Tag Archives: Friends

“Lim’s Art Making Impact”

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Leon Lim – an old Deaf friend of mine from Malaysia – is becoming widely known as a predominant Deaf artist.

Leon and I became penpals when we were both in school, me at Llantarnam Comprehensive School and Leon at the Federal School for the Deaf, Penang; introduced to each other through a “letter exchange” between the Deaf pupils at each school, back in circa 1992. We wrote to each other for donkey’s years, exchanging not just letters but also artwork (from Leon) and stamps and various mementos and goodies. One such goodie was a framed RM$2 banknote which I received for my 19th birthday, which I still use as a bookmark.

In 2003, Leon visited the UK for the first time as part of a whistlestop tour of Europe, and he came to Wales to meet me, my family and my friends, and stayed with me for the duration. We got along like a house on fire and communicated with each other in a mixture of BSL and ASL. It was surreal to meet a penpal face to face, and pretty cool at the same time.

Leon then moved to the USA to study art at the Rochester Institute of Technology, NY, and he now resides in New York City as a working artist, and has become a well known artist in his native Malaysia, and even has >his own Wikipedia page!

In recent years, as we’ve both matured into adults and forged our own careers, Leon in art and me in law, we’ve stopped sending each other letters. However, thanks to the advent of the Internet, we have remained in touch, albeit infrequently.

I found out yesterday, via Deaf News Today’s Twitter feed, that Leon has been recognised for his work on TIME magazine’s year-end cover picture of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange using the text of a leaked cable. You can read all about it here.

I think Leon’s story is an astonishing one, and I am proud to call him a friend. Leon, we’ll come and visit you in NYC in the near future, promise!!

Me party animaaaaaal!

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Here are some nice social pictures of me. The lady in one of them with me is Pinky, an ex-colleague from RAD and a new friend of mine. These pictures were taken after her leaving party at La Tasca, Liverpool Street.

Pinky and me Me at Farringdon after a night out Me at Farringdon after a night out Me in a pose!

“Knowing You”

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Knowing YouAn old Malaysian pen-pal of mine, Leon Lim, has created an online portfolio called Knowing You, which can only be described as a collection of photographs that Leon Lim himself has taken over the years, in which he demonstrates how he remembers the individuals he has met through his childhood, school, at college, from his travels etc. They are very clever pictures; they tend to capture an essence of the subject; their character, their personality.

Leon Lim took one of me when he came to stay at my parents’ house in August 2003, during his European travels. You can see it here. Do you think that picture reflects my personality? Discuss!

Newbury Park

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On this fine evening in East London, I find myself in Newbury Park, staying at my new colleague Laura’s spanking brand new apartment that she shares with another RAD colleague, Claire. I have to admit that I’m jealous. They have a lovely apartment with an ensuite bathroom to the master bedroom and a normal bathroom as well. All carpet is new, and Claire has brought her furniture over from her boyfriend’s house which matches the decor perfectly.

It’s been a great evening, socialising with RAD staff and Laura, Claire and Andrew’s partners. We’ve had a few laughs; banned ourselves from talking about RAD, and if we did, then we had to drink a shot of Southern Comfort. I fell prey to these scheme, but at least I wasn’t Claire, who had to drink three shots. Andrew and Andy got away with their gaffs cos they were driving!

Anyway, best be off. Need to be up early for a shower and a bacon sarnie, plus team meeting at Chelmsford tomorrow. Nite.

Southampton

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Just got back from Southampton. I went to see my best mate, Stuart Giddings. He has now bought a 2-bedroom flat in Southampton with his girlfriend Karen. Stuart is a trainee solicitor in Lawcomm Solicitors, and Karen works for Shoosmiths as a paralegal.

I have to say their flat is superb. It is really nice. I also have to say that I have never seen Stuart looking so happy. It was really nice to see him; I hadn’t seen him since before Christmas 2004, and as Karen was away for a hen weekend, it meant that we had one of our blokey weekends i.e. food, booze and DVDs! This was a very rare opporunity for us; the last time we did anything like this was when we were both in Cardiff Law School doing our LPC.

On the way home, I got to thinking about whether it’s good or bad to not see your best friends so often. Since we both left Cardiff Law School, I’ve only seen Stuart on four occasions. I do miss him, but I think long absences makes me appreciate him more. It’s the same with a lot of my other friends, some I don’t have very frequent contact with, but I do think about them from time to time.

I guess it’s just life – we all take different paths throughout our lives, and this will affect friendships and relationships. I guess life is just a constant test of friendships and relationships. I’m glad to say that Stuart and I are still the best for friends, and he’s doing me the honour of being my best man at THE wedding, so I’m chuffed about that.