GARGANTUAN steps

Thursday, August 30, 2012

too young, too fast, too soon


Gabrielle Gray
1980 - 2012

"It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done;
It is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known."

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posted by Gabriel Yan at 9:04 PM 0 comments

rainbow nation

ǃke e: ǀxarra ǁke
Diverse people unite

I was barely back in Singapore for a week before whisking off to South Africa, also known as the Rainbow Nation, on a tour courtesy of Chan Brothers. The term 'Rainbow Nation' was first coined by the Nobel Prize winning South African, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, to represent post-apartheid South Africa. Here is a country where racial scars run deep, where the colour of your skin once defined your status in life. The wounds are slowly healing or already healed, or so they say. The term 'Rainbow Nation' was used to encapsulate the unity of multi-culturalism and the coming-together of people of many different nations and tribes, and has now come to be identified with this beautiful country.

South Africa, especially in the southern regions (the Cape region), has in the past been a crucial point along the maritime Spice Route linking East and West. Before the arrival of its colonial masters from the West, South Africa used to be dominated by its indigenous population of Xhosa and Zulu peoples. The Portuguese were the first to arrive on the scene, but did not establish their roots there. It was then left to the Dutch and its East India Company to built the first permanent settlement in the mid-17th century, headed by Jan van Riebeeck. By the end of the 18th century, the waning Dutch's powers were matched by rising British dominance, and the Brits made a claim for the country in the early 19th century. I could go on rambling about the history of South Africa but this might affect future readership; thus, to cut a long story short, this influx of colonial masters set the scene for the next few centuries - one of animosity, friction, strife, war and xenophobia between the foreign settlers themselves as well as with the indigenous population. The Afrikaan word 'apartheid' is possibly more infamously associated with South Africa than its all-encompassing name of 'Rainbow Nation'. But I agree wholeheartedly that South Africa is indeed like a rainbow, filled with layers of natural splendor and beauty. What I saw in my eight days there, though, was probably just the tip of the iceberg, and it was a beautiful sight to behold.

Day 1 - Cape Town: Ostrich galore and a tour of Cape Town

Possibly the worse thing about this trip were the flights to and from Singapore. Our flight to Cape Town departed Singapore at 2 in the morning, and our in-flight entertainment was a snorer with a radius of five cabin rows, though it could hardly be considered entertaining. I had half a mind to 'accidentally' fall on him whilst ambling to the toilet, after all, they say that 'the good of the many should always outweigh the good of the few', but I decided against it. All I can say is that he had the most pleasant flight amongst us all.

We finally landed in Cape Town after a 14 hour journey, which included a stopover in Johannesburg. Cape Town is the legislative capital of South Africa, and the most beautiful city in South Africa, and possibly one of the most beautiful in the world. Here is a city literally caught between the mountain and the sea, the former providing a gorgeous backdrop to a beautiful piece of art. You can't find any city with something more iconic than Table Mountain as its centrepiece, and it is impossible to be anywhere in the city where its domineering presence can't be seen. But Table Mountain was not to be our first stop, the ostrich farm was.

We did just about anything we could with an ostrich at the farm. We fed them, patted them, stood on its eggs, sat on one of them, and for the grand finale, we ate one of them. It surprisingly tasted like beef! Interesting facts I learnt about ostriches that day - its brain is smaller than its eyeball; the African ostriches have two toes as opposed to its Australian cousins which have three; it takes an hour to hard-boil an ostrich egg; and these birds can eat food placed on their own backs. We also met the world's smallest adult ostrich, which stood at a miserly height of just over a metre. Thankfully for it, it grew up in an ostrich farm, and not in the world where only the fittest survive. Here, it stood a better chance of living to a ripe old age than its meatier and less diminutive compatriots.


Ticket to freedom


The world's smallest ostrich


Dad standing on a pair of ostrich eggs


Our guide explaining the ins and outs of a tortoise
This was when my aunt Teresa, with her boundless humour and impeccable timing, asked him to pick up a crocodile in the same pit and do a similar explanation


Mom sitting atop an ostrich
And contemplating how does one defeather it for dinner


A feast for ostriches

We then made a tour around the city centre of Cape Town, briefly passing by the Castle of Good Hope and the City Hall before we had a walk through the Company's Gardens, which was lined by the Slave Quarters as well as the Parliament House. It is a pity we didn't get to explore more of these buildings but you can't have it all on a tour. In the Company's Gardens, my aunts were especially tickled by the 'begging' squirrels. These squirrels have cast aside all fear of man and were daring enough to come right up to the passing crowd to 'beg' for food.


