i'm leaving for thailand in 12 hours and i'll be there for 2 weeks. we're going to khaolak. i've always wanted to experience what it is like to be a construction worker. sometimes when i'm in the car, i'd look outside and see a truckload of workers being crammed in the back of a lorry as they get carted off to work. at first, they all look the same. then i start to examine their faces individually. some are talking animatedly. some are sleeping. but usually, most are staring into space...dreaming maybe. i start to wonder what they must be thinking of. did they expect their lives to be this way? what were they like when they were 7 or 8. were there people who loved them and were waiting for them to come home? sooo many things...

for some time during the next 2 weeks, i'll be taking a pretty short walk in their shoes. every morning, we will be gathered into lorries and brought to our worksites where we will make and lay bricks to build houses. we'll take breaks at mid-day, away from the hot sun or rain, to eat lunch together. and in the evenings, we'll return the same way we came....

i'm feeling quite scared, yet excited at the same time. touchwood, but you really never know when your last goodbye is your last goodbye. life's like that. always moving. was watching a bit of the inaugeration of pope benedict 16th in between cnn, bbc and channel newsasia just now. pretty amusing that just 2 weeks ago, the body of the late pope john paul was being carried away from the same palce where pope benedict 16th was inaugerated today. life's like that.

i'm excited because i don't know what to expect. i have a rough idea but it's just a rough idea. nothing beats being there yourself. i guess it's scary in a way too. but i'm sure it'll be worth it.

anyway, as i type this, i am listening over and over again to moby's temptation from his hotel album. makes everything feel so surreal right now.

"Up, down, turn around; please don't let me hit the ground
Tonight I think I walk alone to find my soul desire to go home"

anyway, before i go, one last thing....i love you! yes, you, who are reading this right now! =)

(p.s. to A, don't know if you still come here. i have not forgotten you. i will mail you when i get back!)