ThanksGiving for 2007

Time flies. I bet everyone agrees with me.

Year 2007 didn't start good for me. A very bad shocking news hit me early of the year and left me in darkness helplessly for almost a month. I prayed and prayed, and with that, I grew closer with God. I prayed hard and studied hard on His words to find strength in my life to be able to rejoice and live joyfully again. Joshua 1:9 says "Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go". I was enlightened. The words gave a boost into my life and my heart and somehow, I could smile and laugh again.

There's a chinese saying that says "A year's plan start with Spring". We always believe things will be good if we start it well. A negative thought hit me when I thought that Year 2007 started bad for me, and hence it will be a bad year for me. I shook it off and live on. Today, on the last day of the year, when I looked back to year 2007, I had a fuzzy feeling in my heart. It was just... Great! I couldn't stop giving thanks to God for all the blessings in 2007.

EG and I have been planning for our wedding for the whole 2007. It was HELL HECTIC. We were running around almost every weekends. We used all our free time to prepare for our wedding - meeting up vendors, preparing power points, wedding agendas, and etc etc. As usual, everyone has a dream - be it big or small - for their weddings, so as EG and I. With financial constraint, we have to be careful with everything that we're going to spend. Again, we see God's blessing in all our plannings. We managed to get all the things that we wanted within our budget - they came WITH GREAT DISCOUNTS!! I just couldn't put all of them in words. For both of us are not from Penang, we really have no contact for the vendors, but rather we depend on our own surveys and friends' reccommendations. With that, we're really blessed that we could get good offers for almost everything.

I remembered while we were planning for our bridal studio package, I told EG I wanted to have a video on how we took the bridal pics. Due to budget, I had to let my small little dream off. Little do I know, 1 month later our bridal shoot, we won a competition by Whizarts & WeddingStory. We got extra photos and video session - FOR FREE!! What can we complain some more when it's free?! And they were great!

Another recent incident, I was quite stressed up with wine supplier for my wedding. We have been driving pass Roo's Cellar near Crystal Point and
few times it was closed. I was desperate and went to find another wine suppliers - but their price were rather high. One weekend, we went back to Roo's Cellar again, and it was open this time. As usual, the price shocked me. But somehow, we stayed back and learnt a little bit on wine tasting and story on red wine and white wine. And guess what, the sales rep told us later that they're closing down and all their wines are going at 40% off! And the price dropped to EXACTLY what both EG and I had in mind! What if we found our wine suppliers at other places? What if we signed up with them much earlier before December? EG said, "Got so ngam (co-incident) or not? When we go they are having stock clearance!". I said, it's God's blessing. I don't believe there can be so many coincidents throughout our whole wedding preparation.

Other than wedding preparations, other good things that happened in 2007:

• Settled in EPCC as my church
• Had my family trip to China for sight seeing during Chinese New Year and experienced winter with less than 10 degress for the first time
• Travelled to Philippines two times and met a lot of new friends from the other side of the globe
• Travelled to US and visited one of the Wonders of the World & did a lot a lot A LOT of shoppings!
• Won my first lucky draw in my life
• Signed up so many many courses in Jourdeness - without going bankrupt :P
• Bought sofa, air-conditioners, and setup our home for a better place after marriage
• Had my first manicure and pedicure in my life and found out that actually I also can have nice nails...
• Went back Miri two times - with 30 cents ticket for the first trip
• Broke my life record by working in the same company for >2 years!!
• Changed a new phone after 4 years
• Signed up gym @ Priority Fitness
• Completed EPCC pre-marital counselling and nursery duty 1 month before wedding
• Had a great wedding ceremony in Miri

I will be lying if I tell you I have no dream for 2008. In fact, I have so many many dreams - big and small. In 2008, I wish to:

• Have a blessed wedding together with my friends and family in Penang
• Have a wonderful honeymoon in Bali
• Plan for a holiday trip with EG
• Curl my hair again
• To pick up my piano skill again
• Serve in my church - EPCC

I am anxious for the arrival of Year 2008. I want to see God unfolding His blessings for me and see Him making my big dreams as well as my small dreams come true.

Time flies. It's time to bid goodbye to 2007, and say HELLO to 2008!!

For my friends, a very happy 2008 to all of you also. I hope all of us had a great year in 2007 and will have a even greater year in 2008!

Happy new year DUDES!!

Happy Birthday

EG and I don't really celebrate birthdays, valentine days, anniversaries or any special event. We normally just stay at home and spend time with each other - watching tv, or doing housework. We don't like the crowd - probably a sign of getting old? Some think that we're really weird couple but I am perfectly OK with this. We are already doing or experiencing new things together always so I thought there's no need to do extra on special events.

However, this year, it's a little different. EG has decided to bring me for some nice dinner on Christmas day - a day before my birthday. I am not sure why. Probably we both wanted to take a break after we completed our wedding reception in Miri (50% of work done!!). And probably EG wanted to treat his girlfriend (still) real nice before we both upgrade our status to husband and wife in less than 1 month time!!

Tao Christmas Decoration

EG has been to Tao restaurant for his teambuilding and he always wanted to bring me there. Since both of us like Japanese food, we decided to try their japanese buffet @ eGate today. Good that even though it's Christmas, the rate remains. And we're free to order anything in the menu.

Tao Menu

Both of us had a heavy breakfast today and we skipped lunch. EG placed our booking while I was having my afternoon nap. There are two sessions for the jap buffet, i.e. from 5.30pm - 8.15pm and from 8.30pm - 11.15pm respectively. To fight off the crowd and the traffic, we reached Tao sharp at 5.30pm with our empty stomach.

