying together and all the strings in the rope started twisting and turning, pulling heavily on little green kite and affecting little pink kite. But the largest jerk was the pull of the pink kite's strings.

Since little pink kite is in fact a kite, it was only natural for it to constantly pull on the green kite's string as it flew on its way. Little green kite did not like this and so is the same with little pink kite's the annoyance of the pull of the green kite's rope. Both decided to depart and cut their strings.

As the little pink kite flew off on its way, an invisible string linked the two together. This invisible string was like an invisible chain. Little pink kite turned to little green kite and says "There is no strings attached, so you should be on your way." However, the table has turned and now little green kite sees a string as real as it's long term flyers sees the rope attached to little green kite.

Meeting the head monk at Long Son Pagoda

Today was a wonderful day. I had the chance to do a city tour of Nga Trang city on motorbike with my guide, Huy. The young man scootered me around the city to visit locations such as the Cham temple towers, the old french Cathedral and Long Son Pagoda.

Since I've been on a spiritual mission, I've been looking for the largest temple to visit and pray, so there's no better place than Long Son Pagoda, which I almost missed seeing because Huy thought I was not a Buddhist...and therefore thought I would not be interested in visiting. Thank goodness, I mentioned that this was the purpose of my city tour.

Long Son Pagoda has a beautiful white Buddha, 79 ft tall that sat at the foot of Trai Thuy mountain and it is the main attraction of this pagoda. It was set up in 1963 in tribute to the nuns and monks who died while protesting against the Diem government. It is definitely one of the top 3 places to visit if you are in Nga Trang. Luckily, today was Tuesday, so there was hardly anyone there and I got a chance to meet and chat with the head Monk at this temple, Thích Chí Tín.

I had initially headed up to the giant Buddha, lighted incense and did my prayers at several alters, after I finished praying at the main shrine, I passed a smaller shrine next to it. In comtemplating on whether to go in and pray, my guide, Huy says I should go in, so I followed him in. There, sitting to the side was an elder monk name Teacher Chí Tín . Huy and I greeted him, we sat down and chatted. Turns out that this was Huy's temple and he often visited Teacher Chí Tín. The monk gave Huy a bracelet made of bodhi nuts. I looked at it with adoring eyes. How honourable it was to receive a bodhi bracelet, since it was very symbolic. Note that Buddha sat under a Bodhi tree when he mediated way back when. Teacher Chí Tín turned to me and gave me several book on the teaching of Buddha. Unfortunately, I do not read Vietnamese, so I was planning in my head on who I was going to woo into reading these to me. Teacher Chí Tín then gave me a bodhi bracelet and a green crystal bracelet. I thank him and made my donations, lighted an incense and bid him good bye.

Later on, I found out that Chi Tin was the head of the monastery and one of the book he have me was written by him. That really made my day and my spiritual mission.

Dear Boss, I got kidnapped by a Vietnamese Russian mafia....

So I am here in a beach town called Nga Trang in Vietnam sipping on a coconut. Some how I've found myself signing up for a PADI Scuba Diving Certification course. Silly me. This is suppose to be a vacation and now I'm doing quizzes and a final exam along with three days of intensive diving practice. Geez, what did I get myself into?

On my second day of diving, I had a nice conversation with a nice young man and he said he was heading to DaLat(a beautiful honeymoon destination) along with his tour group. He wondered if I wanted to join him. I asked how much was the tour to DaLat and he says I don't have to pay, just join him. He gave me his card and told me to call him when I get a chance.

The young man was an expat who spent 15 years in Russia. He and his family now runs a hotel and travel agency in Nga Trang.

Later on, in speaking with my sister and cousin, I asked what they thought of the idea since they both were planning to head to Dalat the same day. Little sis told me that the nice man was probably going to sell me to the black market and little cousin told me that he wanted to be more than friends, especially at such a romantic destination keke.

In the meantime, I'm figuring out how I am going to write to my boss...an excuse for me to stay longer and enjoy beach time...

Dear Boss,

I am in Nga Trang, a beach resort in Vietnam. I'm going to have to delay my plans on coming back to work....I am now kipnapped by a Vietnamese-Russian Mofia and will be sold to the sex trade market in Russia ...or force to be a Go Go dancer at some remote location in Vietnam....

Hmmm, think he would buy that? Anyways, more beach time for me! Yipeeee!!!

The Last Day at the Zojoji Temple ~ Tokyo

The Japanese way of living and their culture is fascinating. Today is my last day in Tokyo before I head for Hanoi, Vietnam. Next to the hotel I was staying at is a replica of the Eiffel Tower, except painted in red. At night, it glows like the original Eiffel Tower in Paris. This one, however, looked like a toy version with its red color.

As I walked back to the Hotel from my viewing of the Tokyo Tower, I found a temple adjacent to my hotel street. Little baby statues, in rows lined the perimeter of the temple. There were hundreds of them, wearing little red knitted hats with a little red scarfs.

In my walk along the rows of baby statues, I found one dressed distinctly from the other. This one had a white winter hat and a dark blue ski jacket. So cute! As you can see in the picture (if not to be uploaded soon) above, these mini statues are adorable. Each standing up right with hands pressed together in a praying stance, eyes shut with the look of peace and serenity. With chipmunk cheeks, each little one stands on a bed in the shaped of a large lotus flower.

