9 lives

If I were a cat with 9 lives, I would not have many left. Flipping through the pages of memories to realised how blessed I am to have someone up there watching over me.

At 8, the scene etched in my mind. Alone, inching my way across the busy after work traffic along the Ayer Itam Road in front of Chung Ling high. Standing at the painted road divider I saw an on coming car overtaking. I could neither move forward nor back, I shut my eyes, clenched my fist really tight waited.

At 17, went with my girlfriend Pat and her new found guy friend to a barberque. Shocked! Venue: by a stream somewhere in the Telok Bahang forest reserve. Time: 8pm. Company: 6 to 8 other strangers.

At 18, promised mum, I would be home by 9pm on a class outing on a bungalow stay up on Penang hill. Running late, my classmate from SXI on the motorcycle, sped all the way from Ayer Itam to Gelugor in DEC!

At 21, Desperate. Rented a room in a house siuated in a menacing neighbourhood at the end of a dirt track somewhere in Genting Klang, KL

At 23, on a camping trip to the Pahang National Park, our group of 5 girls and 5 guys chose to set up tent barely metres from a river as the designated camp site was occupied by a group of rowdy boys.

At 38, barely 4 hours after checking into the service apartment in Gold coast, the fire alarm sounded. Fire engines surrounded the apartment below. Grabbed my bag containing the passports, bundle the whole family into the lift. Despite knowing very well the warning: Never take the lift in case of fire. But we were on the 17th floor!!! Only to find out later that, the engine room of that very lift was on fire!

At 42, thanks to an observant eye and the strong advise from my doc friend, I was taken off the bactrim antibiotic that left scar due to fixed drug eruption though the gyne that presribed it, was vehement that rashes should cover the whole body not just a fixed spot.

When reading the papers, I cannot help but reflect on the danger that I had put myself in time and time again.