Waiting for food

Since both EG and I are small eater, we have to be smart to order the food so that we can try different varieties and fully utilise the $$ that we paid (yaya, call us cheapskate :P). We avoided the dish served with rice or mee. We started our meal with Miso soup, and followed by two big plates of sushi with soft shell crab.

Spider sushi and Fire Cracker sushi

I am not going to describe all the food as those are quite a standard japanese food. Below are some of the pictures that I took during the dinner.

Both EG and I are big fans for grilled salmon.
We ordered total of 3 plates of grilled salmon during the dinner

Yummy sashimi

Scallop with cheese - it is a little too cheesy


Their chawanmushi is really small

EG is enjoying his food

Since it's Christmas, all tables are served with a free Christmas meal. It's nothing too great but it tasted ok.

Complementary Christmas meal

In total, we ate 23 items from the menu (some are repeating). Finally, we ended our dinner with a green tea ice cream. I was too full to eat anything so EG finished it off.

Green Tea ice cream

After the dinner, we were really full. Initially, we wanted to get a piece of cake from Secret Recipe next door as my birthday cake but I told EG I really couldn't take it anymore so we cancelled our plan.

Finally, you must be wondering where my birthday present is. Well, we don't normally give each other surprises for presents to avoid any disappointment (:P). We choose our own presents. So, I chose a handbag this year while we were doing some window shopping in Midvalley during our 9 hours flight transit to come back to Penang last Sunday.

My birthday present

I always tell EG that he's very lucky as I am quite an easily pleased girlfriend. This is my 3rd birthday together with EG. A simple present with a nice dinner like this are more than enough to make my day.

It's a great day!

Wedding Ceremony in Miri

I just had my wedding ceremony & dinner in Miri, Sarawak (my hometown) for my friends and relatives last Friday. If you know me well, this wedding news shouldn't be a surprise for you. Both EG and I have been planning for our wedding since end of 2006.

We went back to Miri on Tuesday. Dinner on Friday. Came back Penang again on Sunday. It's very hectic, worse for my parents. Well, good thing is, most of the stuffs and plannings are settled by parents and sister. I just need to make sure I do what I need to do - i.e. my manicure, and etc. I was searching high and low for nail trimming & painting in Miri. In Penang, it only costs RM10 for that service. To my surprise, Miri price is higher - it ranges from RM15 to RM20. So, I went to one of the popular shop where most brides in Miri will go (according to my sister) and did a weird color. Well, it looks weird at first, but later I think they are not too bad eventually.

It looks like french manicure but it's not.
The girl told me that's the new pattern. Hmm...

My mum managed to find me a makeup artist that came to my house to do makeup for me at a reasonable price. I slept at 12.30am and woke up at 6am to get ready and makeup session started at 6.30am till 7.45am. I was tired, but guess what, my parents slept for ~3 hours and started preparing the food at 3am for relatives during the tea ceremony. They were more excited than me. First time being in-law i guess. :P

Makeup from 6.30am

The tea ceremony is very much simplified. We only serve tea for my parents. For the other uncles, aunties & cousins, we just need to nod to them to introduce the new member in our family (EG!!) and they will then put ang pows into EG's pocket. Luckily that his shirt has a pocket at the front.

Tea for parents

My parents didn't decorate much in the house but they just did what the others told them to do. There is a shop in Miri selling all wedding stuffs. One of my aunties told my mum that there should be a pair of candles lighting up during the tea ceremony - symbolising that there is light - ???. I don't understand but it looks nice anyway. And guess what, the stupid candles cost RM20. Well, wedding ma, once a life time.

Some nice candles

Anyway, all in all, it went on well. Thank God that everything went on smoothly as planned. Below are some of the nice pics taken and I love them lots!

One of the switches in my room

My wedding band & the bible
Creative shot by both my brothers (apparently copied from some website :P)

I am still waiting for the other pictures during the wedding dinner. I had a glance at them and they were great! Hopefully I can get them soon and blog about it here!

PS: I wanted to be mysterious on who the photographer was during my wedding in Miri but I couldn't hold it anymore! It was my brother. I am amazed by his camera and his slightly improved skills. Of course he has lots more to improve on but I am rather happy with most of the pics so far. Not bad right?! :D

PPS: For more pictures, check out my wedding website. :)

Cat & Bear Talk

Cat: (While washing dishes in kitchen) Bear, so today where did you bring your US colleagues for lunch?
Bear: (Replying emails in the next room) Oh, since they're vegetarians, we brought them to Tan Hsiang for Chinese vegetarian.
Cat: Tan Hsiang ah... Is it the one beside CCOP one?
Bear: Where is CCOP?
Cat: The one beside Tan Hsiang la...
Bear: What the f***... What you talking....
Cat: **Laughing** What's wrong?!
Bear: It's like you asked me where is Chung Hua, i tell you it's next to St. Joe. And you ask me where is St. Joe, i tell you it's next to Chung Hua... What the toot you talking man....
Cat: **Laughing till losing breathe** Do you know that you're very funny?!
Bear: WHAT SO FUNNY?!!

Note: CCOP - Charismatic Church of Penang

刮痧 aka Gua Sha

Did the picture scare you? Don't worry, that's not me in the picture!

Quoting from Wikipedia:

Gua Sha (刮痧), literally "to scrape for cholera", is an ancient medical treatment that is still widely used by practitioners of Traditional Chinese Medicine....

