Let us skip the part where we have not been able to blog of late. It’s a new slate. It’s a new start. Ok?

In the past 3 years I’ve been moving like a nomad across Singapore from the East to the West. Finally I’ve found a place where the grass is greener and the birds chirp louder. A place that I call home……wait! It’s WE now. We call this place home. We finally moved to JB. Living costs in Singapore was impossible for us to afford.

A miracle happened when we stumbled upon this more than slightly humble home. It cost us literally zero to start off. The house was fully furnished. Brand smacking new and the same as my rental of a room in Singapore. No downpayment. No renovation necessary. Impossible you think? Apparently not. We were shocked too. God provided something amazing, more than we can hope or ask for. Some of you have been asking for pics and well I finally got them ready. Well let me take you on a tour of our house ok? Let’s begin the tour

Guest Room 1

We’ll start from the back of the house. This is my 1st guest bedroom.  Right next to it is the bathroom and the kitchen as seen below

Downstairs Bathroom

Kitchen with all the fittings that came along with the house, yes the fridge was included

View of backdoor and other end of kitchen

Some say our kitchen is small but we are both not great cooks. Even so its kinda enough to cook a great meal actually. Oh well, lets proceed to the dining area right outside where my piano is placed too….

Dining Area...Can you spot Nahum? Ruby's boyfriend hehehe

My Piano given to us graciously

A larger view of the dining area to the kitchen where you can see our cd collection too

Now you have a little peak of my living room area that is just next to that piano. Lets gooooooo…..

This is a view of our living room from the piano area

A More Central view

Living Room Opposite View

Side View to Kitchen

As you can see I love pets and well this is my little koi pond and waterfall

My Fish Tank that I intend to be a planters tank but I haven't finished setting up my CO2 tank and new filter

That does it for the ground floor. Its time to move upstairs to the 1st floor. You like our place so far?

Here you can see both floors

Welcome up! Careful not to trip

This is the view of the washroom and the two bedroom doors

This is where Victor Lee (if you know him) stays during the weekends. He wanted a red room so we painted it red for him

This is our third guestroom for all you who want a retreat at the resort we live in....wait did I tell you that we live in a resort? Well we do hehehe

They built in nice wardrobes for us. Very neat. Both rooms have them too

This is our guest bathroom

As you walk along the bridge to the master bedroom, it is quite a neat view of downstairs

This is the view from closer to the Master Bedroom

Well, how do you like it so far? Wanna come over and stay. Well if you want you can always contact me and I would love to have guests who just want R and R. There is a swimming pool nearby, equestrian clubhouse if you want to ride horses, orchard and a nice park nearby. Now lets go to our room….

As you enter the room, this is the view of it

This is our bed, oh I feel like sleeping on it now.....

This is the view from the bed. And our little work space and mini studio

This is my awesome attached bathroom where I hideway and destress hehehe

This is the shower area in the master bathroom

Now as we exit, I'm greeted by my one and only lovely beautiful wife.

That ends the tour of the place we have now come to call home. I really hope you guys will come visit us some time. Thanks Mom for helping us paint the house so beautifully. It is time to really go home. Tata….

I think Pangkor Laut was ideal for Leon and myself. For Leon, the nature lover and the Tarzan wannabe (I think of him as that because he talks about wanting to live in the forest close to nature!), staying at the resort was somewhat like staying in the forest. I told him the resort felt like a combination of Sentosa Cove and MacRitchie Reservoir. For me, it was secluded enough to get away from people (I needed to recuperate from all the wedding socialising) and feel like I was in paradise looking out to the cove Considering we only decided on the destination a day before departure after depositing Wedding Collections into the bank, this place was divine for us. There was only one type of room (Villa) to choose from for the duration of our stay and it was just right for us. It felt like the place was kept and prepared for us

Instead of going into details about the getaway, here are my personal favorites about the trip

1. Spending time alone with each other and sleeping as much as we liked!

2. Infrastructure/Landscaping. The whole feel of the resort was coherent. From the ferry ride, to the room, the restaurants and their color schemes that matched even the serviettes.

3. Food. GLORIOUS FOOD! My favorite would have to be the Soy Panna Cotta dessert (It was so nice I savored it and forgot to take a picture of it!). The texture is a little more firm than ice-cream but less creamy and taste like butter cookie with a light soy fragrance =) Mmmm….Absolutely delicious! Leon’s is probably the Nasi Lemak at breakfast =)

4. Sweet Gestures from Hotel Staff

5. Nice Sea View. It’s therapeutic to be eating and looking at the sea at the same time. Absolutely relaxing!

6. Nature. We could see Kites, Hornbills and Fruit Bats =) I’m sure there were more if we looked harder.

So far, a few people have commented that our honeymoon was too short. Some thought we didn’t go on one cos we were back at work 9 days after the wedding. I dunno. Time is relative. It was enough for us so it didn’t feel short

We are deeply thankful for the time, the place and the blessings from loved ones that made this trip possible If you are one of them, THANK YOU!