Each equally bemused by the other

Initially, our tour was suppose to have us go up to the top of Table Mountain, but the cable cars that were suppose to bring us to the top were under servicing. It was just as well that we didn't go to the top as the top was shrouded with a thick veil of clouds, and we would have barely been able to see our own fingers, let alone the spectacular views of Cape Town. We adjourned to the nearby Signal Hill instead where we were greeted with a beautiful view of the city with Table Mountain looming behind. Though that wasn't to be the most spectacular view of the city we had - that would come the next day. 

We then ended our day by visiting the Malay Quarters of Cape Town, which was a district consisting of colourfully painted houses, each trying to catch more attention than its neighbour, till the road became nothing more than a riot of colours. As a small note of interest, the Malays were brought from Indonesia by the Dutch to work in the Cape, as the indigenous people, the Khoisan, weren't used to manual labour, and they have settled there ever since.


Our family at the cable car base of Table Mountain


The view from Signal Hill - Cape Town and Table Mountain


The Malay Quarters

Day 2 - Cape Town: Helicopter ride, Victoria and Alfred Waterfront and barrels of wine in Stellenbosch

Our second day in Cape Town started off spectacularly with a six-minute helicopter ride over the bay and city. This ride wasn't part of our itinerary, but was apparently a gesture of goodwill given by one of the brothers Chan for my Dad. Also, they possibly had extra money to spare since my uncle wasn't able to make it for the trip at the last minute, and part of his fees had to be forfeited. But whoever it was, thanks for the wonderful helicopter ride. My first time ever in a helicopter, and it was an amazing and thrilling ride, with absolutely breath-taking views of Cape Town and Table Mountain. I would definitely consider doing it again if I ever return.


Cape Town and Table Mountain


Mom, Aunt Teresa and me


Our family and our ride behind

With such an adrenaline-pumping activity early in the morning, the rest of the day was never going to match up in terms of excitement. We made a short tour around the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront, so called because Prince Alfred, the second son of Queen Victoria, came all the way from England during its colonial heydays in the 19th century and ordered the construction of the harbour. It has now become the most-visited destination in Cape Town. Here are where boats leave for tours of Robben Island, though it was not part of our itinerary, which was quite a pity. For those of you who don't know the significance of Robben Island, it was here where the former South African president, Nelson Mandela, spent 18 out of his 27 years of imprisonment during the apartheid era. There, the lime quarry where he was subjected to hard manual labour, is still preserved, as was the cell where he was kept imprisoned. It would have been a historic and humbling trip indeed, but I'll hopefully be back another time.


Mom and Dad at the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront

In the afternoon, we visited a winery in Stellenbosch and so huge were the barrels there that a medium-sized barrel would have been able to enough to last the entire population of Singapore for a year. And they had many of those sizes of barrels, and even larger ones. The largest one they had could hold up to 208,000 litres of fluid! We had a complimentary session of wine tasting following the tour, though I'm definitely no wine connoisseur. We headed back to Cape Town where we wanted to do some shopping in the shopping centre near our hotel, but due to our over-elaborate dinner affair, we were left with minimal time for that. Instead, we popped by my Dad's favourite restaurant.


Wine barrel 
with a storage capacity of 202301 litres


An alcoholic's joke


Dad and the Colonel

Day 3 - Cape Town: Seal Island, Chapman's Peak, the Penguin colony and the Cape of Good Hope

Our final day in Cape Town was spent driving along the coast with a few stops along the way. According to our guide, Cape Town is one of the three windiest cities in the world, the other two being Wellington in New Zealand and Chicago in the United States. Along the coast, one could see scoliotic trees soldiering the coastline, preventing the wind from further eroding the ground. We stopped along the way for a 'leisurely' boat ride to Seal Island, though the ride was far from leisurely (as our itinerary had phrased it), with the waters extremely choppy. Seal Island is hardly an island - it was more a huge, flat piece of rock for the seals to laze and bask in the sunlight. On it though, were hundreds of Cape fur seals, some sun-tanning, some flapping hastily and clumsily out of the sea; those in the sea were flamboyantly showcasing their swimming and diving talents for the tourists on board. These creatures evidently had very little to fear of man.