Gua Sha involves repeated pressured strokes over lubricated skin with a smooth edge.
The smooth edge is placed against the pre-oiled skin surface, pressed down firmly, and then moved down the muscles -- hence friction-stroking -- or along the pathway of the acupuncture meridians, along the surface of the skin, with each stroke being about 4-6 inches long...

This causes extravasation of blood from the peripheral capillaries and may result in sub-cutaneous blemishing, which usually takes 2-4 days to fade. Sha rash does not represent capillary rupture as in bruising...

The color of sha varies according to the severity of the patient's blood stasis -- which may correlate with the nature, severity and type of their disorder --appearing from a dark blue-black to a light pink, but is most often a shade of red. Although the marks on the skin look painful, they are not. Patients typically feel immediate sense of relief and change.

OK enough of facts, but I guess the above more or less gives a better idea of what gua sha really is.

I signed up a gua sha + back massage course in Jourdeness - a facial saloon - @ USJ back in 2004. The saloon offered a trial session and the moment I tried it, I know I won't be able to resist its syok-ness. And true enough, I have been in the same saloon for 3 years. In the 45 minutes session, they will do the gua sha, and followed by a massage on your back. Working ladies normally have stiff shoulder and they will normally apply extra pressure on the shoulder and that feels REALLY GOOD! While I was going to move from KL to PG, one of the items in my checklist was to transfer my facial account from Subang to Penang.

I enjoyed the "pain" during this gua sha treatment. The first time I did it, my back was in dark blue black. But HOLD, it's not painful! I felt GREAT as my whole body was lightened and my muscles were relieved. And believe it or not, after doing it for 3 years, I never get dark blue shades anymore (probably only for the first few times). Most of the time I only get a shade of red or even light pink, no matter how hard the girl in Jourdeness pressed down. They said because the toxic in my body was cleared.

I always like to show to my girlfriends on the dark red shades on my shoulder after the session. And most of the time they'd get scared and worried as they always thought I am a self abuser! Gosh, it's something really nice, OK? :)

I just did my gua sha today after work. I had the same feeling just as the first time I did it. Anyway, I think my health & complexion has improved a lot after I make an effort to visit them at least once a month. Good thing is EG never stops me for going or signing up, instead he always encourages me to go. He always tells me, if this treatment is good for you then go ahead. So nice, right? But of course, if he could sponsor the cost that'll be even better. :)

I wanted to take a picture of my back now but I thought that might not be a good idea. Hehe... Anyway, now it looks exactly like the girl in the above picture. If you have chance, really you should try gua sha. Trust me it's really not painful!
I love it!

Priority Fitness

After considering for almost >6 months, EG and I finally signed up Priority Fitness near Ivory Plaza, Penang. Some commented that: Hey, dieting for your wedding huh?. But in fact, I always think it's too late to do that when we only have less than 1.5 months to our wedding day.

So, if it's not for wedding, then why? EG is always a very health conscious person. Recently, due to the stress and heavy workload in work place, I was having constant headache everyday. I get frustrated & irritated easily, lost my temper easily, couldn't focus in any meetings or projects, feel sleepy all the time, and etc. There's once when I didn't wait for the lift and climbed up the staircases to my place (I stay in 2nd floor), I couldn't catch my breathe and my heartbeat doubled. Knowing that I really need to workout, and knowing that I'll never go jogging (*Note: I could never run), after EG's persuasion and a lot of calculations, we finally paid to Priority Fitness for 6-8 months membership.

Since both EG and I are working in MNC, the Gym offered us great deals. We paid around RM50+ per month (after prorated) and we could use the facilities in the Gym unlimitedly. Besides that, the Gym has at leats 2 classes every evening - be it Yoga, Belly dancing, Cardio, Aerobics, Modern Jazz - and we could join all of them.

So far, EG and I are making it a habit to go at least for an hour for each visit for twice a week. So far, I am just trying to run and do some cardio exercises. I haven't tried out any of the classes yet but I am planning to once I got my stamina built up to a better level - Or else, I'll just join for 10 minutes and rest for 1 hour.

It feels good to workout. It feels good to sweat out. My headache is now gone and I feel more fresh on the next day after the workout. I am not sure if it's psychological effect or it's really the effect after workout. But knowing that I always get bored of things fast, I hope I'll keep going for the next 6 months - not for beauty or looking good, but more for my own health.

朋友

每一个人一生中都有很多朋友

但是

又有多少人有多少真正的朋友？

朋友不需要每天见面

但是

一旦见了面 又能天南地北的谈个不停

彼此能摊开心扉 毫无避忌的分享大家
开心的 伤心的 无奈的 压力的 心事

朋友之间

没有妒嫉 没有彼此的是非

只有关心 关怀 祝福

有人说

当你伤心失望时

你一定可以找到朋友分享

但是

难处是 但你幸福开心时

你不一定可以找到朋友分享你的喜悦

一直以来

我很庆幸 我有一帮能为我分享一切的

好朋友 好姐妹

摄于1998 年为Pre-U Final Exam 博杀前

摄于2000年于UKM合唱团比赛

有些朋友

只是我们人生中的一个过客

可是 有些朋友

却能在你的心中留下脚印

愿 我的朋友们

永远健康 永远幸福 永远快乐

Penguin~'s Historical Day

After almost 4 years of using my old T630, TODAY I bought a new phone!

My old phone used since 2004

My new phone starting TODAY!

