Pay It Forward!

Who remembers this movie "Pay It Forward" which starred Helen Hunt, Kevin Spacey and Haley Joel Osmont? Well, the gist of the story is that, this kid came up with the idea to pay a favour forward and not backwards, kind of like repaying a good deed by giving it to someone else.

I laughed at the kid in the movie, this kid believed in goodness of people. A bit like my sister. Sometimes I think that she is naive, with her thinking that one simple act of kindness can change the world for better. Yup, that's my sister... if you need positive reaffirmation, go to her. I, on the other hand is the most negative thinking person ever. I am your Devil's advocate.  A non believer, if this was a movie, I would be the bad cop. I would give you the worst possible scenario. 

Where am I going with this? Why is this in a food blog? Meh! No reason. Actually there is, I don't believe that my one single act will change the world or anything. But just to be on the safe side, I choose Karen. ;)

It all started with my cousin Rubearn, he heard how much I had missed Haekoh ( prawn paste) and he send me some haekoh and belacan. Of course, I thanked him for it and thought nothing else about it. It was almost forgotten except that it is still in my fridge and I have not used it. I look at it to remember what a kind person he is. 

Then Lin, my friend in Melbourne, who travels to Singapore quite a lot for business, one day decided to mail me some peanut butter M&M chocolates and some other chilli flavoured chocolates. Once again, thank the person and thought nothing of it further. It was fabulous. I love it. You see, I should have done more, said more, but I am not your warm and fuzzy , let's hug it out person. There's a  word for it; thoughtless.

This week, it sort of got me thinking, coz what else does one do on their birthday but have morbid thoughts of death. What? You don't? Are you nuts? How can you not? You are... one year older .....tick tock tick tock the clock is ticking away ...at some stage you are going to clock out soon... Aiyo!! 

So I am sitting here with my morbid thoughts, thinking... what the bloody hell are my friends going to say about me when I passed on? Crazy right? Yup you betcha! It wasn't intentional but I thought to myself, "Gee, Jack, you're not a very nice person and you had better get cracking by being nice to people for a change.."

I thought hard.. blimey it was painfully fast. The only thing I am good at, is feeding people. And I like doing stuff like that. I could probably send one or two care packages. Let's start small, but don't ask me to share my beer, or help you move house, or shit like that... baby steps first. 

So, do you know what I did? I spotted some Dark Cherry Ripe Limited Edition chocolate bars at the supermarket, I knew immediately that I had to send them to Karen in Penang. This woman is the Number One crazy chick who is nuts about Cherry Ripe choc bars. This was perfect. At first, it was just to redeemed myself to the world but then it became a mission. I waited for Easter to be over, for the shops to reopen, then I searched high and low for it, bought heaps and plead and bargained with some supermarket manager for cost price so that I can send my friend a boxful of her favourite. It was crazy! I was crazy! 

Whoops! I kinda also started the buzz on my Facebook about the Cherry Ripe bars. I can't believed that they don't have it in Malaysia... that is madness! 

So my friend, received her box of chocolates yesterday and I feel happy that I did my bit in "Pay It Forward" and knowing Karen, one of the nicest person in the world, a Buddhist and all that, she is probably paying it forward now with a good deed or two or three to some other unknown person/s. 

So  it all ends well, I should do a cherry ripe ice cream or a cake next... hahhahahahah...I can't send her that. *Evil laugh* Muahhhh hahhahaha....see, told ya, I am evil... I'll never change ;)