Sherine invited us (Michelle's family, Kj's family and I) over for a Chinese New Year dinner. Her sisters cooked really nice food. It's nothing fancy, but really nice.
We chatted and did some catching up. It was a nice dinner.
Ya... We should do more of this. I am not familiar with nice and cosy places in KL where one can really chat with friends. But, I do know about NZ. And normally, the dinner was really long. Not so much of the food.. but, the atmosphere. Sometimes, we went to friend's place and just hang around.
arh.. I remember, did that quite some years back with friends in S'ban too. Food, talked, board games, food, drinks... and more talked.... haha... And now.... no more... Why?? I don't know....
Went to walk at lake garden at about 6.15am with dad after fetching sister to bus station. Gosh.. It's really early though not pitch dark. Some lights were switched on. We also saw some early birds. We walked 2 big rounds and headed for breakfast at about 7.30am. Not many shops were opened and we regreted having breakfast. Should have had cereal at home... aiks..
But, the early morning thing really gave me a lot more time in the morning to do other things....
It's finally bearing fruit again for the 2nd time, after a long time. Dad cut a branch down with fruits. It's not as big as previous, but, still as sweet. This year, the birds were fighting to eat the fruit with us..
Ya.. friends who has visited my house know I live in an 'orchard'.. hahah... Really bless with fruits...... :)
Decided to fry some peanut, grind them and eat with nian-gao, the sticky thing. This is a type of dessert only available in Chinese New Year. It's very tedious to make the nian-gao. One will need to take at least a day to make it. The traditional one will need 12 - 15 hours to steam it. Gosh....
I only learn to eat it with peanut recently. You can eat it with grind coconut as well. Since I was young, I only eat it pure, ie, steam and take a chopstick and eat like that. Or mom will deep fry it with sweet potato. Of couse it has to be sliced.
My aunt in Melaka can make very nice one. Not sure if she is making this year as she is getting old and no strength to make as well... :( Maybe I should learn....
Mom make so many tung-lung (lanterns) from ang pau (red packets) this year. Learnt from her shoes beading friends.. pengsan... Finally, she had 3 for our home. Others she gave away as gifts to church friends.
Went for pedicure and medicure. haha... This is just for fun only. Did this by my niece (I am younger than her) and we have not met for years until I met with my cousin recently.
I was there for about 3 years. Gosh.. so long.. pengsan... But, it is very difficult to work after that.. aiks..
I still like the black base.... I used to have a black based with dragon fly, then, with flowers (stickers) and now, again drawn...
1st time Technology Townhall meeting in 2009. Communicate on achievement of 2008, Challenges and Focus in 2009. Only 1 hour. I think about 500 ppl turned out.
Took me few days to prepare slides with the help from TMT. I was more anxious than the TMT.. haha...
Well, I hope it's a good start for 2009 though it's a challenging year.
Saw KKW had his hair cut too. Super short. I was actually quite tense that day and I saw his head which actually lifted me up a little. It's quite nice to touch.. quite prickly, nice to touch..
oh.. btw, he doesn't look nice this at all.. He is always smiling.. trying to be cool only.. hahaha...
This Saturday was packed with events.
I went to dentist (no appointment make as it was full, and I just walked in). There were already so many ppl when I got there 10 minutes to 9am. I waited for about 30 minutes and I was called. I was suspecting my top left wisdom tooth was giving me problem as I knew it was not growing normally, it was facing my cheek. When I visited the dentist in Nov'08, it was still alright. Recent weeks, it was painful even when I yawn, I still can eat and chew, just can't open my mouth big. So.... Anyway, I told the dentist about it. He was asking me questions and checking. Finally, he asked, do you want to take it out? Without any doubt, I said, yes. He said, ya, better to take it out. Next, I was sent for x-ray. And the process of extracting begun. And it was extracting. The tooth was bigger than I thought. I took it home. ha... yeah... Extracted the tooth while it's still in good condition (1st time)... I didn't bleed as much as I thought it would be. And it wasn't as painful as I thought it would be. Then, maybe was the medication. I prayed that it will not be as bad when the medication gone. And praised God it didn't. I was still able to talk like normal, only not able to eat. So, I was on diet. Does it also mean that I am 25% less wise now????? :(
Then, went to Giant with mom for some CNY preparation (after extracted my tooth). We didn't buy much...