My old T630's key pad is not sensitive anymore. I had a hard time typing the sms. Initially, I wanted to get a more stylish and girly phone - maybe a slide phone or a clamshell phone, but none of the Sony Ericsson's model caught my eyes. And yes, I am a Sony Ericsson fan - I don't know why.

Anyway, I traded in my old phone and bought K530i after visiting the same phone booth for 3 times since it's quite a descent phone and it has 3G features (even though I am not sure whether I'll use it), and most importantly, with a OK price. Funny, EG is more excited than me, especially about the 3G features.

Nothing much to brag about I know, but I thought I wanted to remember this "special" day since I am never a person who spends a lot on phone. (Yeah, call me cheap-skate! :P).

Let's hope that my old T630 will find its new and nice owner to take care of it. Anyway, it's still a not bad phone. *Miss it*. :)

PS: OUCH to my saving account!

古人云云

古人云：
己不所欲，勿施予人
意：不想别人怎么对你，就不要怎么对别人

古人云：
以治人之道，还治其人之身
意：别人怎么对你，你就怎么对他，亦： 以牙还牙

古人亦云：
人不为己，天诛地灭
意：人是自私的动物

以上乃我经过漫漫五年的工作经验，自我研发的商场生存之道。^_^

但是，
圣经说：
要爱人如己
意：要爱别人，如同爱自己一般

很难。。。 很难。。。

Raya Break

I am in a mood of blogging tonight! :)

During Raya break, I had almost 4 1/2 days off. My boss was kind enough to let us work from home on last Friday after lunch. That means, I could come home earlier and do some stuffs at home. During the weekends, I have been sleeping for >10 hours a day to compensate my sleep after a very hectic month in September.

On my trip back to Taiping this weekend, EG's mum gave me a new non-stick pot and a new non-stick frying pan. It looks really tempting and I wanted to start cooking. However, frying / cooking is prohibited in my place as EG always complains it will make the whole kitchen oily. The only thing that I can do is boiling soup or some "tong soi". So sad right?

Anyway, after begging and persuading for sometimes, FINALLY, EG allows me to cook for Tuesday's dinner. Yippppie... I was happy because I could try out the new pots.

So, we bought some chicken, potatoes, carrots from Giant, threw it all into the big boiling pot together with a big onion, garlics, salt, etc. And taaadaaaaa.....

I don't know the name of this soup.... I learnt it from EG's mum

EG wanted to just have the soup for dinner initially, but I insisted there should be at least a vegetable. And I rejected his proposal to boil the vegetable together in the soup (YUCKS!). I chased him out of the kitchen. I boiled some broccoli, put it aside. Then, chopped some garlics and fry it together with some minced pork and oyster sauce *with the new frying pan*. And taaaadddaaaaaaa......

Broccoli with minced pork

OK, I know both the dishes are really simple and they don't look too appertizing in the picture. But anyway, to my surprise, EG finished the whole pot of soup (approx 3 big bowls) so I guess it wasn't too bad. And he said the broccoli was nice. I was quite surprise that he actually could eat so much for dinner! But I was happy that at least my cooking passed his fussy taste buds!

Anyway, the new pots are really nice to use - maybe it's because they're new pots. Hehe... And today, I used it to boil barley again.

Now, you guys know where did EG's tummy come from? :P

Btw, just another sharing for fun. EG took a real cute pic - soft toys that EG and I bought for each other. You guess which one was from me for him and vice versa.

Good friends

Couple Lifestyle Trailer

Continuation from my previous blog entry on Couple Lifestyle Photography.

Finally, the long awaited Couple Lifestyle Video trailer is up in Weddingstory website. I have never taken any video before and I have been kinda anxious to know if we'll look awkward in front of the video. However, to my surprise, we turned out to be quite natural!

Check the video out. It's actually a documentary of how Whizarts took our photos. A cool concept.

We just got our free photos and our photo montage from Whizarts last weekend and now, we're waiting for Weddingstory's turn!

Facebook

I am addicted to facebook. Hopelessly.

Facebook - A friend asked me, is it a book where you can put your face at? Well, sort of. In fact, facebook is just another social networking website - just like Friendster or Multiply. However, Facebook has much more functions and features that will make the user addicted to it.

The first thing that made me addicted to facebook was the adopted FLUFF FRIEND. There were a lot of animals or even tofu that you can choose to adopt. And you can buy food with your munny from the fluff shop and feed your fluff friend so that they have better mood and to increase their speed. However, fluff friend might not like all the food. So you got to trial and error, and buy different food for fluff friend till you find the food that he/she/it likes. For my penguin~, she loves sweet rich things like the TACO, Choco-Mango Delight and Cookies. And she hates brocolli the most!

My Penguin~'s feeding history

There are several ways you can earn the munny. By petting your friend's fluff friend, you earn 5 munny for each. However, the most interesting one is to bet on race. And that's really addictive. Funny thing is, for every hour, fluff friend will feel tired after 8 races. It needs to rest before it can race again for the next hour. Interesting....

OK, the winner is EG's smelly cat!

Facebook allows the user to add in as much application as you like. There are thousands of application where you can incorporate into your facebook profile. There are games, walls, virtual gifts, calendar, horoscope, and much much more to be included in your profile. You can upload videos, draw a graffiti to your friends, or you can also be naughty to get your friends' attention by throwing a cow, kiss, hug, slap, moon, wink, wave, smile at, party with, kick, bite, give a flowers/beer to them and etc etc.

Last night, EG and I installed Scrabulous in our facebook. And we played 2 rounds with each other. Again, we had a great time and good laugh as both of us were being cheeky and funny to tease each other and to beat each other. Well, the game is fair. We won one game each!

