We will all have different memories to live by. Just received a web link for a photo gallery of Jack’s trip to Kota Kinabalu to climb Mount Kinabalu. Well, pictures illustrate more than a thousand words, from the warm sandy beaches to the freezing, inhospital mountain tops of Mount Kinabalu. I can tell he had fun, going with people I’m familiar with, friends I’ve known for a very long time.

I had fun when he was around in Melbourne, doing strange things while on trips with him and others travelling. His car got stuck on the beach while travelling to Adelaide and the tide was rising. It was only metres away from enveloping his car. We managed to get off the beach somehow. Our caravan also got stuck in the mud while we were in Tasmania as we tried to save time by driving to the park we wanted to visit the next day. It got stuck while we were trying to reverse out of the driveway to the park as the gates had got stuck. It was raining, my friend was in his pyjamas and we somehow managed to get enough branches underneath the tire to get a grip to get out of the mud. We never really made life easy but I guess that was the fun part once you look back at it. Jack was adventurous, and while I complained a lot inside my mind about the trouble we got ourselves into, felt very glad that we did, as I would not have had as much fun otherwise.

My current memories involve nursing a cold, from the insane NYC weather. It’s been terribly warm and it gets worse in the subway stations. That plus the fact that I’ve been going in and out of air conditioned rooms (reminds me of primary school, heh) and I think it finally caught up with me. Yesterday I was a little annoyed that some shopkeeper tried to swindle me. I finally got round to topping up my prepaid phone and the person only put in $50 credit when I paid $100. He insisted that he had put in $100 and kept giving reasons which had no basis. Me being me, having not dealt with too many dishonest people, didn’t really know how to argue back and I left the shop twice and called customer service to confirm my worries. He finally gave in and topped up the remaining $50 but continued his line saying that if I saw extra credit on the phone that I’d have to come back to the shop and pay up. If he was in anyway honest and believed what he said, he would not have topped up the ‘extra’ $50 just to get rid of me. So I wasted 2 hours just to get things sorted out. Heh, this is quite out of character for me, as usually I’d just leave the matter but I wasn’t going to let myself get bullied just because I’m not from around town.

Heh, it’s strange, the paths we choose to walk and how we lead our lives. Mine is currently a lonely path, and as much as everyone else wants to experience NYC, I can only describe how I felt and what I saw. With friends on trips seeing places, at least everyone can reminisce and recall the good times they had. At times, I really only require a lot less to be happy, at least, this is my point of view.