Many years ago, when a dear friend of mine asked me to visit her in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and sit in some of her meetings with her vendors so I can help and explain to her some of the technical terms and advice her if the vendors were not trying to con her company. I readily agreed without hesitation. Yes, I would literally go the distance for a friend.Sometime last year, another good friend of mine, K, needed to collect his new car after selling his old one, I offered to drive up to his place at Upper Bukit Timah and drive him to the car company to pick up his new ride.A friend of mine was getting married last year and he called me and asked if he could borrow $10k from me if he needed when he buy his hdb unit from the resale market. I told him not to worry as I'll set aside this sum for him and I'm prepared to lend it to him when he needs it. Half a year later, he called me and I lent him the money.However, that was the last time I would lend money to a friend. In total, I've lent about $20k in the past decade to my friends and till date none have made any real attempt in returning me any money. Sigh.A few months ago, another friend of mine, in the middle of rushing her work, her work laptop fried. She was on msn conversation with me using her personal laptop when it happened. From the msn messages, I can sense her desperation and despair. It was just past midnight then and it was her birthday. No one should have such a bad start to their birthday, I quickly looked for my friends who are still awake in msn and asked if they had a portable SATA drive I can borrow so I can try to retrieve the data. One of my friend who has it but he stays in Upper Bukit Timah. I drove all the way up and then back again to my friend's place. In the end, even though I was not able to port out the data but I told her not to worry as I'll get it fix. Told her it was her birthday afterall and assured her everything will turn out well. It was around 2 am when I left her place.The same day, I managed to find a shop that was able to port out her data. I returned her the laptop and with data intact. Birthday memory was saved.On Thursday night, the home broadband connection of a dear friend of mine suddenly decided to give up on her when she had a very urgent and important meeting to prepare. Fortunately, she was able to connect her laptop directly to the cable modem when I advised her to try. Eventually, we isolated the problem to the router. As I know she would require her wireless connection so she can work more conveniently at home after working hours, I volunteered to help her buy the router since I was going to Funan Centre anyway. I delivered the router to her company and left it with the receptionist as I knew she would be busy in meetings and didn't want to disturb her.Just received a text message from her thanking me and told me her colleague couldn't believe how nice a friend I am. * embarrassed *To me, all these things which I've done are all within my capabilities to help so I would just offer my assistance. A dear friend of mine ever commented I'm a rare breed in this world and she even wondered if I'm actually an alien.Yeah, I'm Kal-El from the planet Krpton. :p