What was once a run-of-the-mill symptom of illness has become a fear-inducing alarm bell.

IF you have been too preoccupied with all the awful stuff happening on Earth, you might have missed something that is shaping up. Up, as in up in space.

MONDAY marked my first anniversary as a retiree. I can hardly believe 12 months flew by so quickly.I blithely wrote about the start of this new chapter in my July 17, 2019, column titled My life as I never knew it.

A TIRED Yale University student is napping in a common area. A man is standing by an apartment door waiting for a friend to come down. A young girl is selling bottled water in front of her home to raise money to go to Disneyland.

WHAT day is it? Oh yes, it’s Wednesday because my column comes out on that day. But I am writing this on Monday, which is what I usually do as part of my routine.

If not, it will be death by plastic pollution for the whole world.

THIS column is my pride and my pain. Pride because it has given me a platform to share my thoughts and views on a wide range of topics and issues. Pain because whenever my deadline looms, I agonise over what to write and how to write it.

THAT’S it. I am joining the chorus calling for a new education minister. Dr Maszlee Malik’s latest foot-in-the-mouth is the last straw for me.

TOMORROW is an important day as it marks the first anniversary of the day Malaysians voted out Barisan Nasional. But I am not writing about it today because it is a topic that has already been covered extensively and eloquently by many and I have nothing cleverer or more insightful to add.

THERE are plenty of serious and important issues and events going on which I should probably write about. But not today. This time it’s about me.

What does it say of a person who can rationalise his way out of doing something bad and even criminally wrong.

IT was his hair that gave him away. A few strands tickled my calves, which made me turn to see a young boy who was probably about 13 crouched behind me.