Here I am getting fat…..really fat….I noticed Adino has been writing about weight loss and I’m trying to follow and be as successful as he did in losing weight but I can’t seem to control my hunger panks. Sighs…..
Then I received a gift. Something I have been wishing for! Can you believe it? I got something that will probably cause me to be even more lazy to do the little exercise I have left. [...]
I feel like I want my nose so BIG!
Call me vain, call me whatever. I need this! I have delayed this surgery for a year now due to the lack of time to recuperate after the operation. BUT…..its taking a tow on me.
Ok ok on a more serious note what I need is no plastic surgery nose job. I’ve been having throat infections everyday. I’ve started to snore. I have sleep apnea. All this because I have this bad nose allergy that causes me to not be able to breathe from my nose.
I’ve drugged myself, got myself a dehumidifier, made changes to my lifestlye but I can’t get it off. So it is time to do it. It’s time to get my nose job done. BUT…..I really don’t have the time.
Getting it done will make me I think 300 percent more effective. But it will put me off the grid for 2 weeks at least I forsee. Can we afford that? Should I take the risk?
I haven’t been able to sing well. My throat hurts so bad. I really can’t stand how I have so little control over my voice because it feels plain BAD. I’m tired cause I don’t get enough oxygen when I sleep. I feel so weary…….then what is stopping me from getting it all done immediately? I don’t have the time….
Ridiculous as it seems, this is the scenario, this is the reality. Pray with me that I will solve this soon. I’m tired. I’m so so tired.
Don’t we all struggle a lot with these two issues? Do you? I certainly do….I mean….the list of wants never end!!! I’m here now at a place in my life where I need to decide loads and loads of things and decide whether it is a need or want.
We want to spend our life together…..we need a house…..but we want a nice house…..how do we balance that? Between a house that is functional and a house that is desirable
Anyways, if we buy a house in singapore, it will cost at least 200k SGD and that is a maximum of 700 square feet built up area. In comparrison, here is what I get if I stay in Johor for less.
View of the outside in the evening
It is 2340 square feet of built up area. Double Storey terrace house with clubhouse facilities. It is all fully furnished and air-conditioned and fully ready to move in condition.
No initital payment needed and no fees involved.
Living room with different furnishings
This is a picture of the living room not taken by a professional photographer
Dining Area
Master Bedroom
Look at the toilet....bathtub.....ooooooo...
Singapore the Cash above valuation is frightening now at 30k++SGD and that doesn’t include renovation and furnishing costs!!
So the Johor place is everything I want and need. The Singapore place is everything I need but don’t want. How do you decide?
These are not the only options we’ve been looking into and here I am LOST! How to decide? I can’t believe I have to make decisions such as these. It is time to grow up I guess. I have done all the maths. Done all the comparisons but how to decide?
Any advice?
Final Day of retreat. We were glad to be able to go to church at Penang Christian Centre. Incidentally, it was communion sunday and the service was intergenerational. The invited speaker was an evangelist who was in town. The message was a good reminder on our mission to evangelise and reach out.
After service, in a desperate attempt to find some New Year goodies, the Penang’s food trail brochure led us to a very inconspicuous shop that had over 60 years of history in making Nonya Kuehs. As Singaporeans, the first thing we thought of and asked when we entered the house was, ‘Where’s the display counter?’. Nope, there weren’t any display counters, just a wooden rack with some of the freshly made kuehs. Thus began the food tasting session.
Kueh Tasting
According to the owner who was the 3rd generation in his family running this business (the 4th generation doesn’t intend to take over the business), they mainly handled orders from restaurants and hardly had customers gatecrashing like we did =) Haha! Anyways, we left as satisfied customers, returned with bagful of kuehs and amazing homemade kaya!
Awesome Kaya
Lunch was yet another round of Penang Char Kway Teow! This time at the recommended street (forgot the name) on the Penang Food Trail brochure where the person cooking wears goggles to cook! Well, with good stuff always comes competition. If you are interested to check the place out, there are 2 of such cooks along the street. One male and one female. The female cook is the one recommended on the brochure but our local intelligence told us to go for the male cook instead. We were not disappointed.