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.

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

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.

The Lovely Couples

Our worship team is honored to have to wonderful members commit to their vows. We are overjoyed. It was a simple and meaningful ceremony in the morning. I was leading worship for their ceremony and I was awfully nervous. What if I ruin the wedding hahahaha? On top of that, my voice felt a bit weird the past few days. I was quite sure I was on the verge of falling sick.

THe Worship Team

All together…the TEAM

Well during the ceremony I constantly peeped and looked at my dear. I just thank God for her in my life. However, there were constant questions….’when is your turn?’ …..pressure……All I could say was, soon….I hope….I’m sure Regina was feeling all uncomfortable there haha. She is rather reserved when it comes to these things.

Anyway we had the privilege of having our band play for the wedding too. It was nice to have two violinists to accompany the worship. Makes my dream of a church orchestra even bigger…..*poof* That is reality kicking in. I don’t think that will happen. But I’m going to believe and pray. Yes yes yes yes yes.

Well I also had to play two classical pieces. I was given the hard one like months earlier. Sad to say, I lacked time to practice so I hurriedly tried to make it through practicing. One thing I know now…..I definitely pick up a classical song way faster than I used to. Another thing I know…..I’m not made to play classical. I almost died because of the stress. I survived through this time. But I thank God my boss missed it. I think I would faint if he heard how horribly I played.

The wonderful violinist and me showing how we attempt to make music hahaha

Pretty Ladies

Later the next night was the wedding dinner. It was simple without much fanfare except for the fact that they threw me surprises. First, I was asked on the day itself to play for the prelude before dinner was served. After rehearsing the prelude with Hui Sze, before I was able to heave a sigh of relief, I was caught totally off guard that my name was listed on the program as the main guy to lead the toast to the couple i.e. the ‘Yum Seng’ fellow! There wasn’t much time to fret about it cos the doors to the dinner opened pretty on time and the prelude had to start.

The Lovely Couple

Because I was unable to arrive earlier to rehearse with the newly weds for their song presentation ‘When God made you’, I had to leave the dinner table just after the 1st dish was served to go to their room to rehearse with the couple. Everything went pretty well if I can discount the nerves I experienced. With sincere gratitude, they also presented a Teresa Teng song to their parents to thank them for bringing them up. The highlight of the night in my opinion was not the delicacies served nor the guests invited but the Mandarin song sung by Paul to his bride written by himself. It not only expressed his love for her but also their trust in God to help them love each other with His love :p

Perfect Smiles

First and foremost. Congratulations Lionel and Charity. I’m envious…..hope you had a great time. God, thank You for holding back the weather. More pics to come of this superb and memorable event. But here are the most good looking guys of that day!

I’m sorry I lost my voice and didn’t sing well for that day.

That being said….I want to thank Regina and Lee Choo for working so hard and stepping up to the plate cause I couldn’t. I’m sorry for the burden I caused you both and I thank you for your spirit in serving. I’m honored to work side by side both of you. Choir. You guys were awesome!

Grace II Hall

Lee Choo, Regina and Me…Ricky at the side too

The band, Jeremy, Yew Tee, Samantha and Caleb

View from the Back

Awesome Choir!

Clap your hands people

Hall in a different color theme….beautiful ain’t it?

Band, you’re awesome in that short span of time you all nailed it down! Almost….:P Hahaha. Well done! The best band in town was playing for two days for the Global Leadership Summit (GLS) in Singapore. I wish I could play with you all more man!

And to everyone else who worked so hard. I’m so privileged to work with you guys. Man you guys really just did over and beyond. Talk about going the second mile, you guys went to the millionth mile!

I’m now recuperating. God help me. But I’m recuperating over my books, assignments and so many other work that needs to be done. Keep praying for me, my voice isn’t back and tonight, I got to practice and lead worship this weekend.

Welcome to my new home! One of these is my room. Which door would you pick?

Sorry for my cheekyness but my this is the entrance to my room hehe. It is not seen in the first picture hehe.

