My Puppy Max is now a grown man

It was like yesterday that Max was a little bundle of white fur. Now Max is a grown Great Pyrenees at the age of 1 year and 5 months. Max has learnt to mark his territory. he has learnt to p** by balancing on his 3 legs, lifting one hind leg to shoot at a target. Was is last week he was not able to balance to do that? It was just like yesterday, this big furry bundle was squating to do his toilet? Now he is doing just like all the males of his specie do. However he is still Max. Max who does not know that he weighs over a hundred pounds. Max who still wants to sit on your lap when he has the chance. Max who runs to you the moment you whistle. Oh my Max.
Max is still playing with the chicken, tossing one up in the air whenever he catches one eating his food. He is also intelligent. I watch him managed his food bowl and his favoutie bone. In between eating his food and keeping the chicken away from his bowl and bone, he solved it by bringing his bone into his food bowl. Isn't he a problem solver?

Those were the days

My last blog sort of triggered this desire to write on my quest for travels in my younger days. I went to the UK in the 70's for my first post graduate degree. It was in London and wanting to see much more than London, i did travel up and down the the country. Beside the short trips to nearby cities and covering London from one end to the other, I did go up to Scotland a few times. One winter time we drove up north to see the snow. As we all know, it does not snow in london as regularly as in the north. My friend, I and the parents of (Shalin Zulkifli) drove up north stopping at the cities along the way. We enjoyed Leeds, Carlyle on the way. We drove up to Edinburgh and did all the things tourists usually do, the castle, etc.
The trip got exciting, when we wanted to get to Inverness. We forgot that it became dark right after 3.00 in the afternoon. We drove on and it started to snow and it was getting dark real quick. The further we went, we met with accumulated snow on the road. We could not see the road as new thick snow was falling too. The driver was Shalin's dad. We skidded a few times and there was no other vehicle except us in the middle of no where. So, we decided, the next light or house we see we would stop and ask to sleep for the night. We did drive into one later and spent a night in a small room in a house of an old couple. Thank goodness that the couple warmly welcomed us. Those days, people still have trust in people.
Then we went on to Aviemore and stayed at one little town called something i still can not pronounce, Carra...something. That was a lovely place. We stayed in a bed and breakfast for a couple of days. Then we drove on down the lakes to see the great Lochness and down to Fort Williams and to Glassgow. That was an exciting trip.

A visit from the past

A friend from Hawaii came for a visit last weekend. It was an enjoyable visit. All the years we did not see each other seemed to have vanished. It was like only last week we said goodbye at Honolulu airport, yet it was 24 years ago. Suddenly all the Honolulu city lights bringing back all the memories. Memories of friends who skinny dipped in the blue pacific ocean. Memories of the party nights on the windjammer off the fishermen wharf. Memories of the trips to Maui and Kaui, sneaking the weekends away without the knowledge of my supervisor. Memories of the surprise find of a nude beach on Kaui. Memories of walking fully clothed on that beach and memories of seeing a professor you knew on a gay beach. Those beautiful bodies!!
And I was young again once more!!
Those days when I was young and invincible, riding a bus with bikini clad women and shopping in Ala Moana Mall in my swimming costume and Anne, my dorm mate in her skimpy bikini. Eating at Keo's and Mekong restaurants and licking Baskin and Robbins icecream cones, those days seem to float back in my mind.
My friend Ruth was on her way to a conference in Orlando Fla. decided to swing by and pay me a visit. Although it was a very short visit, it was a very enjoyable one. We caught up with all the years in between. We talked about those colleagues that have retired and those who are still there (East-West center) and i can still picture those faces I left behind.
Over a box of hawaiian Host macademia chocolates, we talked about those "swap meet" that we could buy a sack full macademia nuts for a few dollars. We talked about the "pakalolo" guava juice that I loved so much. wonder if they really have 'pakololo' in the juice. We talked about the 'kalbi' over rice at the food court in Ala Moana and the the korean kimchi.
Wished she could stay longer and we could talk forever.