After lunch, some of us went for Nandos while the rest went shopping. In the late evening, the troop prepared to go back to Singapore while Leon and I stayed behind to celebrate Valentines Day early.
We met at 9.30am in the morning and had the best breakfast in Penang! Old Town @ New World. Oooh, the Laksa Mee and Ipoh Hor Fun was fantabulous! Penang kway teow simply had this nice texture to it. Kaya and butter bread toast (a little different from Ya Kun’s) and garlic bread was good too! When we finished the food at our table, the food for the other table only just arrived so we ordered Nasi Lemak with Rendang Ayam. The Rendang Ayam was great! Basically, we just ordered the recommended food on the menu with the exception of the garlic bread I think. Their White Coffee lived up to it’s reputation. However, do remember to ask for less sugar if you are worried about becoming a diabetic.
Breakfast @ Old Town
Old Town Signature Dishes - Ipoh Hor Fun & Curry Mee
Jon Jon: I'm Not Interested In Adult Food
This Way Up To Penang Hill
We took it easy in the morning after a packed day yesterday. We lingered at New World for a while longer, some resting and some shopping. After that, our host drove us around to take a look at the town area. We decided to charge up Penang Hill after driving around for a while. The drive to Penang Hill took about an hour I think. It was quite a ride. Traffic was generally slow (perhaps compared to Singapore). Leon slept most of the way there.
The train took half an hour to get to the top of the hill. Weather conditions wasn’t that good so pictures of the view up there wasn’t great. It started drizzling when we were up there so we decided to wait awhile at the cottage restaurant to have tea. Fresh warm scones with strawberry jam and butter was good. The same as the one at Cameron Highlands.
Hilltop View
Us at Penang Hill
Group Photo
Dinner and rest in the evening concluded Day 2.
We missed our flight! A mere 15 minutes later than check-in time! What a way to start our trip. This was the second time in my life experiencing hiccups with travel arrangements. Stress. It was cheaper to buy new one-way tickets than to pay the admin fee to change our tickets (weird right?) so we got new tickets and caught up with the rest of the cell group in Penang, determined not to let this ruin our trip.
The rest had Char Kway Teow at Lorong Burma first while waiting for us to arrive. Once we checked in to Cititel at Jalan Penang, we left for the famous Chendol! We were chauffuered around in this nice big Hyundai. It takes all 11 adults, 3 kids and a baby!
Our Faithful Transport
Load Up People!...Erm...Prams First
Supermom and Kids
Boy, did the Chendol taste good and refreshing! – fresh ingredients with palm sugar that’s not too sweet. Yum! Right after that, some of the gang even tried Assam Laksa! For some Singaporeans, the highlight was the Ambra (not Umbrella) juice because we have not tasted it before nor seen the Ambra fruit back home.
Find Yourself A Seat Before The Chendol Comes
Chendol Smiles
Assam Laksa Right After Chendol...Main Course After Dessert
Tourists need to buy local produce. What is Penang famous for? Tau Sar Pia =) We went to Ghee Hiang. Leon and I felt that Him Hiang’s Tau Sar Pia was more fragrant and tasty.
Ghee Hiang Tau Sar Pia
Who's Cuter?
A&W Fix
What else do Singaporeans do besides eating? Right! Shopping! We we driven to Plaza Gurny to go crazy but most of us did not buy much. Hehe. Some of us focussed people went straight for our A&W fix. Haha. How can we ever touch Malaysian grounds without having our Rootbeer Float and Waffle?! Yum!
After about an hour of shopping time, we went out to walk along the waterfront. Unfortunately for us, the skyline wasn’t that clear so the picture didn’t come out that clear too. One interesting thing though was that our camerman (probably a tourist or student from China) counted from 3 to 1 instead of 1 to 3 before snapping 
That kind of tickled me. Hehe.
