Johann's Entrance

Welcome, as I share with all of you a portrait of my day to day life, through the eyes of the "tiger".... which has its fair plots of adventure, drama, fantasies, victories and downfalls. Life has never been a Bed of Roses for me but with have an equal blend of my achievements, happiness, laughter, sadness, rejection and disappointment, I persevere through good times and bad.... but...Life Goes On and here is a glimpse of everything that I have to share... Dedicated to My Beloved Family, My Loyal Friends and some very Special Person. Again, Welcome to The World of Edward Johann Leong....as the story unfolds....

True Love

True love. Is it normal
is it serious, is it practical?
What does the world get from two people
who exist in a world of their own?

Placed on the same pedestal for no good reason,
drawn randomly from millions but convinced
it had to happen this way - in reward for what?
For nothing.
The light descends from nowhere.
Why on these two and not on others?
Doesn't this outrage justice? Yes it does.
Doesn't it disrupt our painstakingly erected principles,
and cast the moral from the peak? Yes on both accounts.

Look at the happy couple.
Couldn't they at least try to hide it,
fake a little depression for their friends' sake?
Listen to them laughing - its an insult.
The language they use - deceptively clear.
And their little celebrations, rituals,
the elaborate mutual routines -
it's obviously a plot behind the human race's back!

It's hard even to guess how far things might go
if people start to follow their example.
What could religion and poetry count on?
What would be remembered? What renounced?
Who'd want to stay within bounds?


True love. Is it really necessary?
Tact and common sense tell us to pass over it in silence,
like a scandal in Life's highest circles.
Perfectly good children are born without its help.
It couldn't populate the planet in a million years,
it comes along so rarely.

Let the people who never find true love
keep saying that there's no such thing.

Their faith will make it easier for them to live and die

Let me give it to you straight, straight like an arrow.

It’s the same story, where guy sees girl, falls in love, and happily ever after. In between, there’s always the overused plot element of the guy winning over the girl by revealing himself and his feelings. After all, this alone is enough to win any girl over, regardless of whether she found him attractive or not, she was married or single, or he was the nerd and she was the cheerleader.

But love doesn’t exist in real life, as much as I want to believe that it does. I have been hurt and rejected one too many times.....It all ends in heart-break, my friends.

It always ends where I am told that I'm only just good enough as a friend. And even in reality, yes... I qualify only sufficient to be a Good Friend.Maybe its true and maybe its not, but the fact of the matter is that its repetitive and I suppose I would not fancy being reminded constantly. Or maybe I should stop being such a friend after all.I looked at myself in the mirror this morning when I woke up and took a close look at my face. Is it true? Maybe it is. Everyone I have ever loved or tried too could never accept me probably because of the way I look. I was born that way and its something I just probably have to swallow. The irony is everyone used that same phrase. You are a wonderful friend. Well I have had my fair share of rejections and I need to move on where I know it is safe.

Romantic/Passionate love and relationships are worthless. The only people worth loving is your family. Save yourself the grief. Yes, love is next to impossible. But it would be silly of me to say it has never happened before, isn’t happening now, or will never happen in the future. Life has infinite possibilities.
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Love? Not for me, anyway.

Last Boarding Call - My Final Farewell, No Goodbyes, Until We Meet Again

(This post is programmed to be published at a later post dated time)

Looking Back at 2008 and What's Ahead

The clock shows 4.15am, 31st December, 2008...Less than 24 hours away from the countdown to 2009. For some reason I am restless and I am unable to get a wink of sleep. So many things are on my mind right now and so I decide to write my thoughts down....

I am enveloped with feelings of sadness and happiness as the year passes through another 364 days of my life. I have to admit that the year 2008 has brought me more sadness, challenges and disappointment more than achievements and happiness. It has honestly been an imbalanced year and I accept it as a trial from God.

It has been a part of my trait that family and friends become a very important part of my life. People come and people go....the saying goes. Likewise we meet and make new friends and we lose some too. From this experience, we learn 1001 different personalities and that adds to my resume of “Learning and Understanding the Nature of Human Behavior”....

What have I learnt the past 1 year...Life really and Absolutely Hurts... I am not feeling sorry for myself and I am not even blaming anyone for it. Career has been doubly challenging. I was faced with the worst criticism, write-ups, mutiny, and even backslaps from your own kind and from your own community – people you never expect. Gossips were being spread to bring me to my downfall and it spread like wildfire. Oh, what a trying time that was. But life Goes On

The sense of loneliness followed, 2008 saw Birthdays, Anniversaries, Weddings, Chinese New Year, Christmas, New Years Eve and the list goes on…. In a portrait, as I stand back to look at the bigger picture the sense of loneliness, gratitude, sadness and happiness caves in. Despite the bitterness of the lesson of life, there were some upsides. All in all, there are times I never wanted a SOLUTION just a shoulder to cry on and an ear to listen and comfort.

GOD IS FAIR, in all my patience this year, apart from the blessings of the health and happiness of my family, relatives and friends, I was blessed and God gave me the gift of new friendship that blossomed in such a short period of time. It is true...things happen for a reason and people come into your life for a purpose no matter how short or long it is.