And I had to go to Mantin to meet up with Pastor Sanusi (pastoring for Orang Asli (orang asli = natives)). What about my lunch? I had cereal. And drank it with straw. ha... Ya... Cos, I extracted my tooth, remember?? I passed him some used clothes and blessed him a bit financially. I used to involve in Orang Asli ministry, teaching them Bahasa Malaysia and English and everytime I felt so blessed after came back from Orang Asli settlement.
Dinner? We had dinner outside. Gosh.. It's really challenging for me to eat. Ya.. I ate a lot of bean curd. haha... And I literally swallow the food. The nerves affected other teeth which were painful a bit.
Well, I thank God for today. For all that happened today.
It was just another normal working day where I had so much to do. Was rushing some works in the morning. And it was 1++pm where I haven't had lunch. Sherine hasn't had hers too. Since Karim was having offsite meeting in the meeting, I asked if he could fetch us out and back for a quick lunch. Well, he was in a rush and no hope.
In fact, he suggested us to follow him to KL where we can have lunch and work offsite. Surprisingly, Sherine agreed and started to pack. I was shocked. And well, since there's no meeting in the afternoon and I think I could afford to do that. And we started to pack and go KL with Karim. Ya.. This was crazy.
I had lunch with Sherine while Karim went to his meeting. Then, we went to Starbucks to work. It's really work. Just change of environment. Comments?? hmm... I think I prefer to work in office. Why? The air-cond and it's more comfortable. hehe....
Karim supposed to finish his meeting at about 5.30pm and I was not done with my work. So, I told Sherine to text him not to hurry. Walk really slowly if possible. Then, he rang at 6-ish pm that he just done with meeting. By the time he met up with us, we were still working. Aiks... what were we doing? Not fully utilising the chance to work outside. We shouldn't have gone shopping, right? But, well, there were so much to do and no time for shop.
We went for dinner. Yummy dinner. But, the late lunch was not fully digested. So, I had little only.
Hey.. it's a totally different experience. It was a surprised, impromtu thing. Don't get a wrong picture that this is the way we work in my organization. Sometimes, I like this. Someone just drag/ 'kidnap' me for something not harmful... (Reminded me of my Wellington-Auckland-Wellington weekend getaway thingy....)
Side line: KLCC was decorated for Chinese New Year. Nice.... Yeah.. Time flies....
Was informed by Aunty Irene last week in church that there's a sponsor meeting on next Saturday (today) at her house at 2pm. hmm.... I was thinking, meeting in the afternoon. I wanna rest wor.. Furthermore, my only show that I watch on TV is screening at 4pm wor.
hehe.. actually, I struggled to go or not lar.. (confession is good for the soul..). And I decided to go. I was at Aunty Irene's house at about 2.15pm and I was the 1st one. Oh.. No.. This is bad. I thought I was late. Mana tahu, then, I was told, actually start at 3pm. Come early to catch-up with each other. Alamak.. pengsan.. 3pm means 3.30pm lar..
So, waited, talked. Then, slowly they came. Then, was told that Aunty Lim is making asam laksa for us. Wow.... She came at about 3.20pm. Then, we ate. Sooooooo yummy.. It's spicy for me, but, so nice... I had 2 bowls though I was full. Couldn't resist lar... Then, Kim came with 'hamp-chin-peng' (chinese doughnut?).... Also, so nice.. I didn't try cos I was so full already. Not to mention the jelly make by Cornelia. yumm.... Everything was so nice...
So, our meeting started at 4.20pm. We discussed what we wanna do for Missionett. It's going to be the last year for Missionette to give way for Children Cell. So, it will end in June. It's so sad as we have good bonding with the girls and they are opening themselves up in the class and share and make good friends. Well, if Children Cell is better, we shall support that.