Actually, most of us were too tired to walk along the waterfront so we just sat down and rested. We were waiting for the night hawker there to open so we can go for dinner - kway teow mee, rojak, char kway teow wanton mee, fried chicken skin, popiah and claypot rice were some of the food we had. Interestingly, the hawker is a little like Chomp Chomp in terms of ambience. There wasn’t a lot of variety of food there and the variety was repeated about 3 times in that place. This summed up Day 1.
Buzzzz buzzzz…..I hear my wings sounding and I’m thinking…..oh boy when is this flying around going to end. Unfortunately, it is not going to anytime soon. We have been wanting to blog so much but my oh my things are happening at light speed and we couldn’t catch up.
So this is a summary of what’s been happening.
1. Church is embarking on this huge million dollar project that is making out worlds go crazy. When the time comes, we’re going to have to push things into warp speed…..
2. My studies, I’m on my last lap. Hoping to finish all the requirements and I will be done by June 2010. Almost 10 years now of part time study in bible school. Sweat. I’m hoping I don’t fail anything….keeping my fingers crossed.
3. This is certainly the most important and most pressing thing that is happening in my life. We are getting married this year. ( And no…..I have not dropped the question) I know what you’re thinking but it’s going to happen. I just gotta wait for the right time. But we’ve been planning like crazy jumping between KL and Singapore to just make sure we got some things ironed out.
4. I’m trying to apply for my PR and well, its quite a hassle. On top of it, there are so many things we have yet to sort out that I’m going nuts. I need my PR status to purchase a property here in Singapore and you know what? The place we buy will cost us 300-400k SGD. That’s like almost a million ringgit…..ridiculous. But rental is crazy too and we’re throwing money to nowhere like that. So…..we don’t see how we can get a place unless God works some miracle. But we’re praying hard. Any sort of housing advice is much appreciated at this moment.
5. The Live Worship Album Project has begun to kick in to full steam. I have to write a song this week and I have no inspiration at the moment. Honestly, this is the most stressful thing at the moment. I covet your prayers in this area.
There are so many things happening and we’re making sure we enjoy the entire process. Anyway I think we’ll blog about the process of us getting out wedding done so that maybe, just maybe someone will benefit from it. I’ll make quick short posts from now on because I can’t find the time to sit behind the computer to blog…….through this process however, please lend your feedback and help. We don’t know how to get things done here for our marriage and if you have some experience. Please do help us k?
Cheers!
Leon
On Monday, we finally got the chance to give Shades a bath. He is rather shy. Bathing in public is not what he likes but he has no choice. So he refuses to bathe often. However, this time he had no choice. We brought him to the washing area.
Well if some of you didn’t know (cause I haven’t introduced shades formally). This is Shades. He has been my best friend lately. Spending more time with me on the road than anyone else.
When I first walked past the shop, I knew I had to have Shades in my life. Regina was there that first time. She too thought he was the coolest looking dude.
We adopted him as our own. And now after that bath, he is sparkling as new. Just like when we first got him. Nice Nice
Shades is an Italian motorcycle. An Aprilia RS125 racing replica. This bike has won so many world championships.
Still the most beautiful babe stood beside it and made Shades look cooler. Hehe. Doesn’t she look cool.
I remember when I was reaching 16…..my heart beat faster and harder than it beat for the 16 years before that. It was time when a modern man has the passing rights to be a real man. For man and machine are meant to be together. It was time for me to be a true modern man and tame the first beast. I remember how my dad gave me instructions to be careful ‘or you’ll risk dying’. Oh how exciting!
My first bike looked something like this only blue in color
At last the day came that I was given the license to roam the world on this beautiful baby. I would park it right outside my school fence. Hop over when nobody is looking and run away! the 90km/h at full throttle felt like I could fly. Me and my honda C70. It was like we were meant to be.