My winning game. :P

Another application that made me stick to my laptop for the past 2 hours was PACMAN! Gosh, that's such an old game that we played while we're kids. I never expect I could actually be addicated so much to it. In Facebook, PACMAN shows the top 25 friend's scores and EG had the top score, and I was just 300 points behind him. For the past 2 hours, I lost count of how many games that I really had, but finally, I BEAT HIM! Ah, that feels good! I am sure he'll try to beat me again! If not in PACMAN, it'll be in other games!

I am the top scorer in PACMAN! YAY!!

Besides all these, I also have tetris in my facebook profile. It helps a lot in helping me to kill my times and keep myself awake especially during those boring meetings. *ssshhhh... *

You might think that I am really silly to be addicted to this. Well, I thought so too. But it's really interesting. If you don't have a facebook account yet, give it a try. But, don't be regret if you get addicted too! And remember to feed my penguin~ if you have a lot of munny and challenge me in PACMAN as well! >.<

Yummy Pan Mee @ Kin Kin

I always have something for pan mee. I missed the Seri Kembangan Auntie's pan mee a lot but I heard the standard has deteriorate after they moved to a new shop. I tried to find nice pan mee in Penang but I couldn't get any. Then, when I read in Yengs' blog on Kin Kin spicy pan mee, I couldn't help but salivated while looking at the pan mee pictures. Yum yum...

When we went to KL the last weekend, Yengs brought ZX, EG and me to the famous pan mee shop.

The famous Restoran Kin Kin Spicy Pan Mee

It took quite long for them to serve us the pan mee as the shop is forever full. But it's definitely worth it to wait. The pan mee is standard - serves with minced port, some vege and ikan bilis. One thing different is, all the pan mee came together with a 70% done egg... For an egg lover like me, it's definitely a BIG Yum yum...

Look at the yolk... Yummm....

So, the way to eat it is to mix the egg with the mee. The mee will then become sticky with eggie taste. It's really delicious. Quote from my penguin~ flufffriend - It's exquisitely delicious, a meal for kings and gods.

You must be wondering why it is so special about the pan mee. Egg is just something that works for me but the other most important attraction to the customers is none the less but the hot burning CHILLI!

I have to admit that I am not that good with spicy food and I put a decent 2 tea spoon of their famous chili into my pan mee and I couldn't eat anymore after eating 5 mouths. And I had to order extra drinks to cool my tongue down.

My pan mee - Yum Yumm...

But, look what our Bravo Yengs did! He put almost 7 spoonful of the chilis into his pan mee!

Look at the amount of chilis in his bowl. This is before he eats.

When he almost finished, he was already sweating like nobody business! Besides, did you realised the lips size has double? :P

While I was driving back from KL to Penang, I couldn't control but keep thinking about the pan mee. The portion of the mee is very small, so most people will take 2 bowls. In our case, 4 of us took 7 bowls of pan mee. Besides, it's not cheap too - RM4.80 per bowl. But then again, it's really something that you should try!

You think the story ends here? Neh... The most interesting part is... After 4 hours when I reached Penang, my stomach started to growl and gave me some hard time as (I think) I am really not that good with chilis. And the best part is, after I came out from the toilet, I told EG that I felt as if my arse is being fed with chilis! It's really ASS BURNING HOT!!!!!

KL folks, esp. my CDC gang, go try it. Check out Yeng's blog for the address. You won't regret! :)

Trip to San Francisco & Phoenix

I just came back from a business trip to Phoenix, US for 2 weeks. This is the first time I spent almost a day in a plane and flew over the other side of the world.

All these while, except while I am flying home, I hate the feeling of sitting in the plane. I feel very restless while waiting for the plane to reach its destination. Even my previous trip to Philipines which only took 4 hours frustrated me as well. This trip makes no difference, just worse!

On the way to US, I flew for 1 hour from PG to Singapore, later 4 hours from SG to HK, followed by 12 hours from HK to San Francisco, US. And the night mare is, throughout the 17 hours on the flight, I could only close my eyes and slept for 4 hours! And I had to sleep with an eye mask for the first time in my life! My trip back is not much better. The 12 hours from Los Angeles to Tokyo (transit), I couldn't even close my eyes for >10 minutes. So I watched 7 movies on the plane! Such a night mare!

But anyway, the only thing that I enjoyed the most in my trip is, of course, the vist around the places. My friend and I (2 girls!) transitted at San Francisco before we go to Phoenix. We planned out trip around, reading map and asking for direction all around. It's such a nice experience. It's a nice placae with fanstastic perfect weather, around 22 degrees. Cool wind, but it is really sunny. This is when I feel that my Oakley is really useful! :D

Clockwise from left: Me with cable car; in SF Cable car Museum; the famous Lombard Street; SF Ghirardelli square

Clockwise from left: Golden Gates; SF Fisherman's Wharf; Aquarium of the Bay; Famous SF Pier 39

After we left San Francisco, we left to Phoenix. It was US labor's day so it's public holiday. One of my PG friends drove us to Sedona for sight see-ing. The weather is terrible. Terribly hot and stuffy. I put layers and layers on sun block on my face and my body. One thing good is that it's dry in Phoenix, so we don't really feel sticky.