My family with the Twelve Apostles in the background


On the boat ride to Seal Island


Seal Island


Cape fur seals

Our coastal drive took us along Chapman's Peak Drive, a particularly scenic route with stunning views of cities hugging the coastline. It is definitely well worth the toll-charges incurred to drive along this route, and if we were to stop at every spot which offered a 'thousand-word' picture, then we would never have reached our destination, and I would never be able to finish typing this post. Our drive took us to the town of Fish Hoek where we stopped for lunch. We then proceeded on to Boulders Beach which shelters a colony of African penguins. Here, visitors pay to walk on platforms built above the beach, with penguins free to roam beneath and around it. I was particularly lucky to catch a mother feeding her two chicks on video, and I now get to share my David Attenborough documentary, though just the raw footage without any meaningful commentary.


Dad, Mom and me along Chapman's Peak


 African Penguins (Spheniscus demersus)
Also known as the black-footed penguins


A mother feeding her young 


A video of a mother feeding her young
Our final activity in Cape Town was to visit the Cape of Good Hope as well as Cape Point in the Table Mountain National Park. I vaguely recalled studying about the Cape of Good Hope in my Secondary school years, though strangely enough, I remembered it being the most southern tip of the African continent. Turns out, it is the most south-western tip of the African continent (the honour of the most southern tip belongs to Cape Agulhas). The significance of the Cape of Good Hope though, especially for sailors travelling from Europe to the East, is that it is the point at which a ship begins to travel more eastwards than southwards. The main significance for me - probably the fact that I've been there. And it does offer spectacular views of the Atlantic ocean. With that, our tour of Cape Town came to a conclusion, and it was an early night for all of us before catching a 7 a.m. flight to Johannesburg the next morning. I still stayed up that night though to catch Usain Bolt retain his status as the world's fastest man in the 100 m race - a two hour wait for a 10 second race. 


The way home from the Cape


The Cape


The Cape of Good Hope
34° 21′ 25″ S, 18° 28′ 19″ E

Day 4 - Johannesburg, Soweto and Pretoria: Soccer City, Mandela's House, Hector Pieterson Museum, Game Meat, the Voortrekker Monument and the Union Buildings

We landed in Johannesburg at about nine in the morning and the temperature was noticeably much colder than in Cape Town. We were in for a surprise the next day with snow coming down in Sun City (which is about two hours' drive from Johannesburg), the first snowfall in 30 years! Johannesburg, in stark contrast to Cape Town, is a visibly more unsafe-looking city. Here, litter scattered pedestrian walkways throughout, and buildings were covered in various shades of brown, wearied with dust from the desert and mining activity surrounding the city.

Our first sight in Johannesburg was a quick picture stop at Soccer City, which is also known as the FNB stadium. It is shaped like an African gourd known as the calabash, and one of its mainly claims to fame was that it hosted the 2010 World Cup Final match between the Netherlands and Spain. We also passed by the cooling towers of Soweto, which were essentially just two brightly decorated cooling towers for the decommissioned Orlando power station - apparently, people are allowed to bungee jump from the bridge which connects the two towers together.


Soccer City - FNB Stadium


Cooling towers of Soweto

Our pre-lunch stop was a visit to the town of Soweto, which is an abbreviation for being the south-western townships of Johannesburg. Here is a town both famous and infamous. Famous for having the street where two Nobel Peace Prize winners once lived - Archbishop Desmond Tutu and former South African President Nelson Mandela; and infamous for once being a Black-only town, cast aside by the apartheid regime. We visited the former house of Nelson Mandela, which was just a simple one story building with three rooms. More interestingly, there was a tree in his modest garden where the umbilical cords of his children and grandchildren were buried in - their familial link.

This brief visit was followed by an even more rushed visit of the Hector Pieterson Museum, which housed pictures and first-hand accounts of the Soweto uprising in 1976. On this fateful day, Black high-school students began a protest against the use of the Afrikaan language as a medium of instruction in school. Back than, there was an association with the Afrikaan language with the apartheid regime, and there was a sense of discrimination. The protests turned ugly when the police fired on the crowd, and one of the first casualties of the cause was 13-year old Hector Pieterson. He has forever been immortalised in one of the most iconic pictures of that day, where he was being carried away by a fellow student after being shot, with his sister by his side. Today in South Africa, 16th June is declared as the National Youth Day in remembrance of this dark day in history.