Because of that I, had just managed to make it in 2008, and I am strengthened to face 2009 together. I have a purpose now to fight, a purpose to believe and a purpose to be strong no matter what 2009 has in its pocket to surprise me.I start this year, by being thankful that I have all the people I love and that I am given new people to love, care and cherish. God works in wonderful ways and because of that I aim to become a stronger, more caring and more tolerant person. Things come and they go, but along the way you have to fight to keep those worth fighting for.

A Tribute and A Note....

You never know when your guardian angel will be there for you so I have to try... I am sending this especially for you and I am asking you to read this with all your heart. After you have finished reading it, you will know the reason it was sent to you. Here it goes:

People come into your life for a reason, a season or a lifetime. When you know which one it is, you will know what to do for that person.

When someone is in your life for a REASON, it is usually to meet a need you have expressed. They have come to assist you through a difficulty, to provide you with guidance and support, to aid you physically, emotionally or spiritually. They may seem like a Godsend and they are. They are there for the reason you need them to be.

Then, without any wrongdoing on your part or at an inconvenient time, this person will say or do something to bring the relationship to an end. Sometimes they die as God takes the unwanted and unloved to a place with greater love.… Sometimes they walk away…. Sometimes they act up and force you to take a stand…… What we must realize is that our need has been met, our desire fulfilled, THEIR WORK IS DONE. The prayer you sent up has been answered and now it is time to move on.

Some people come into your life for a SEASON, because your turn has come to share, grow or learn. They bring you an experience of peace or make you laugh. They may teach you something you have never done. They bring out he best in you. They usually give you an unbelievable amount of joy. Believe it, it is real. But only for a season. We sometimes don't realize what we have until we lose it, even sometimes when it is right in front of your eyes.

LIFETIME relationships teach you lifetime lessons, things you must build upon in order to have a solid emotional foundation. Your job is to accept the lesson, love the person and put what you have learned to use in all other other areas of your life and build a relationship from it. It is said that love is blind but friendship is clairvoyant and transcends the barrier.

Thank you for being a part of my life, whether you were a reason, a season or a lifetime.

The True Meaning of Friendship

Friends, Friendship...what is the meaning behind it. How far does a friendship extends to? Do we need friends? Its something that has been lingering in my mind the past few months and I came up with my own conclusion.

Human relationships are the source of most of life's pleasure and pain. There is however a key variable in the happiness equation - OTHER PEOPLE. These "others" are who we laugh, hurt, shout, swear, cry, try, work, pay, plan, debate...those whom we love, trust, tolerate, blame, believe and occasionally avoid. That's why we make friends. There are no simple mathematical formulae for making friends. Certainly it takes more than self esteem and good table manners to earn the trust of others. There is a balance between give and take, between duty to oneself and to others. And then there is generosity, sensitivity, good humor and a little wisdom. We control our actions, drinking for example does not make one less noble than a person who doesn't, for as long as we can limit and condition that habit so that we do not go to the extremes is fairly acceptable. Likewise, when you force a person to stop smoking, for example, it does not make him or her a better person inside, thus an advice more than a lecture would suffice at this stage - keyword equates respect one's decisions and opinions. The knife in he hands of murderer kills, but a knife in the hands of a doctor saves lives. So to be a friend or a person in a relationship we cannot push outside another persons' envelope, nor can we be quick to pass judgment.

Our world is made of layers. We have the inside world - friends and family...the outside world - bosses, colleagues and some extra terrestrial salesman at our door. You see, different people require different treatment (you don't treat your boss like your wife or partner). Nevertheless we seek a tranquil co-existence with people from all layers.

I have a friend when I was staying in KL, who has all the trendy gears. Armani shirt, Cardin suit, Gucci shoes and a concertina of credit cards. He's got a diamond studded watch on his arm and a matching BMW to match it. He argues with me when we go out that he is doing everything right. When he complains slightly to me about his life, I then asked him a simple question - Is this what you really want and are you happy with it? when I pointed out to him that these are all materialistic things and asked him if he was happy. He could NOT answer me!!!. I told him to ask himself, if he was doing all the right things, where are his real friends? How is it that his other mates in his battered old proton is getting all the laughs and scoring all he ladies (and gentlemen)?

There are times when we should ask ourselves too some relevant questions like "Am I reliable? Do I feel superior? Do I feel inferior? Am I running scared? Do I take myself too seriously? Can I laugh at myself? Do I listen? Am I responsible? Am I a fun person to be around or do I bore everyone to death? Well the first lesson of friendship is that IF YOU WANT FRIENDSHIP, YOU MUST BE A FRIEND FIRST.

Life is about people . If there are other people( a partner, a friend or an acquaintance) who puts too many conditions on how you should behave, they risk cutting themselves from life itself. No doubt you will have a friends or partners who are less punctual, more thrifty, or less reliable than you, people who are more talkative, less modest. much sillier or more serious than you are. BE FLEXIBLE. A person cannot expect an overnight change on the habit of another person. Instead of attacking learn to absorb and accept. Delight the differences in those who make up your world. Enjoy yourself for your uniqueness and you will do yourself the most enormous favor. Dont let others undermine you for being oppinionated, being open, being flexible and for sticking to your beliefs and facts - in short for being what you are. Be yourself and others must accept us for who and what we are. Accept and embrace the qualities of others, and who knows you can level up your friendship to a Special Person Status.