My finger model

Forgot to include this yesterday. We were walking around Gohtong Jaya and saw this little shop that made hand model by using wax. The craftsman invited us to try one finger for free. My finger was dipped in warm wax and then icy water to solidify the wax. The process was repeated a few times until the wax was thick enough to be removed.

If I paid some $$ (don't remember how much), the craftsman would make a model of my entire hand in any pose. Then he'd fill in the hollow with wax to make the model solid. Didn't do it, because it's still Sabbath and we were going back to the cafeteria for dinner. Was not able to bring this finger model back. It's hollow and fragile, so it broke easily. Will try it again next time.

Health Leaders Retreat, Gohtong Jaya

Just came back from Gohtong Jaya. Pr.WS & I were attending Health Leaders Retreat (it was also Medical Missionary Graduation & Sending Out of Medical Missionaries). I represented Ipoh English Church. Gohtong Jaya is right below Genting Highlands (where the only legal land-based casino in Malaysia is located).

Here are some of the pictures I took randomly. The more "serious" ones will be uploaded by Pr.WS soon.

We stayed at one of the apartments. It's misty outside.

Tabby's bag. I think she bought this at Thailand, where she also stayed for years.

Scribbled by our friend, Pr. Renie. Fantastic drawing! Seems like there're printed on the paper.

The big-eyed girl is Janelle. When I first saw her in Mission College years back, she was just a toddler who just started to walk. Now she's a witty little lady, running and hopping around. She talks like an adult!

Took a stroll at strawberry farm. Unlike those that we get in Ipoh, these strawberries are big!

Bought a box of strawberries this afternoon, right before we left Gohtong Jaya. It's only RM15 per box. Quite cheap. Down here in Ipoh it can cost up to RM30.

Walked over to the organic farm next door. When I saw these, I was thinking of salad...

Some are planted in pots

Kuih Bahulu from Mdm. Goh. Thanks!

Overall this was a wonderful retreat. I was happy to see Catherine & Tabby, the 2 medical missionaries who worked in Ipoh last year, graduated from the Medical Missionary Volunteer Program. Paisly, who's from Ipoh, joined the team this year and she was sent out to Kuala Lumpur English Church. It's great to see young people dedicated themselves to the work of God.

Plus, it just felt so good to be able to enjoy the cool weather again. It's like December in Thailand, cool and nice. :-)

Book Problem - Grant Snider

Incidental Comics is one of the art blogs I'm following. The author, Grant Snider, posted this last year. Most of what he says in this comic also describe me, except that I DO read the books I bought (it's just that my speed of buying always outpaces that of reading), and there's no long-suffering wife or rival book fiend ready to murder me (but I do have a very close book fRiend, and he won't kill me for reading his books or buying more books than he does).

Don't remember when I started reading. It has been my favorite activity since I had memory. I love words. Whenever I found them, I wanna read them - on books/magazines/websites, food menus, signboards, advertisements or anywhere else. I love the smell of books, especially that of paperback. I don't smoke, but I sniff - when I got a book the first thing I'd do is to open it, bring it close to my nose and inhale deeply. A book smells nicer when it gets older.

I LOVE READING!!!

Organizing the Bookcase

For book lovers... it's time to organize your bookshelves! :-)

"Where did I come from?"

Where Did I Come From?

written by Peter Mayle

Illustrated by Arthur Robins

Designed by Paul Walter

Lyle Stuart, 1973

Got this from [BB-blog]. It's an illustration for a 70's children's book that describes the reproductive process from intercourse to birth. Indeed, we are all from the fastest runners, who are also the most romantic!

Life is a miracle. Treasure it and live it to the fullest. :-)

I Will Not Be Moved - Natalie Grant

I like this song! No matter what happens, as long as God is with us, nothing will move us, because our foundation is in Christ the solid Rock!



Aimee Beard and Mayra Parrales performing Natalie Grant's "I Will Not be Moved."

I Will Not Be Moved
I have been the wayward child
I have acted out
I have questioned Sovereignty
And had my share of doubt
And though sometimes my prayers feel like
They're bouncing off the sky
The hand I hold won't let me go
And here's the reason why...