Our family at Mandela House


Nelson Mandela's House


The umbilical cord tree


Mr Mandela's room


Placards used in the Soweto uprising against the apartheid regime

After a heavy morning, lunch ensued, and it was one literally fit for lions. On the menu, we had a dose each of - chicken, pork, beef, lamb, venison (kudu), hartebeest, eland, impala and crocodile. This was a meal that could turn anyone vegetarian, if but for the next hour or so only.


 The Carnivore Restaurant

We journeyed on to Pretoria, which is one of the three capital cities of South Africa (the other two being Cape Town and Bloemfontein). Pretoria serves as the administrative capital of the country, as well as being the de facto national capital. We visited the Voortrekkers Monument, which was a memorial to the Voortrekkers and their victorious battle against the Zulus on 16th December 1838, at the Battle of Blood River. The Voortrekkers were a group of Dutch farmers who left the Cape with the arrival of the Brits, and travelled inland to settle in central South Africa, where they encountered the Zulus and had their many battles. We then stopped by the Union Buildings, which form the official seat of the South African government and also house the offices of the President of South Africa, before making our way to Sun City that evening. At the former, I met an African gentleman and his family, who interestingly enough, wanted to take a picture of me with his family with the Union Buildings in the background. I duly obliged, but not without returning the favour with my camera. Admittedly, I was extremely impressed by the locals, especially those who were selling their goods. They were always friendly and pleasant, and placed no pressure on the customer to buy their goods, though always serving with a smile. It really does make it a much more enjoyable and less stressful travelling experience.


Our tour group at the Voortrekkers Monument


Me and the African family at the Union Buildings


Dinner
South Africa is apparently where Nandos originated from; now to visit the ultimate chicken restaurant in Kentucy

Day 5 - Sun City: The Cultural Village and the Pilanesberg National Park 

 Sun City is the Las Vegas of South Africa, though it only has four hotels. This was a free day for us to select our own activities, with a choice between a Segway ride, visiting the Cultural Village, playing golf at world-class courses, watching a movie, going on a game drive, getting wet and cold at the water theme park in the middle of winter, or emptying your pockets and your bank account at the casino.

Breakfast provided by Sun City Main Hotel was served out in the open, where the temperatures were hovering just above freezing. It was of no surprise that the meal was hardly enjoyable. Guess they didn't want the guest to stay out too long in the open, but instead head to warmer climes in the hotel casino.


Breakfast at Sun City Main Hotel

Our morning activity consisted of visiting the Sun City Motseng Cultural Village which had round little houses supposedly showcasing how the various African tribes previously lived. The eight tribes consist of - Venda; Pedi; Basotho; Zulu; Ndebele; Xhosa (which is Nelson Mandela's tribe); Shangaan; and Tswana. I was quite amused that most of them had a similar round-shaped hut, made from bricks, complete with a thatched roof on the top. All that differed between them was the painting of the hut facade. Still, we were taught the various greetings from the eight different tribes, as well a little bit of their culture. For example, the men in the Pedi tribe wear kilts; the Xhosas are renown for having tongue-clicking within their language; and the Zulu men are able to marry an unlimited amount of women (the joke was that a Zulu man is a happy man because his wives would quarrel amongst themselves instead of with him). They then did a little singing and dance with humourous bit thrown in, all of which was really impressive. The singing especially reminded me of the opening number in 'The Lion King' - they were really a talented bunch. They then allowed us to sample a bit of their food. One of the dish was a type of insect larvae which had been roasted. I wasn't that adventurous enough, despite my Chinese blood.