In my conversations with a reporter and camera man on site, the reporter told me that these mini statues are scattered across Tokyo in the temples. Each one representing a protector of children who have passed on before their parents. Each mini statue is owned by a family and the statue is passed down from generations to generations.

I wanted to pray for all these little ones and so I bought a little wooden plaque, wrote my prayer and wishes for them, then hung my plaque up along with mini slippers I bought from the temple.



I am very grateful to have stumbled upon this temple on my last day in Japan.

Are we going to hell?...Or is it just me?

I checked the stock markets today. We are 20% down from 5 years ago!!! Are we all going to hell?

Also, I'm heading to Japan..finally, next week. I think Japan has been calling me since last year because all my romantic encounters in 2008 (most horrific or just plain bad) have been with Japanese type men. The Canadian dollar have also taken a beating and is not as favorable relative to the Japanese Yen.

1 - Jan 2008 ~ Japanese guy (aka Mr. PSI ~ Kissed him at 12 midnight New Years 2008)

2 - February 2008 ~ Half Japanese guy (aka Mr. Booty Call ~ bad encounter)

3 - June 2008 ~ Brown on the outside, Japanese on the inside
(aka Mr. Married and worked in Japan for 10 years a while back...who tried to seduce me...but didn't work...)

4 - July 2008 ~ White on the outside, Japanese on the inside
(aka Mr. Big who made his 1st millions in the Japanese Market 7 years back)

5 - August 2008 ~ Half Japanese Half White (aka Mr. Perfect, the last time we were romanticly involved was on Dec 31, 2008)

All these encounters are signs....I'm heading to Japan next week to visit the largest temple there to pray. Also, 3 out 5 of the guys above are those who I would consider "good catches" and they are all born in the year of the "Sheep". So I have encountered 3 black sheep last year...scary.

I think in my past life I may have done something wrong to the Japanese people and in this life, I'm somehow getting punished. So I'm heading to Japan for the first time to go and ask for forgiveness...and hopefully...to break this Japanese curse(?).

Oh, I also worked for an International Japanese Company in North America and they absolutely adore me! So, I'm also visiting the company's head office in Japan and getting a tour.

My best guy friend is actually Japanese (oh, I'm asian, but not Japanese) and he has a twin brother who will be meeting up with me to show me around.

I hope my visit to Japan will break the Japanese curse.....whew...tell me if I'm crazy....

Men that want to have their cake and eat it too…

Scenario #1: I haven't seen Guy #1 for about 6 months. It was my choice in excluding him out of my life as there was a weird situation that occurred between us prior to this and it was NOT very pleasant.

I've decided that it's time again that based on having common friends; I will invite him to my cocktail / hot tub party that I occasionally hold at my condo.

So, Guy #1 came by with a delicious apple flan cake. Everyone had fun at the party. A girlfriend of mine started passing out coupons for a promotional fruit yogurt at Starbucks. By the end of the night, the flan cake remained untouched. An extra fruit yogurt coupon left lying at my table.

The next day, Guy #1 called me and asked if I still have the flan cake and if it has been eaten. I said "Oh, your right, no one ate the apple flan cake, Why?". Well, he was wondering if he can come by to have the cake. I find it odd, but agreed and asked him when he wants to come by and have cake.

7pm-ish was the answer since he will finish his meeting with a client and head over by then. I said "ok". Now, I am puzzle because I don't know if he wanted to come back to take home the whole cake or come by and have a piece of cake and some tea...with me.

After hanging up the phone, I called a couple of friends and told them about what had transpired. They all laugh and said "There is something wrong with that guy". I know for a fact that Guy #1 is currently under tight financial pressure. However, in the past, he has been very generous. So I assumed that like me, I love cake, he loves cake and we both want a piece of it. (Keke) However, it was a Sunday and I want to relax rather than entertain anyone. My sister Rosalie suggest that I bring the cake down to the concierge desk and leave it there for him to pick it up. I agreed.

But... I want a piece of that cake too, so I decided that half the cake belongs to the house and the other half can return to its owner.

By 5:45pm, Guy #1, called and left a message. "I'm out my meeting early and was wondering if I can come by to have cake." He also text messaged me.

By 6:45pm, I called Guy #1 back and said that I have left the cake with the concierge and he can come by and pick it up. Also, I'm keeping the other half because it looked so good and I want to eat it. haha

Guy #1 says "Ok...but wait, there is a Starbucks coupon that I left at your place can I come by and pick it up?". Amazed...I told him that I was at my boyfriend's place and is not at home, so...No, sorry. I am puzzled once again....

In speaking with a few friends, I have concluded that:

#1 - Something is seriously wrong with this guy ~ does he not know the etiquette of giving?
#2 - He is seriously in financial trouble and wants the cake back to give it to someone else? (haha)
#3 - He wants to speak with me and makes up some silly excuse to come by.
#4 - He saw me in my bikini in the hot tub and he wants to have a piece of me, not the cake. (haha)
#5 - He wants something, but does not have the balls to say it directly to me.
#6 - He just wants cake and his coupon. ~ I think this is the case here...(haha)