Clockwise from left: Chapel of the Holy Cross in Sedona; Bell rock (?); @ some national park; Me with a pine tree and Sedona view

Last but not least, I also paid a visit to one of the seven wonders in the world - Grand Canyon. Again, the weather was hot and the trip was tiring. We drove 6 hours to reach Grand Canyon, and another 6 hours to reach back our hotels. However, the view is just AMAZING. I was totally speechless looking at the wonderful creation of God.

A few views from different side of Grand Canyon

Overall, the trip was good. I did a lot a lot of shopping - probably 20 pieces of branded clothes, for EG and my whole family of course. I went with 3/4 full bag, but I came back with 2 full luggage plus one extra bag pack. *wink*. Anyway, I am looking forward to visit US again together with EG one day - that'll be the most fun trip. :)

Sea Lions @ Pier 39, San Francisco

Couple Lifestyle Photography

I have been looking at wedding photography posted in the photographer's blog such as Louis Pang, Whizarts, Weddingstory, Andy Lim, Perfect Moments, and etc. I have always imagined how I'd feel one day if I see my own pictures posted in one of these blogs.

EG and I recently joined a contest by Whizarts and Weddingstory. Since we have a lot of "cute" pictures, I have submitted a few of them from our Langkawi trip last year. And Viola, we won it!

Our Winning pic

We got stressed up when we knew we won it. We just took our pre-wedding bridal studio photo shoot few weeks ago and we had an enough stressful time as we're rushing to buy all the apparel for the photo shoot. To cut the story short, at the end, we have decided to go on casual and we're not going to do anything extra - no hair-set, no manicure / pedicure, no makeup - and go for natural shoots.

The whole experience was fun. Since we already have an intensive training from our pre-wedding shooting, we knew what to expect this time. EG was especially enjoying himself as he just loves to pose in front of the camera. Comparing to me - I am more of a camera freak, and feel awkward when we have to do some intimate "actions". So he did a good job in leading me for good pose for the pictures. Besides, both the photographer & videographer did a good job in breaking the ice. We had great fun in that 3 hours of photo shooting.

As efficient as Whizarts always be, all the pictures are up in his blog a week after the photoshoot. Check out all the pics here! We have been sharing it with our friends. What happened next? Compliments coming into our mailbox non-stop. My sexy piggy even called me up and wanted to ask me more about this. I didn't pick up since I am currently overseas. Roaming is expensive!! (Sorry piggy!!)

My favorite shoot

Some promotion for Whizarts and Weddingstory - They're the professional Photographer and Videographer located in Penang and they fly everywhere to take photos. If you're looking for photographer & videographer, you can consider both of them - not necessary for wedding!

Bear & Cat Talk

Cat always says the Bear has a lot of funny sound effect. After some time, the Cat got influenced as well.

Cat: Do u know there's another bus crash incident and caused the loss of another life?
Bear: Yah, I read about that. Where is it ar?
Cat: It's near Kelantan there.
Bear: Maybe we should think about our plan to take bus down to KL at the end of September for Papakochan's wedding.
Cat: No, don't take bus... Let's just drive down to KL.
Bear: Oh if you're willing to drive then it's better. More convenient ma. I scared tired only.
Cat: Can la... We drive down la.. [Doing the driving action] Onk onk onk onk onk...
Bear: Hehe... Ei Cat, why is driving sound onk onk onk??
Cat: [Grinning] I don't know leh....
Bear: Cat, the driving got onk onk sound, is it because the steering spoilt already?
Cat: [Started laughing] Maybe the absorber spoilt la... Hahahahaha....

Chinese Learning

EG's mandarin has improved a lot ever since we were together. Now, he could communicate better. The most recent "exam" that he took - fetching & talking to 4 uncles & aunties from Miri without me in the car - has also proven that his Chinese level has improved tremendously. Thanks to ME!!!

There are a lot of incidents when he realised that knowing how to read has a lot of advantages. He has been talking about learning how to write and the plan for the learning has been delaying and delaying, until we walked into Popular last Sunday.

I remember when I was in primary school, I used to write a lot of chinese words in a kind of exercise book that also taught you the strokes of the words (笔顺）. I thought that will be a good start for EG. I was browsing through all the exercise books that I could get from him at Primary 1 section. To my surprise, kids nowadays are very smart. Primary 1 books now are very much more difficult than my time! They have comprehension with questions to answer. 20 years back, I think every chapter only has les than 15 characters

But anyway, I found two books that is quite useful for him to start.

Cover of the books

Contents - Looks Familiar?

EG started writing one page last night, and seriously speaking, his hand writing was not too bad and he's really paying attention to the strokes & the vocabulary.

EG's hand writing - Not bad right? :P

So, I am his chinese teacher at home. He called me "deng lao shi" (邓老师), made it funnier and more interesting. I tried to be strict and told him I'll give him spelling test anytime. And if he didn't write it well, I'd ask him to erase all and re-write everything.

But being as cheeky as he always be, he started to ask stupid questions...

EG (with hamsap look): deng lao shi, ni you nan peng you ma? (邓老师，你有男朋友吗?)

*FAINT*...

Happy 10th Birthday, EPCC

EPCC - my church in PG - celebrated its 10th year anniversary last weekend.

I couldn't make it for the celebration. However, I had a glimpse on the program of the anniversary celebration. I could feel the excitement of the whole church for celebrating the day.

I watched the EPCC 10th year anniversary video done by our Media Ministry Team leader posted at his website. I was truly touched by all these people who never gave up on the tough job - growing EPCC from 5 members to 700 members as of now. That's definitely not an easy job.

One of the many many things that I have always been grateful after I moved to PG was that, finally, I am back to church again after almost 10 years.