Our family with the woman from the Pedi tribe
I was unfortunately volunteered to wear the kilt


 A Zulu man 
Adequately dressed for the middle of winter


Tribal song and dance


 A Zulu man's prized capture

With the end of one of the highlights of our trip, we made our way for lunch before we split our group, with my aunt Lucy and myself going on an additional game drive at the Pilanesberg National Park. It had begun to snow by then and the weather was absolutely freezing. In a windowless jeep, even driving at a mere speed of 20 km/h was enough to have me cowering under the blankets provided. Going on a safari in South Africa is quite an experience. One gets to see the animals in their natural habitat (though interestingly enough, Pilanesberg National Park used to be farmland taken over to be remade into a National Park). On these drives, passengers on the jeep start behaving like little school children, pointing out animals in utter excitement once they are in sight, and calling out their names - 'Elephant!', 'Giraffe!', 'Hippo!' Sometimes calling them out wrongly too, like - 'Pig!' instead of 'Warthog!' And then they start requesting for various other animals for the jeep driver to hunt for - 'Lions!', 'Leopard!', 'Cheetah!' Absolutely hilarious. Yet the feeling of seeing these animals in the flesh, and in the wild, is quite a sight to behold. I must say though, what you see is really dependent on your luck. These animals are free to roam, and they you might end up having a disappointing drive with barely an animal showing up. 

I must commend these jeep drivers though. There they are, driving the vehicle and focusing on the road, and yet they are on the lookout for these animals, sometimes even spotting one that might be more than a mile away! This happened on our drive, when our jeep driver laid eyes on a pride of three female lions, more than a kilometre away, stalking a herd of wildebeest. He spotted them with his own bare eyes, and yet I had difficulty even locating one with a pair of binoculars or the zoom lens of my camera.

We were pretty lucky on this particular drive, spotting three different prides of lions (one pride even devouring a baby giraffe carcass); hippopotamuses lazing by the lake; an entire herd of over twenty elephants; a pair of ostriches; a few scattered rhinoceroses; some giraffes; and a jeep of zebras. It was definitely well worth the additional game drive and the cold. I've also learnt a lot about going on safari drives - wear thick clothing for winter drives, especially covering your ears and hands; a pair of binoculars and a video camera would be exceptionally handy (thanks Bob); and wish for plenty of luck to see the animals.


An iconic spot just outside Sun City Main Hotel


A bloat of hippopotamuses 
For those of you who do not know - never stand between a hippopotamus and its water


A herd of elephants


Stunning scenery


A pride of lions and their prize baby giraffe carcass


A tower of giraffes


A jeep full of zebras 

Day 6 - Predator World and the Mabula Game Lodge

We left Sun City in the morning for the Mabula Game Lodge, but not before stopping at a zoo, Predator World, along the way. As its name suggests, here is a zoo which only contains the animals at the top of the food chain. Most of the animals here could be found in the African safari, all except the Bengal tigers. Interestingly enough, tigers are larger than lions in terms of size and bulk, though lions tend to be taller than them. The animals we saw here included the leopard (expert tree climbers, and one of the hardest to see in the wild); Bengal tigers; cheetahs hyenas; jackals; servals; and the most impressive of the lot was the white lion. The male white lion was especially majestic, mane included. These white lions are genuinely white, and not because they are albinos.

 The end of our visit to Predator World was particularly memorable, mainly because a few of us managed to get up close and personal with their tamed cheetahs. The zoo contained two tamed female cheetahs which had been brought up from young. For an additional fee, you were allowed to enter the same compound as them and stroke their fur and have photographs with them, but only my aunt Lucy, myself and another traveller were game enough for it. A few things were stressed upon us not to do - do not run within the enclosure; and do not step on the cheetah's tail. These cheetahs were amazingly tame and particularly friendly, and they let out a deep, low-pitched purr when you stroke their fur. Some facts I learnt about cheetahs - they weigh about the size of an average adult human male (around 70 kg), and it is possible to fend yourself against them; cheetahs have partially retractable claws and are unable to climb trees; and they are often too tired to eat their prey after catching them, and that's when their food gets stolen - hence, cheetahs in the wild are becoming extinct due to starvation. And also, for those of you who don't know, cheetahs are the fastest animal on land - they can reach speeds of up to 120 km/h, and can keep at it for a good three and a half miles! That's really impressive.


A leopard that never changed its spot


The male Bengal tiger


The queen of the jungle and her court jester


My aunt Lucy and her pet cat


The fastest and smartest animals on land
It was then a two hour drive to the private game drive at Mabula Game Lodge, which interestingly enough, was owned by an Indian businessman. The hotel we stayed at was more akin to a chalet, and it was reminiscent of the hotel we stayed at in Petra, Jordan. From here, we went on our evening game drive, which had some pretty spectacular close encounters of its own, though we didn't see as many animals as we did previously. 

