Ricky: Over the Years

I saw this being done at the online community I frequent so I figured I might as well do one here on my blog as well. Here are a series of photos from when I was a baby all the way to now when I’m a single fatty who had to spend Valentine’s Day fixing up his vehicle:

Here’s me as a little baby, awwww how cute:

Me as a baby

Here’s me along with my brothers and my cousins, yours truly was of course the little boy in blue:

Ricky with siblings and cousins

Another one with brothers and cousins, this time me in the yellow swim ring:

Ricky swimming with siblings and cousins

My brothers and I at Universal Studios in Australia when I was six:

Universal Studios, 1991

Now I’m going to jump all the way to about grade 9, as I don’t have any of the photos of me as a kid in Hong Kong scanned……

Here’s me in grade 8 or 9:

Grade 8 or 9

Here’s me in grade 10-12 dying hair all the time:

Blue hair

Blonde hair

GGGGGGG Unitttt!

And then here’s me in recent years:

Leading worship

Tower Bridge, London

Now, I know that amongst my avid subscribers there are many members of the gender ‘female’.  I’d like to ask those of you who fit into that category to kindly leave a comment along the lines of “awww you’re so cute as a baby, but you’re even cuter now!”.

Cheers.

- Ricky xoxoxoxoxoxo

Family

It might be because I just finished all 3 seasons of one of the funniest TV shows – Arrested Development – a show about a dysfunctional family.  Or it might be because I am listening to the Great Lake Swimmers – one of the most depressing bands to listen to.

But I have been thinking…

Since young, we were all taught that the most important thing is our family.  Family comes first.  If everything should fail, your family will still always be around for you.

But then you look around… and you find that all the crazy people in this world are that crazy because of their upbringing.  That serial killer you see in the news is probably that way because he got beaten up by his dad more times than he has had hot meals.

That 4 year old kid at the mall who says the F word is probably that way because of his mom who swears every other sentence, you thought.

I look back and realize that the most harsh conversations I have ever had were all with my family.

So how does this all work?

I think it’s definitely a double-edged sword.

The joy your family brings cannot be brought on by anything else.  I suppose I’ll just have to cling onto that.

Attitudes and Feelings: Both desirable and sometimes secretive

‘It surely is hot here in Hong Kong’ was the first thought that came to mind when I first got off the plane. But then again, for me to travel thousands of miles closer to the equator and then complain about the heat would be like taking off my pants in the middle of a worship service and complaining to the clergy that I felt exposed at church.

Hong Kong is where my family is. Hong Kong is also the place where I have access to many luxuries. My aunt’s Lexus seals out so much roadside noise. My mom’s plasma TV and her surround sound system gives such a better presentation of the same Xbox games I have back home. My brother gets me custard pudding of top class quality for some very reasonable price.

I got asked a few questions by my uncle, who’s the businessman of the family. He asked me what my degree is. He asked me whether I can speak Mandarin fluently. He asked me what kind of research or industry I want to go into. He asked me what I want to do with my life.

I felt uneasy. I felt like I had to makeup answers. To be frank, if there is anything I am passionate about, it probably isn’t what I studied during my undergrad years. It probably has more to do with music and football and theology. But I didn’t think I would sound very smart if I told him that.

But if I truly didn’t care about my studies that I shouldn’t have felt uneasy. I could’ve just said I don’t give a crap what I do. But I do care. I do care that perhaps I could have a successful career like my uncle and my cousins. Herein lies the struggle: if there was ever a reason why I would consider living in Hong Kong for good, it’d be because of family…but perhaps even more importantly, it would be the Chinese ingrained hand-in-hand relationship between a successful career and real manhood.

I might feel lesser of a man if I didn’t come to Hong Kong to have a “real” career.

Anyways, without family and without any really really close friends in Vancouver, I have to say that there are always certain things that I miss here in Hong Kong. This career thing isn’t though. I’d be happy working at McD’s if that’s where God points my heart to.

I just don’t think this is the right environment to raise kids.

And so I’ve landed safely

And so the surprise worked like a real gem.  The expression on my mom’s face was priceless.  She was in tears and everything.

And if you didn’t know, I had just flew to Hong Kong yesterday for the sole purpose of spending Mother’s Day here (which also happens to be Pentecost Sunday, I believe?).

My brother got us a nice chocolatey cake and some custard pudding and we had a nice little dinner at home with the four of us.  It’s been a while.  The last time we had dinner like this must’ve been close to a year ago now?

No pictures to show though. 

Anyways, going to be meeting some more family and old friends.