Happy Birthday EPCC. YOU ROCK!

轻松。。。 真正的感觉

上个星期，放工回家后，发现手提电脑坏了。

结果
该回复的电邮没办法回
该调查的问题没办法调查
该主持的会议没办法主持
没办法 check email
没办法和身在别的国家的同事跟进issue
没办法知道今天我所support的system有没有问题

一切只能等到第二天。

既然什么都不能做
我... 决定不管了
有人说过这世上没有什么能让地球停止转动
所以... 我....
安心的看电视
安心的睡觉
悠然, 慢慢的起身
慢条斯理的准备上班
轻松的欣赏路边的人, 物, 景

好久没有这种轻松的感觉. 原来真正放开的感觉是那么的... 爽!

后来
手提电脑修好了
恢复忙碌生活
在公司不停的读电邮, 回电邮
放工回家继续读电邮, 回电邮
看电视时想着如何回复电邮
睡觉前看看support的application有没有问题
起身后第一件事又是去读电邮
匆匆忙忙洗刷装扮
快车到公司主持/出席会议

忙... 茫... 盲

难怪现在的人越来越多病... 越来越短命...

Role Switching Game

I was playing a game with EG last night. We called it Role Switching.

It's a simple game. I just try to behave and talk like him, and he'll do the other way round. For e.g., he asked me what I was doing at my laptop (which I normally will ask him), and I answered him some stupid answer like - something nothing to do with u la... (which he'll normally answer me).

It was funny and things got more interesting.

Then we tried to dig out some other conversation that we had before. For instance, I'll normally start my conversation with some cheeky openings, like "Can I tell you something?... but you don't scold me ok...?". And I'll try to react to EG the way he normally does - "Mai luan la (don't make big fuss :P)", "shut up la..." and etc.

We can really imitate each other. We both had a good laugh.

Then, after the game, we found out how each other feel when we answered or treated each other in this way. And in a way, it can help us to know each other more.

We often take people around us for granted, or treated them badly. When we put ourselves in their shoes, and then we might be able to see things in different perspective and we might behave differently as well.

I wonder, if I can play this game with my boss, how nice that will be! :D

How to Forgive

I have been very angry. Have been complaining. Have been feeling frustrated. For some little things that happened to me. For some little things that someone said that provoked me. For a lot of things.

I asked, how do we, as Christian, deal with these situations? How do we forgive those people who keeps provoking us, again and again?

Until I got the email from my CG member...

One day a while back, a man, his heart heavy with grief, was walking in the woods. As he thought about his life this day, he knew many things were not right. He thought about those who had lied about him back when he had a job.

His thoughts turned to those who had stolen his things and cheated him.

He remembered family that had passed on. His mind turned to the illness he had that no one could cure. His very soul was filled with anger, resentment and frustration.

Standing there this day, searching for answers he could not find, knowing all else had failed him, he knelt at the base of an old oak tree to seek the one he knew would always be there. And with tears in his eyes, he prayed:

"Lord- You have done wonderful things for me in this life. You have told me to do many things for you, and I happily obeyed. Today, you have told me to forgive. I am sad, Lord, because I cannot. I don't know how.

It is not fair Lord. I didn't deserve these wrongs that were done against me and I shouldn't have to forgive. As perfect as your way is Lord, this one thing I cannot do, for I don't know how to forgive. My anger is so deep Lord, I fear I may not hear you, but I pray that you teach me to do this one thing I cannot do - Teach me To Forgive."

As he knelt there in the quiet shade of that old oak tree, he felt something fall onto his shoulder. He opened his eyes. Out of the corner of one eye, he saw something red on his shirt.

He could not turn to see what it was because where the oak tree had been was a large square piece of wood in the ground. He raised his head and saw two feet held to the wood with a large spike through them.

He raised his head more, and tears came to his eyes as he saw Jesus hanging on a cross. He saw spikes in His hands, a gash in His side, a torn and battered body, deep thorns sunk into His head. Finally he saw the suffering and pain on His precious face. As their eyes met, the man's tears turned to sobbing, and Jesus began to speak.

"Have you ever told a lie?" He asked.

The man answered - "yes, Lord."

"Have you ever been given too much change and kept it?"

The man answered - " yes. Lord." And the man sobbed more and more.

"Have you ever taken something from work that wasn't yours?" Jesus asked?

And the man answered - "yes, Lord."

"Have you ever sworn, using my Father's name in vain? The man, crying now, answered - "yes, Lord."

As Jesus asked many more times, "Have you ever"? The man's crying became uncontrollable, for he could only answer - "yes, Lord."

Then Jesus turned His head from one side to the other, and the man felt something fall on his other shoulder. He looked and saw that it was the blood of Jesus. When he looked back up, his eyes met those of Jesus, and there was a look of love the man had never seen or known before.

Jesus said, "I didn't deserve this either, but I forgive you."

It may be hard to see how you're going to get through something, but when you look back in life, you realize how true this statement is.

Read the following first line slowly and let it sink in.

If God brings you to it - He will bring you through it.

When Jesus died on the cross, he was thinking of you!

My lovely Marcus

Everytime when I show my family pictures to my friend, I get the same response. "Is that your youngest brother? Oh my god he's so big already... How old is he now?". Then, I'll proudly say, he's in Form 5 now. Then, the same comment will come again.. "Gosh, the last time I heard you talking about him was when he was in Primary 3 and he was still a boy....." and it goes on and on.