Still it was our family bike and soon my brother and father knew this bike couldn’t support their need for a speed more than 40km/h when they were both on it hahahaahaha. So we got this sweet looking Malaysia made bike. The Modenas Jaguh. Oh did we feel proud to roam around in that chopper looking bike. Believe it or not, that bike is still at home….recently though she isn’t doing well.
She looked something like this
However because my parents felt it was to wild for me to roam the world out there on just a small yellow horse…they passed me my first car. A hand me down. But oooo she can roar. We called her ‘Leng Lui’ cause that sounded like the Nissan Langley model she was. Thats when I tasted my first taste of speed. 180km/h oooooooo……sweet. Anything slower than that felt like I would die….hahaha
Thats leng lui after she got dropsy.
Her bum bum
However I soon realised that I wanted a family and my dear leng lui was falling ill. So I got myself a decent looking car. I had the intention to mod it up till it looked like this….however…I never needed too cause I seldom had the chance to speed on it.
How my car looked like. Something like this la
This is how I wanted it to look
I however found myself too tame on four wheels. I’d fall asleep constantly even though I was pumping that techno down those speakers. Soon I realised I was born to be wild. Why was I kidding myself riding this car…
I sold that car and got this
Oooo since that….I’ll never go back….my Cagiva Mito has always been the bike that meant the most to me. Callie I called her brought me everywhere and healed my wounded soul. It hurt me so bad to say goodbye when I came to Singapore. Not too long later however. I had to say goodbye for real for I had to allow someone new in my life.
To all my friends and machines. You all will always be remembered for your everlasting love for me. Thank you for always serving and running with me whether rain or shine. Storm or wind. You were always there. I miss you all so much. Remember me. One day we may be able to ride the wind again together.
You know I’m absolutely apologetic that I haven’t had the time to setup everything perfectly on the blog. At last….the About Us, FAQ and Feedback Sections are functioning flawlessly. The blog design is up and nicely done thanks to the help of Adino…..visit his blog….its very very nice hehehe. You can click on those links or you could click those beautiful tabs at the side…..my advice…..click those at the side since they are so beautiful hahahaha.
We will be updating this blog regularly as we really want to pen down as much memories of our life. I hope to be able to work out the video and music streaming up soon. That would indeed make things rather fun won’t it? At the meantime. Please enjoy and I do hope you all will really come to know us better and vice versa. God Bless
While taking the MRT to Clementi for a meeting on Saturday and people watching on the way, a thought came to mind. The people on the MRT seemed to be rushing to work even on a Saturday. They seemed like they were striving to make a good living and have a good life. In comparison, I felt like my life was rather (or too) comfortable compared to theirs. Can I weather the seasons of life like they can?
In the afternoon, I visited Grandma. Every time I tell people that I’m going to Orchard Rd to visit Grandma, it will draw a ‘WAAAA….’ from them as if Grandma resided in some palace. I never thought about how Grandma ended up living there until I was asked the question on Saturday so I decided to ask her about it. I think I always assumed that she inherited the house after Grandpa passed away. To my surprise, the house was actually bought by Grandma herself, a widow raising 6 kids then! I asked her about her rationale for making the purchase and she said she simply felt that having a house would bring stability to the family. Such wisdom and foresight! ‘Where did you get that kind of money?’ I asked. She said she was doing quite well in her own lingerie business selling her products to as far as East Malaysia! Talk about having a business mind! What’s more, she was self taught in this line. She basically took apart the product to figure out how to do it herself then adapted the cut and design and reproduced her own line of lingerie! I thought it was so brilliant! She said to me,’Clever right?’ I replied,’OF COURSE!’ I told her she could possibly be a computer wizard if she were born in this time cos computer wizards are also the type who put together computers by taking them apart. Ha!
I really enjoyed the chat. At the end of the day, I was rather inspired. I hope I inherited some of those genes! The tenacity to make life work! Perhaps more than just make life work and be able to weather the seasons but truly live life well, dependent on and bringing glory to the giver of life!