I will stumble
I will fall down
But I will not be moved
I will make mistakes
I will face heartache
But I will not be moved
On Christ the Solid Rock I stand
All other ground is sinking sand
I will not be moved

Bitterness has plagued my heart
Many times before
My life has been like broken glass
And I have kept the score
Of all my shattered dreams and though it seemed
That I was far too gone
My brokenness helped me to see
It's grace I'm standing on

I will stumble
I will fall down
But I will not be moved
I will make mistakes
I will face heartache
But I will not be moved
On Christ the Solid Rock I stand
All other ground is sinking sand
I will not be moved

And the chaos in my life
Has been a badge I've worn
Though I have been torn
I will not be moved
I will not be moved
I will not be moved

I will make mistakes
I will face heartache
But I will not be moved
On Christ the Solid Rock I stand
All other ground is sinking sand
I will not be moved
I will not be moved

Books~~

We bought 4 books on Saturday night at MPH (that's one of our favorite spots to hang out).

In Malaysia. Saturday is No-Plastic Day. If you request for a plastic bag, it'll cost RM0.20. So the cashier just wrapped the books like this.

She also put an MPH sticker on the price sticker at the back of the book (this is to label it as "sold", so that no one will mistook you for a book thief!).

These are the books we bought...
Pr.WS':
1. God's Way For Couples: Living A Life Of Devotion
2. Your Best Life Now, by Joel Osteen

Min Min's:
1. Seven Deadly Colours: The Genius of Nature's Palette and How It Eluded Darwin, by Andrew Parker
2. Eating Animals, by Jonathan Safran Foer


Pr.WS has already started reading Your Best Life Now. I still have quite a number of books to read. Will take a while before I reach these 2. Getting good books makes me happy! :-)

Pizza again!

Were lazy to go out for dinner on Friday afternoon, so we ordered Domino's pizza again.

We only remembered to take picture after eating a few pieces. We ordered Incredible Meal 1. There are 2 regular pizzas + twisted bread + onion rings. Actually this is for 4 persons, but we managed to finished almost everything. I picked this meal because it's just a few ringgit more than the set for 2 persons.

Pizza #1: BBQ Chicken

Pizza #2: Aloha Chicken

Onion rings (I love Domino onion rings~~)

Twisted bread (we kept these for next morning)

We didn't order drinks. This was from our own fridge.

One thing I like about Domino's is its swift delivery. The pizzas will be delivered within 30 minutes. If it took longer than that, you'll be given a coupon for a regular pizza. I ordered the meal at 5:07pm. At about five-thirty I was asking Pr.WS, "Do you think they'll be able to find our house? If they are late for even 5 minutes we'll get a coupon for a regular pizza!"

And not long after that we heard a motorbike approaching, and the familir blue uniform appeared at the gate. The person who delivered our pizzas was a lady. It took less than 30 minutes for them to prepared the pizzas and delivered them to us. So no coupon for free pizza anymore. I'll keep that for next time, haha! :-)

Almost Sabbath...

CNY ended yesterday.
Time flies, and another week is almost at its end.
It's time to take a rest!
Happy Sabbath! 

Low consumption, senior enjoy

Walao eh!!!!

Low consumption? (Don't you want your customers to consume more food so that you can earn more?)
Senior enjoy? (So the middle-aged, adults, young adults, teenagers and children cannot enjoy?)

Saw this in an advertisement booklet last week. Was having lunch with my colleagues. The Chinese phrase is supposed to be translated as "low expenses, high class enjoyment". This is an advertisement of a buffet restaurant in Ipoh. I think the translator just open the dictionary and picked one of the definitions randomly, without considering the overall context (and without using the correct part of speech - enjoy is a VERB laH). My advise is this - if you are not sure which word to use, consult someone who's good in English.

Anyway, if there's no such mistranslation, we wouldn't be able to have a good laugh! Hahaha!!!

