Who really cares?

I got 3 missed calls at 5:05pm, 5:13pm and 5:17pm (Eastern Std Time) from Unknown. 99% is from Mama from Singapore (that 1% could be some random wrong number calls). Calling me early in the morning (Singapore time, 12 hours ahead), either something not too good or the usual $$ topics. Strange. Haven't got calls at such hours for a while.

Got home, cooked Salted Mustard Green + some diced pork rib + firm tofu = Giam Cai Teng! Chinese is call 咸菜汤. Hahaha! So for those who don't know what is Salted Mustard Green, it's really just our "Giam Cai". And for those who don't know what "Giam Cai" is called in English? It's just Mustard Green - salted.

Less than 10 mins, dinner settled for the night!

Then I remembered I need to return the call. Called home # no one answered at first. Then I realized Mama is most likely at work in school, in any case, I just let it rang. Papa picked up! Oops, must have woke him up. He told me Mama is in school and did attempt to call me earlier on, I asked how is he, he said ok... That's it. =)

Called Mama. Asked her what happened. She said "Happy Birthday". Now I remember. She reminded me and she is the first person to call me to say that. So amazing.

All these while, I kept thinking who really cares? Can't really find an answer. Sometimes someone did something nice and you think, oh, this person cares about me.

But truthfully, who is that someone who really cares enough to remember to wish you Happy Birthday first thing in the morning when they woke up? To do that, you at least have to be thinking about it the night before and at least remind yourself about this person enough to make sure when you wake up, this person is on your mind and you have to say Happy birthday to her.

Have been really down recently. I do appreciate that. I will remember the answer to my question.

Second person who called? My uncle (and aunt). Really these (mama and gugu) 2 people are mainly the answers to my questions. Even if the whole world turn against you, you can be 90% sure that these are the 2 people who will still care (the 10%? If I really did something awfully horrible I guess, something inhumane? Don't know...)

Then comes all my friends' wishes, Siying (this friend is like super friend too lor, super early, but dont know what's wrong with facebook I didnt see it until later, lol, thanks man!!!!) Gui Chun, Huiling, MeiFang etc on Facebook.

In any case, to those who have showed that at least they remember, thanks alot. I needed that and I truly appreciate.

Birthday ends at 12 noon tomorrow. Because it goes according to "the time" from where I came from! =D

Sora Hike #1 - Wissahickon Valley Park in Philadelphia

Finally did my first hike in the United States. It's really an easy hike, but for someone who hasn't done that for a while, the feeling is sooo good.

The park we went to is Wissahickon Valley Park at Valley Green Road in Philadelphia city. I don't know how far we hiked, so I did a google map to try to get an idea of the distance. I think if we had gone the "strolling" route back and forth, the whole hike maybe just 6 miles total. But I think we definitely went a little more than that.

We started at Valley Green Road, at the Valley Green Inn area and hiked leisurely to the intersection of Lincoln Drive and Forbidden Drive. It was strange along the way because we did not see any of the listed "point of interest" such as Devil's pool that we wanted to see, but didn't really bother us since we were talking all the way.

The hike was so leisure that when we reached the intersection and look at the map of the park, we were thinking we could have gone further. Then we started looking for the "landmark" called the "Lover's leap". It is said to be the place where the Indian chief's daughter and her lover had leaped off the cliff.

That was when our hike really begins. We started going deep into the trail (the real trail). Kept walking and wondering where is the place where they leaped. Apparently... we still have no clue till now what we are looking at... There were a couple of places we thought might just be the place. So we have decided to simply assume that one of the sections we went to is the Lover's Leap! =D

The hike back from Lincoln and Forbidden Drive intersection was the true hike. We were walking among trees, on rocks and logs and water and whatever. But we were kinda rushing because it was getting late and we did not know how far of a walk it was to get back to the starting point. But it was only on the way back we saw the various "point of interest"... The Monastery on Kitchen's Lane (believed it is the monastery), Fingerspan and Devil's Pool, crossed a pretty nice covered bridge etc.

Overall, nice hike! I am guessing we hiked at least 7 miles in total (with all the detour we took) and it took us a good 5 hours with some stops in between to snack and take photos.

On the difficulty scale with 10 begin the most difficult, I think this hike is probably a 1-2 kind of thing. Good start I guess... Need to start exploring more!!!