"The one with the saying goodbye, for now..."

All the best to Mr. Mok @ Mokey, a very good friend of mine who's returning to the land of the free after a brief stint here in his homeland.

More than a month has passed since he first set afoot on Malaysian soil, and I must say that it has been a roller-coaster ride for not only himself but me as well. We go waaaay back and knowing Mok, we're the kind of people who can't seem to have enough time for chitty chatter.

Not to mention, congratulations to Sim - another very good friend of mine who secured a job offer in Singapore. It was kind of him to drop by KL for a few days, so that we could catch up for old times sake. Its just a shame we were stolen off time by a few things that required my attention. I promise we'll make up for it later in the future, my friend. All the best Sim, and hopefully you'll find more success now than you've every thought possible. I truly think you deserved this!

In Mok's kind words; there might be a chance that we (the three of us) would not be able to meet up again in the few years to come, with me prepping up for my doctoral studies abroad and the incongruency of our planned holidays. Which is something sad, considering that we're such good buddies.

But anyways,

On a much positive note - I guess congratulations are in order for our Olympic-hero Lee Chong Wei; who delivered our (probably) only medal this time around. Yes, it may not be the ever sought-after gold medal but silver would suffice well enough. This, considering the path he conveyed leading into the finals which was saw undoubtly the most biased audience ever. In a way, I'm thinking that he's not only piting himself against Lin Dan, but with the masses as well. Therefore, I'd say,

Well done, Chong Wei !

Hey, at least now he propelled us to the 55th spot in the medal tally. Which is an accomplisment of its own. But you know, the good thing about finishing second best is that you'll always have grounds to cover, and you can always do better. Who knows, maybe we will indeed get our first gold in the 2012 London games, something to look forward to from this 'silver-lining'. For me, we're saying goodbye to a gold medal, just for now.

I also commend the patriotism of Chong Wei; apparent in him kissing our flag embodied on his sweat-engulfed shirt after his win over Hyun-il in the semis. True, the most Malaysians of Malaysians are pretty apparent only in our international atheletes.

More on patriotism, but for now lets bask in the valor that Chong Wei has given us. The ability to be proud that Asians can now shine (and probably outshine) Caucasians in a sport they've since dominated before. A revolution, I believe, has arrived.

-JeP