This is my room. Where I sleep, read and do everything private that you should not know about

This is the workstation where all the powerful research papers are done and all the million dollar songs are written

This however is where all the inspiration begins hahaha. ZZZZzzzz

Here is where I keep all the things that cover my body………

This however is the wonderful view from my room window. Nice right?

This is the living room where I get have you as my guest over to relax chill and jam with me

The View from the living room which also is the same way my room faces

We are heading from the living room to the kitchen, can you spot it?

Can you see now the beautiful kitchen?

Awesome ain’t it? Too bad I can’t cook well. But you are always free to come over and cook for me hahahahaha

This is the view of from the back of the kitchen. I’m living on the top floor so this is just spectacular

Next to this view however is the most important place for many people….

Welcome to the TOILET!

So what do you think of my new CRIB?

View from our balcony at Kota Kinabalu

Some of you have been wondering why I have gone MIA for more than a month! Isn’t it obvious? I had to lay low cause I had to go on a mission.

This mission called for us to be:

1.    Fit and strong
2.    It also called for us to be really really sound mentally
3.    Well equipped
4.    Strong willed
5.    Steadfast
6.    Committed
7.    Skilled
8.    Man this list is getting scary…..I better stop

Anyway here is the report of Mission Impossible Day 1: Are we ready for this?

It all started the day before as tension arised from a leaking of noses and itching of throats. Perhaps we have anticipated wrongly. Perhaps we’re not prepared enough. We in fact felt like calling it quits. With 3 out of 4 members down with the unknown‚Ķ‚Ķ.will we be halted from crossing the borders as suspects of the deadly HINI virus?

My spirit was devastated when one member called with the news that pulling out was being considered as an option. My heart skipped two beats. After such a long wait will we complete what we have set forth to do?

Only the night can tell. For we awoke the next day and decided to take the risk. Saying goodbye to my temporary quarters. It is time to set forth. See how drained we were?

Look how enthusiastic we look hahaha. We all looked like that

Goodbye my comfortable bed and room!!
At last, we’re all assembled. It is time to let it fly!

All ready at the airport and passports chopped!

All seated! Parachutes checked!!

Upon touch down‚Ķ.we needed to make contact with headquaters. Our Liaison: Sui Tsin. Home bred and well versed with the ways of that place, we needed her help to make sure we don’t go wrong anywhere. Meeting an old friend was such a pleasure. She brought us to our main HQ which was an awesome place to hideout. You won’t believe how much it cost us. It’s madness (So Cheap!).

View of our secret HQ

The living room

The Boy’s Dormitory

The Women’s Dormitory

Kitchen

Dining Area

It had a beautiful balcony which had a spectacular view!

Our Whitemobile! Zoom Zoom

All ready and enthusiastic to feast! We look better already but I was sniffing all the way hahaha

Grilled Seafood Platter (Leon’s Recommendation) Yummy!

Fried Seafood Platter (Chef’s recommendation) Super Yummy!

Immediately we decided after we had a scrumptious energy reviving meal of fish, cuttlefish, prawns and all the great things of the sea that we will conserve energy. ZZZZzzzzzzzzzz. Before we knew it, it was time to go for our closing quest of the day. Armed with tissues and a waterproof camera here we go!

Driving the coastal road

It was dark! Scary for many! But one of the members remarked, I like DARK. Its nice! Wahhahahaha I have the bravest crew in town. We have nothing to fear. Not even these!

See the elephant nose looking thing….eeeeee

Lalalalalallaa ( or something like that with a cute prawn)

Some weird creatures of the deep

We need more muscles!!!!

More slimy things…

Gayang Restaurant that is on the sea!! Beautiful

Looking at them, fear grips my heart. They look disgusting like that hahaha. Especially the elephant nose thing. I have never eaten that…….Also will I be allergic to any of them? Sighs who cares! I came here to die anyway hahaha.

Seated, we said our grace and it was time to consume the food we’ve waited sooooooo long for. Our stomachs we’re really really growling. First bite‚Ķ.AWESOME! I wanted so much more. It was sooooo fresh and nice. God, it really tastes soooooo good.¬† I’m drooling now even thinking about it. Look at how tasty it is‚Ķ..mmmmm

Elephant thingy cooked oooo so nice!

Makes me wanna sing lalalalalalala yup!

All our dishes together

Savoring the taste of the wild coconuts

Hungry Woman’s Plate

Satisfied Faces!

We called it a day having a minor mission debrief and as you can see we were all prepared for the next day coming up! We had to cause it was going to be an exciting one! Come back tomorrow for the next part!….

Just look at her excitement

Stocking up…..so high tech use iPhone hahahah