True enough, time flies. When I left my hometown to Uni, Marcus, my youngest bro, was only 8 years old. He's 10 years younger than me. I used to take care of him - feeding him, bathed him, changed him, almost everything. And now, look, the boy that I used to carry in my arm is now 1 head taller than me.

Why is Marcus lovable? When his teeth started to grow, I realised his teeth look like mine. We both have rabbit teeth! Since then, he became my favorite brother.

I have a lot of fond memories on Marcus when he was young. He used to be silly and stupid - as in very easily tricked. Of course, I am 10 years older than him! However, now he has grown up, my tricks just don't work anymore. And he's 10x smarter than me now!

My memories with Marcus
---------------------------------
1. Marcus is very ticklish. He couldn't stand it when others start to tickle him, and I love to do that. I don't even need to have my fingers on his body. I just need to show my moving fingers, as if I am telling him.. "Hey.. I am coming.." and he'll laugh until he lost his breath, and until my mum started to scream as he has asthma.

2. I have to guide him doing his homework when he was in primary school. Being a boy, he always got distracted. To keep his interest in completing his work, I had no choice but came out with some tricks. For e.g., opening a can of coke and told him.. OK whenever u finish copying 10 words, you get to drink one sip of the coke. When you finish, the whole can is yours! It worked wonders then!

3. When he was 6, I saw him coming out from the kitchen holding a cup. "What's that?" I asked. He held the cup closer to his mouth, and said "Plain water" and he finished the drink. Later only I found out, it was sprite! One year later, I bought some fries for him from Mc Donald (I had to do that to get him to go out with me!). While I was driving to pick my sis, he was feeding me his fries. I asked him, "Do you remember that you never share food with me last time?". He said, "really?" And gave a mischievous smile!

4. When I went home during my semester break, he told me he scored only 70% for his BM paper. "That's lousy! I always scored >90% when I was at your age!" I told him. He said, "The questions are really tough you know. Let me test you!" And he started to take it out and read the questions to me. Of course I could answer them. Then he said.. "Hmm... you're really quite smart....". He was 10. I was 20.

5. The same year, I brought him for his first movie in cinema. He was excited! He has never been to cinema before. He asked me, so do we get to buy pop corn and coke when we visit the cinema? I was shocked, and asked, how did you know? You never been there before. He answered me, it's shown in the TV. I told him, Well, you know this is Miri. There's no pop corn and coke in Miri's cinema. He just kept silence and accepted the truth. Anyway, in the end, he got his pop corn and coke during the movie.

The list can go on and on. I told someone before, I wish I could go back to the time when Marcus was growing up. I missed seeing him growing up from a boy, to a man (maybe not yet a man?).

Now that he's half way grown up (:P), he'll soon be leaving the family and going to explore the other phases of his life. The thought of him be far away somewhere hurts me everytime. Anyway, as a sister, I'll always love him like when he was as cute as 5, because he's just so lovable!

Bear & Cat Talk

The Bear was accompanying The Cat to the bank to withdraw some money from the ATM machine.

Cat: Did you realize that everytime when we take money from ATM machine, your ATM card will come out first then only followed by the money?
Bear: Ya hor...
Cat: Don't understand why they want to do this. Why can't the money come out first, then only the ATM card?
Bear: Maybe they want to make sure you remember to take the ATM card.
Cat: Hmm?
Bear: Ya, because you'll never forget to take your money. So your card should come out first before your money so that you won't forget to take your card.
Cat: Ya hor! Bear why are you so smart today?! I never know you can be so smart!!
Bear: Hey com'on. I was a Business Analyst before. I drew process flows! Duh~!!

The Cat was hungry. The Bear was preparing to cook a simple fried omelets with ham as an extra dish for dinner.

Cat: <Beating the eggs & adding soy sauce into the beaten eggs>
Bear: Eeee? How do you know you should put soy sauce into eggs?
Cat: Of course I know la... It makes the eggs taste saltier and nicer.
Bear: I thought you won't know since you don't cook...
Cat: Com'on. I know more things that you don't know.
Bear: Yeah right. You don't know about the ATM machine.
Cat: Yah except that one since I was never a BA! Sometimes you can be quite smart also.
Bear: OK, enough. Shut up!

Friends

It has been a very hectic month.

Anyway, it has been a great month as well after all the rushings.

I got to meet up a lot of my old friends, and also new friends from other countries during my business trip. All of them light up my life in a special way & added extra sweet memories into my life.

During my friend's wedding, I never expect to bump into the other 3 of my ex-colleagues from my first job in Vietnam. What a great meet up even though we just talked to each other for less than 20 minutes!

My pretty girl friends & the groom

After the dinner, I met up with my two zi muis (aka sister) for supper. The last time when I met them (if I am not mistaken) was >1 year ago! The meet up was great and we enjoyed all our gossiping & updating.

My sexy zi muis

I flew to Philippines for my business trip on the very next day. I met up with a few of fun friends from Costa Rica. We had great talkings, laughings & dancings together after the daily tiring meeting. Even till now, some of the jokes still crack me into laughter whenever I think about it!

A real funny guy

A very good looking manager & talented singer

After I came back from my business trip, my uni friends came to PG and visited us (those who work in PG) and we had a good time hanging out till 2am for 2 nights continuously! I felt like I am 20 years old again!

Hanging out @ the beach....

Besides, I also met up with others that I didn't take pictures with.

All the gatherings / meeting up make me feel great. Some people come into our lives and quickly go. Some stay for awhile and leave footprints on our hearts.

Life is just great with friends around us. Don't you agree? :)