Fourteen years ago this week, I stopped holding down the only full time job I had ever had; or in short I retired officially. A lot happened that week which also happened to be the beginning of SARS. I recall a friend coming to my retirement party at Pacific Place donning a face mask; and…
Su and I were the first visitors when he was born. He slept quietly and contentedly by his mother, and I think he had a smile on his small face even on his first day. His mother was brave enough to let us hold him, which we did, and I believe we had some pictures…
Once again, I felt a sudden surge of colours around me as soon as the nurse removed the bandages over the right eye: the images were clearer and the colours a lot faster. My ophthalmologist friend’s first remark was, “Now the sky is all clear?” I looked outside: it was heavily overcast with a thunderstorm…
I had my right eye operated on for cataract this morning, six weeks after I had my left done. I would have had it earlier, but for the intervening trip to Nepal and other commitments. It went rather well and took slightly longer than the first one, but I am positive that I would have…
In the same TIME issue which asks readers to vote for who should be on the 2017 TIME 100, there would be articles on Hong Kong’s chief executive election which took place today (26 March 2017) in which Carrie Lam was elected Hong Kong’s chief executive from 1 July 2017. TIME would stress that she…
Shortly after we checked into Pokhara and while there, Su outlined our trekking itinerary in the social media. Lest we forget and for the record, let me provide a summary of the villages we had passed for lunches or we had stayed overnight in the ten days. We began trekking from Birethanti (1,025m) and Tikhedhunga…
The people we met in the mountains included fellow trekkers of all nationalities: many Chinese, mostly young, Malaysians, Singaporeans, Thais, Vietnamese, Australians, New Zealanders, Europeans, British, Americans, South Americans, Canadians and locals, namely Nepalese. Typically, some young people had decided to take a holiday of one to two weeks in the mountains. They were time…
In the end, we trekked for ten continuous days. We had planned to trek for 14 days if weather had permitted, but on Day Ten it became clear – from weather reports and from reports of returned trekkers and guides – that weather won’t clear up in the following five days so we started our…
Weeks before we set off, friends have been asking with whom we would be going, how many and for how long. Well, we are a small team indeed, comprising Su, aka the High Command and me as the member. Su booked with Sherpa Society Ltd, a trekking and mountaineering outfit operating in Kathmandu (KTM) since…
I left off in my last Column lamenting that our amateur pan-democrats lack principle and discipline. I then flew off to Kathmandu and began some serious trekking with Su from Pokhara, planning to be at Annapurna base camp (ABC) in a week before trekking down to a posh hotel in Pokhara in a further five…