I’ve been drooling at all the Apple tablet stories. Today we will know what its all about. But this is certainly something I found on DOGHOUSE….it is soooooo funny
Oh BTW, I’m NOT getting it
Devotion was good. We really rarely have the opportunity, that’s why I told the Lord what a wonderful time it was. Then, I was reminded by Him, ‘draw near to me and I will draw near to you’. I thought about that and relished the blessedness of Emmanuel…the blessedness of having God with us. It doesn’t just mean that His presence is with us. It means that His peace, power, love, grace…every part of Him is with us. For that, I feel so blessed!
Come Fri, the second time we met for devotion, we came before Him with burdens upon our hearts. I started singing You Are My All in All to declare His sufficiency and Leon sang Just A Closer Walk With Thee. I was reminded of Psalms 23 and what my lecturer shared in class saying that the metaphor of a Shepherd also corresponded to the metaphor of a King for the Hebrews. It was an apt reminder that He is King. He is greater and more than able to carry those burdens brought before Him.
On another note, I was really blessed in an unexpected way on Thu. In my hurry to complete my reading before Thu morning’s New Testament II class, I was speed reading on the bus on my way to school with a ‘not so right spirit/attitude’ if you know what I mean. I was a little grouchy because of the time pressure. Nevertheless, I came across this encouraging writing by Michael F. Bird:
He (Paul) takes solace from the fact that ‘Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day’ ( 2 Cor 4:16). The degenerative effect that trials have upon the Christian cannot overcome the regenerative power of God in sustaining them. Christian ministers should take comfort from the fact that if God intends to use them, then in the course of time he renews them in order to continue the work to which he has called them.
God is good. I was rewarded with encouragement despite my poor attitude towards learning. I am humbled too.
That is probably the amount of real Natgeo magazines I actually own
I got a new hobbie…..I have always wished I could afford to subscribe to National Geographic magazines. It is too expensive for me then I saw this offer at Amazon through gizmodo.com.
All the NatGeo magazines from 1888 to 2008 for only 60 SGD. I started to drool‚Ķ..I wouln’t get it delievered here cause the delivery would cost me a bomb but guess what? I had friends in the US at the moment and it wouldn’t be heavy cause its just DVDs‚Ķ..oooh the BIG IDEA came.
I sent it to their address and TA DA it arrived to me yesterday. I was to anxious that the moment I got home I popped the DVD in and there it goes. All the NatGeos I’ve always wanted!!!
THIS IS WHAT I GOT
It works on both MACs and PCs. You just install the interface they have provided and its quite cool. Starts right up with the NatGeo jingle then it has an interface that helps you browse the magazines.
Sadly the interface is not multitouch enabled. But otherwise it was intuitive and fun. I’m going to enjoy reading this. But I dunno how I’m going to finish reading almost two hundred years or magazines in this year. I’ll take my time.
Ooo this is so exciting‚Ķ.. Oh Oh recently I’ve downloaded all the national geographic wallpapers for 2008 and 2009. They are awesomely beautiful… do you want them? They are free. If you’d like them….ask from me k?
Yesterday we had a little time together with God. We sang three song spontaneously as I played my long unused Taylor. Love the songs. Jesus, Holy and Anointed One then it was You Are Beautiful Beyond Description and then it was Fill My Eyes.
We’ve never really had the time to do this together as often as we like. But we made it a point to do it at 7am every tuesday and friday. However I couldn’t wake up because I tossed and turned the whole previous night and we pushed it to the night time.
In this moment with God, it was clear to me that I had wavered in my faith. I was no longer as I was in the past. So I was reminded to read Hebrews 11. However, I was drawn to find out the context of the passage and read it out (Heb 10:19-12:6). It was so huge a reminder of what my parents always remind me. Son, just be faithful.
Recently losing Andy Gan my dear friend has been weighing heavily on my heart. Reading this, I know he’s cheering us on and praying for us. To all who are feel their faith fading. Read this passage and remind yourself of what God has done for you and how you must keep your faith. There is a multitude cheering you on. NEVER GIVE UP!