My Thai lappy

This is my almost 6-year-old lappy (which I'm using now to type this post). Bought this in Thailand, when I was still a junior (for those who're not familiar with American description, it means a student at the 3rd year of college). It has a Thai keyboard (which I never learned to type):

Its Thai power plug doesn't fit into Malaysian socket, so I had to get an adapter:

This Thai lappy runs on 512MB RAM. Quite slow. It took a while to load Microsoft Word. Sometimes it just lagged for no obvious reason. And the screen turned purple once in a while (a sign of old age). Pr.WS keeps offering to buy me a new lappy, but I like this Thai Acer very much and don't feel like changing it yet.

I'd never thought of buying it at the beginning. My plan was to get a desktop after my previous lappy broke down irreversibly. Pr.WS was telling me to get a lappy, however, as a student back then, I only had enough $$ for a desktop. But Pr.WS was insisting and he said I'd definitely get a lappy. He wouldn't help to me find a desktop. I was thinking, why is this guy so unreasonable? But then I prayed about it. The semester was going to start very soon and I'd need a computer for assignments and reports.

A few days before the new semester started, I got my financial statement from the college (time to pay bills!), I was surprised - somebody had banked in almost ten thousand Baht (about RM1000) into my account. I looked closely at the description and realized that it's an academic award set up by a Singaporean (so all the effort to maintain my GPA finally paid off). Never expected this. Besides the 25% discount for Adventist, I'd never gotten any academic award before. Now I had extra $$ to get myself a lappy!

Pr.WS & I went to  Pantip Plaza, Bangkok (it's an IT mall, similar to Low Yat in KL) on the next Sunday. We walked around Pantip for almost an hour before we found a nice shop. Then it took us another hour to look at different models and compared prices (thanks to Pr.WS for his patience, it was him who did all the negotiation). Finally we settled on this 15.1" Acer. It's 35,000 Baht (about RM3,500, quite reasonable at that time). So here it is, still in use after 6 years!

This was one instance when God answered my prayer in an unexpected way. That's why I don't want to get a new lappy yet. This Acer is a constant reminder that God cares about me, and He won't overlook even a small little request. After praying, we just need to leave everything to Him and He'll figure out the solutions. And another important thing is, trust your partner's instinct, he might have better insight than you!

God is love! :-)

Yummy cakes

Today is public holiday (in Malaysia there are many public holidays). Went to this place after lunch just now:

And bought 2 cakes:

Hazel Cheese

White Chocolate Macadamia

Wanted to go to Secret Recipe yesterday, but were invited to a church member's house for dinner(according to his wife, it's a Valentine's dinner especially for couples. 4 pairs were there. Thanks for the food!). I've always liked Secret Recipe cakes. They are so delicious! Pr.WS & I have tried all the types of cake available. Today is a revision of cakes. Yummy!!!

Pick Your Cupid

By Ji Lee

Found this at the New York Times. Tick one that suits your most & be prepared for next year Valentine's Day! :-)

Love - George Herbert (1593-1633)

Love bade me welcome; yet my soul drew back,
     Guilty of dust and sin.
But quick-eyed Love, observing me grow slack
     From my first entrance in,
Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning
     If I lacked anything.

"A guest," I answered, "worthy to be here";
     Love said, "You shall be he."
"I, the unkind, ungrateful? Ah, my dear,
     I cannot look on Thee."
 Love took my hand, and smiling did reply,
     "Who made the eyes but I?"

"Truth, Lord, but I have marred them; let my shame
     Go where it doth deserve."
"And know you know," says Love, "who bore the blame?"
     "My dear, then I will serve."
"You must sit down," says Love, "and taste My meat."
     So I did sit and eat.

[This is not a Valentine poem. However, I posted it here because without Jesus Christ, we won't be able to love one another. As we celebrate Valentine's Day, let's us remember the greatest love that has been shown to us. The church is His beloved bride, and we are waiting for Jesus Christ to come back and take us back to our heavenly home.]

Happy Valentine's Day! 

