The one about faith...

After the last post, I got a precious few hours of sleep before I got up to take mum to hospital. It was her appointment at the Oncology clinic after her CEA cancer marker blood test last week. Kinda important visit, this one.

As I walked towards the clinic making small talk with mum, I remember thinking of all the things to say should mum's blood test show that she was getting no better. I know that the CEA cancer marker test was not conclusive, yet I knew I had to be reassuring if things didn't look too good.

The wait was not a long one this morning and as if things could not get any better - the doctor announced that mum's blood test was normal!! This was amazingly good news to us; however, the doc recommended that in cases such as mum's the normal treatment is for twelve cycles of chemotherapy treatment. As mum had only done six cycles, she was advised to continue on. Since mum seems to have responded well and hardly suffers from any side effects, we agreed with the doc and mum was immediately scheduled for her next treatment on Monday.

I just want to thank everyone who has helped us through the hardest times and for all the prayers, wishes and thoughts. Doesn't this prove the power of prayer...

The rest of the day was pretty much a blur, as I was in pretty high spirits after a good morning indeed. After sorting out some work in the afternoon, Jo and I headed for the Spice & Rice Restaurant, Rama's place, where the Bar Committee was having a wine tasting party. Asia Cellars were promoting a range of new Aussie boutique wines and we were given the opportunity to have a sip. There were cheese platters, samosas, prathas and other Indian goodies for all to accompany our drink. All that for a mere RM20 which was quite value for money.

Saturday morning was spent playing with Ethan and in the afternoon, Jo & I went out grocery shopping at Cold Storage Island Plaza. We got home to make sure Ethan was all set for the night before heading off to sunset mass at the Assumption Church. Dinner that night was going to be a simple affair - we went for the Korean BBQ at Seoul Garden in Gurney Plaza. It was simple food, nothing spectacular but easy for us as we had tickets for the 9.30 p.m. screening of "The Da Vinci Code" at the GS Cinemas upstairs.

Since all that can be written about that movie has been written, I'll keep my critique short - the movie is interesting if you haven't read the book; although if you haven't read the book, then you wouldn't know what's all the fuss about. Why would there be so many people who want to prove that a work of fiction is not true... surely that begs the question, right?

Simply, Dan Brown had claimed his book was based on facts which are true and correct - architecturally, geographically and historically. This claim is the cause of the ruckus. Many have sought out to prove him wrong and there have been more publications claiming to detract, de-bunk and de-code Dan Brown's work of fiction than any other fiction book in history.

Since I'm such a sucker for puzzles - the book appeals to me intrinsically. However, I just have one fact to state which to me is the clearest evidence that Dan's story is just that - a story.

Dan states as a fact that - the "Priory of Sion" the so-called custodians of the purported "Church's secret cover-up" was a European secret society founded in 1099. Not true - in fact the society was established in 1956 by Jean Delaval, Armand Defago, Andre Bonhomme and Pierre Plantard. Plantard was jailed for fraud in 1953. In 1996 Bonhomme made this statement to the BBC: "Priory of Sion does not exist anymore and we were never involved in activities of a political nature. We were just four friends who came together for fun and called ourselves Priory of Sion after a mountain near us with the same name!" [Sources: The Sun & Wikipedia]

Its the perrenial battle between fact and faith, between reason and belief. I'll leave the issue at that. On the movie itself, Tom Hanks was a miscast. He just didn't suit the role. Not convincing and somehow rather 2-dimensional. If you've read the book, the movie gets a bit draggy and slow in parts. Otherwise, go watch it, if you want to add to the USD224 million opening debut box office takings.

Sunday was a true day of rest for us. Much needed rest too. The coming week will see mum in hospital for her chemo. Otherwise, it'll be work, work and more work. Joy.