Meeting ends at about 5.30pm. Then, eat again. Fellowship again. This is Malaysian - eat and eat and fellowship and fellowship. Now, we had Aunty Irene steamed her nian-gao (one of the sweet sticky thing normally eat/ have it in Chinese New Year). She sliced them in small pieces, steamed, and put with some shreded coconut. It's really nice..
I felt so blessed. One will never regret serving God. Cos, God always bless us back with more. And His blessings comes in all different forms and can surely surprise us. So, please continue to serve. Press-on though there are times we need encouragement too.
For me, I don't think I am continuing with Children Cell leading. I really want to do something else this year and I am exploring... Stay tune and if things work-out... :)
Part of the target setting was also to align the Sectional targets within the Department.
Was invited to join the session with NE. It was encouraging to see all to be engaged and challenging/ commenting each others' target for better.
Well, somehow I need to split myself into half today. Was in the workshop in the morning. Then, rushed back to office to meet-up with Biz Manager (Telenor), and back to the workshop again. Gosh..... It was challenging, getting a car park was challenging. I was begging the guard since I was only back to office for 1 hour.
It was a tiring and fruitful day.
NE: Thanks for inviting and really glad to see you guys were so involved. The process itself was great!!
Instead of climbing Gunung Datuk today, I decided just to laze around at home. hehe...
Baba asked if anyone would help him to trim the mango tree outside the house. I like the mango from this tree. We hardly buy mango with this tree. We also bless many others with the fruit from it too. :) Mom likes to bless ppl. My role? Very simple, too easy. Just to stand around, watch out for on-coming cars, people... Aside that, nothing. Aiks.... So, I took pictures lar... Once the branch was down, then, I thought I would have a chance. Aiks.... Also, no way.... Just helped to pull the smaller braches to aside... What a waste..... Knowing me.... I wouldn't give up... While baba went to pull those branches aside, my chance came. hehe... I picked up the saw and start.... not that hard. Then, he came back.. oohhhoooo... Well, he kept quiet and I continued. I sawed on the big trunk, gosh.... it's hard.....
So, I started to pull the branches to the back of the house where baba further disect them.... And he saw one part of the trunk into a big 'Y'. Immediately, I thought of 'lastic', where we played at childhood by putting rubber in between, and use a stone to shoot at the bird... hahaha.... Well, I must say, it's a very dangerous weapon and yet powerful... But, this lastic was too big and heavy lar...
I thought baba is going to trim more. Who knows, that's it... Then, close shop. By then, we were tired. Then, I saw a parasite plant on the tree. So, I climb tree (instead of mountain) to remove those. It's not that tall, so, no ladder is needed.
A tiring morning....
Time flies... It was still fresh in my memories while I was writting for events happened in 2007. I reckon this is a sign of old age.... aiks... pengsan.....
What happened to me in 2008? There were few events:
- Changed division (from Finance to Technology)
- Climbed Mt. Kinabalu for a 2nd time. Experienced heavy rain though we didn't summit. It was a whole new experience.
- Experienced summer in HK. And was in Macau.
- Changed boss (within Technology)
- Serving in Children Church ministry for the final year
Aside, there were earthquake in China, Olympics in Beijing, terrorists attack in Mumbai, economy crashed....
Overall, I think 2008 was alright. I didn't do much travelling as 2007. There were not much 'wow' and 1st time experiences as well. It was a busy year, I reckon. I knew I spent a lot of time working, was working really hard.
So, what's new for 2009? No new year resolution. I reckon, why should be bound by year? Shouldn't I live each day to the fullest and as if it's the last day? (No. I am not negative. I am just being realistic.) Of course, there were a few other things that I really would like to do in 2008 which I didn't manage. Maybe it wasn't the time yet, maybe the opportunities were not there, maybe I was too into my work..... All these, I would like to realize soon....
For all, I thank you for your journey with me in 2008. And I really hope we will continue the journey together. It's not about the destination, it's the journey itself that impact me. :)
Most of all, I thank God for His blessings, faithfulness, guidance and protection.