Safari drives have become all about spotting the Big Five game - lion; leopard; the African elephant; the Black rhinoceros; and the Cape buffalo. This was a term previously coined by hunters in reference to the five most difficult and dangerous animals to hunt on foot. They are still the most hunted animals now in safaris, but only by trigger-happy tourists with their cameras. In my three days of game driving, I was lucky enough to have seen four out of five of the Big Five, with the leopard proving to be most elusive. On this particular drive, we managed to catch another pride of lions ravenously feasting on a wildebeest, as well as two families of rhinoceroses. The latter came within a few feet away from our jeep, and it was a menacing, heart-stopping and adrenaline-pumping sight - one can never predict what an animal would do in the wild, whether they feel threatened by our presence or not. According to our guide, who provided some laughs during our photo-stop, an entire jeep filled with humans is perceived by animals to be a single entity, and any unnatural movements by any of the passengers (for example standing up or falling over), would instigate a full on assault by animals feeling threatened. Thankfully we made it out of our drives alive.


Dad and Mom at outside our room in Mabula Game Lodge


A posse of humans


A crash of rhinoceroses

There are two types of rhinoceroses in the African plains - the White and the Black rhinoceroses. The White rhinoceros was actually known as the 'wide' rhinoceros (because it had a wide mouth compared to its cousins). However, over the years, it became known as the White rhinoceros, and eventually, its Black cousin (though hardly differing much in colour) was named as such. Another interesting fact that apparently distinguishes the two - the young of the White rhinoceros typically walks in front of its parents (just like how the Whites push their babies in prams ahead of them), whilst the young of the Black rhinoceros follows behind its parents (just like how the Blacks carry their babies on their backs out to work in the fields).


Another pride of lions


Me and our safari guide

Days 7 and 8 - Another Game Drive, Gold Reef City and home

Our penultimate morning in South Africa was spent going on another game drive at Mabula Game Lodge. We started our drive at half-six in the morning, which was absolutely freezing, especially in an open-top jeep. Worse still, the animals seemed to have taken heed of the freezing temperatures and decidedly stayed indoors instead, whilst us humans foolishly roamed their earth. It was disappointing not to have seen more animals than some buffaloes and zebras. Still, we did see some animals, especially another of the Big Five.


A really old female buffalo and her young
For my English-fanatic readers, a group of buffaloes is also known as a gang of buffaloes


A zeal or a dazzle of zebras
Apparently, the way to tell the difference between a male and female zebra is this - a male zebra is white with black stripes, whereas a female zebra is black with white stripes

Following that, it was time to head to Johannesburg before our flight back to Singapore the following day. Johannesburg is a city built on the premise of gold. Johannesburg used to be a little less inhabited and busy before gold was discovered in the 1880s. Following its discovery, thousands flocked into the city and to the mines, resulting in a massive influx and expansion of the city. One of the mines that used to be mined for gold was decommissioned when it finally ran out of its precious ore, and the surrounding area was converted into an amusement park called Gold Reef City. Here, we were brought 225 metres down one of the old mine shafts, and taken on a tour of life down in the pits. This was only the fifth level of the mine; workers used to have to take 45 minutes to travel down to the 47th level of the mine, which was located 3300 metres below the surface! (Interestingly, Johannesburg itself is located 1000 metres above the sea level.) Down in the mines, conditions were dark, dusty, damp, and claustrophobic. I can't imagine how terrible life must have been for the miners - they have my utmost sympathy.


One of the couples on the tour who just couldn't stop taking pictures of themselves with just about everything. If they could, they probably would have jumped out of the jeeps to have an up close and personal shot with every single animal


Mom 'cowering in fear'

With that, it was our last sight-seeing activity of the trip, and it was back to our hotel for a nice sleep in before taking our flight back to Singapore. We stayed at another hotel with a casino located nearby - another opportunity for some of our Singapore compatriots to lighten their load on the way home.


Parting shot - Dad, aunt Teresa, aunt Lucy and Mom

It was an extremely educational and fun trip to South Africa, and nothing beats spending some quality time having fun with your family! It is now back home to Singapore for me, with my career as a doctor beckoning. All I can say is, I won't be having such holidays for a long time in the foreseeable future. Or even a good night's rest.

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posted by Gabriel Yan at 8:54 PM 0 comments