Back to regularly scheduled programming ... soon.

I've been quiet - for many reasons:

1. Had to see about a boy.
Somewhere within the madcap schedule of shuttling in between Hong Kong and Singapore, work and pleasure, quiet and activity, friends and family, pictures and movies, drinks and tea, meals and snacks, cities and country, mountains and beaches, it's even - gulp - fun, keeping this going. He is in Nias right now, also known as earthquake-tremor-central-off-the-west-coast-of-Sumatra, volunteering with tsunami rebuilding efforts. Acting on what he believes, the best way he knows how.

2. Death had a busy few weeks.

After my grandmother's passing, five more people left this world - some close to me, others close to others that are close to me. No justification, sudden accidents, long-running illnesses. Witness to grief, heartbreak, relief, shock, numbness, emptiness, love, support, patience, and empathy. I didn't think my heart could take more and another one would happen. Death is part of life, they say. I wonder if they forgot to mention that with each death of someone you know, a part of your living soul goes too. Not to mention the part that aches with burning emptiness when you are holding a grieving person in your arms. We'll just have to go about filling it with love, laughter and remembrance. Because all that they were, all that matters, they still are. In our hearts.

3. The road to Hell - and Motherhood - is paved with good intentions.
Mama visited me in Hong Kong for almost 3 weeks. As much as there were words that couldn't be said, a silent barrier to communication, it was the most heartwrenching, frustrating, molly-coddling, invigorating, conflicting and exasperating few weeks in a long while. The thing is, love has nothing to do with it. Daughter loves Mother, Mother loves Daughter. This basic equation has absolutely no impact on how a 3-week visit in a cramped Hong Kong apartment will go. People around us get to hear more about what we thought of each other, than what we were prepared to say out loud directly to each other's faces. Good intentions govern her actions - after all, motherly love is forever. Good intentions govern mine - after all, my mother is visiting and I need to show her a good time. Yet time after time, I still haven't learned the lesson that force of habit is formidable indeed. I don't think this trip was necessarily fulfilling for her - it was certainly a strange one for me.

4. Rai Lay

Went to Rai Lay, off the coast of Krabi, on the other side of Phuket. In the middle of monsoon season. What the heck were we thinking. But we did get in a few good days of climbing, which was the whole reason to be there, really. Awesome rock, I did some new things (like my first lead climbs! Woo hoo!), experienced some new trips (yes, with a capital "T"), and had to acknowledge that vertigo is going to be my archilles heel for a long while. But watch if I don't get over it. Cos no phobia is going to tell me what to do.

Seriously, more posts coming soon. Clearly I've been busy. Am back in the groove of business travel and the boarding announcement calls.