3 VIM

These are the 2 of the 3 very-important-men (VIM) in my life. I'd give my life for them. The third one is spiritually present among us. He is the Father of all, and He has already given His life for everyone. Thank you Jesus for Your blood, and for blessing me with a father & a husband! :-)

Put your BET at KL toll!

Pr.WS, dad & I were on our way to Klang on the 5th day of CNY to have lunch with my in-laws. Took this picture while waiting at the KL toll. Can anyone tell me what is BET?

[Just found out from Pr.WS that BET stands for "Bus Expressway Transit." It's to reduce traffic jam at tolls, because all buses will go into a specific lane. - Feb 13, 2011]

Today is the deadline!

Today is the 8th day of Chinese New Year, and also the deadline for my Master's final project report.

After months of sweats (and no blood), this is it! When the email was finally sent to my project advisor, I was so relieved. There had been much difficulties in writing the proposal and report, but thank God that I got over them! And thanks to Pr.WS for his support and understanding throughout these few months. I don't think I'd be able to survive the stress without him. Studying part time while working is not easy. It has helped me to learn to manage my time between work, church, home and study.

8 is a good number for Chinese - it sounds like "prosperity" in Cantonese. I hope my paper will get through the final editing and be accepted, so that I could graduate next month!

YEAH!!!

Still relaxing...

Today is my last day of CNY leave. After spending 3 days at Klang and relaxing at home in Ipoh for 5 days, tomorrow I need to get back to work. (Actually I'm starting to miss my work desk & colleagues already...)

And it's the time for my digestive system to take a rest, after eating lots of meat and snacks. I'm not used to eating so much meat and my stomach is bloated for a few days. Went vegetarian since yesterday, will probably continue this at least till the end of this week.

I'm slowly going back to my routines... There are clothes to be washed and cleaning to be done.

It's good to take a break after working hard for a year. :-)

CNY gifts

Some gifts [food] we received this year...

From mom-in-law (I love Ferror Rocher!)

From father-in-law

From friends (thanks for the Vochelle! I love chocolate!)

Kuih kapit from sis-in-law (we've eaten half of them...)

Some from in-laws, some from friends, some are ours

 Thanks everybody for your love! 

CNY reunion dinner

Today my dad went back to Kuantan, my hometown at the east cost. Finally I'm "free" to update my blog. My dad came over last Friday to visit us at Ipoh (this was unconventional, as a daughter I was supposed to go back to visit him, but dad doesn't mind traditions). I took 4 days annual leave - 1 for CNY eve, and 3 more days this week. Still in CNY mood (actually I wanted to take 2 more days to make it a whole week but I need to keep them for church activities). Going back to work on Thursday.

On CNY eve, Pr.WS & I went back to Klang, his hometown. It's a Chinese tradition that children must go back to their hometown during CNY eve to have reunion dinner. A married daughter follows her husband. She only goes back to her own hometown on the 2nd day of CNY (or later).

This was my 4th reunion dinner after coming back to Malaysia:

1.  Fried chicken
2.  Beef patty,
3.  Steam grouper (石斑 shi ban, a very expensive fish, cost about RM30 per kg)
4.  Fried kai lan
5.  Fried mixed vegetable
6.  Peanut and lotus soup

These were cooked by my in-laws. Yummy!

When I was in Thailand, there were no public holidays for CNY. Usually I had tests during CNY week. Even though we had Chinese Malaysian gathering, the feeling was different - there were no CNY songs, no CNY snacks, no fire crackers, no lion dance. And the worst was that I was not at home! During the past 3 years in Malaysia, I also didn't get to relax during CNY, because I was still doing my Master's coursework. My institute is in the Philippines, and there were also no public holidays for CNY. I had to do readings, assignments and reports. This year I had already completed all the coursework. I only needed to check and correct my final project paper. I'm so glad! After 8 years, finally I got to enjoy my CNY fully.

I love CNY!

Happy Chinese New Year!

The year of the rabbit is coming! Bye bye tiger~

Tomorrow is Chinese New Year Eve. Throughout the week Pr.WS & I will be quite busy. Might not be able to come up here to update for a while. So just wanna wish everybody...

and