Fannie's Birthday...

saturday night! fannie's birthday!
and also danny's farewell! oh? um, eh hem... *solemnly* and also danny's farewell.

refreshing? yeah it is. to have spent time with the OCFers and also with danny who returns for a while. apologies to those that i forgot to call. will do better next time.

look at the happy birthday girl. she definitely didn't expect it. Age cannot be revealed due to safety reasons; my safety, that is.

exam period...

it is the exam period for the whole of australia.

my thoughts fly back to adelaide. accumulating sleep debt, drinking coke for that sugar boost, drinking Red Bull for even more sugar boost, skipping meals, eating biscuits for meals, coffee replaces water, not bathing, not changing, the whole cupboard of clothes are in the laundry basket, smell the least smelliest clothes and re-wear them, wear the same shirt for 5 days (or more), wearing underwear 4 times (inside, outside, frontside, backside), becoming Jack's best friend (eating Hungry Jack's (Burger King) everyday for every meal), the house is covered with dust, the sink piles up with dishes, the toilet is --let's-not-talk-about-it--. wake up, study, sleep, wake up, study, sleep. sick but not taking medicine because it causes drowsiness.

a very interesting lifestyle, though of course, not everything listed above is done by me, or anyone else(i hope). living independently, that is called kicking in the survival gear. when nothing else matters except preparing yourself for your exams. and after its over, its time to enjoy till the next semester starts. or in crisis situations, supplementary papers.

a physical list was given above, but the underlying current is the fear, pressure, stress, failing strength, distractions, frustrations, sadness. to sum it up, emotional turmoil, spritual dryness, mental anguish and physical burdens.
and it is always a reminder to give, never forget God in the midst of preparation. or perhaps, people remember God more because here comes times of trouble.

i remember my dear friend, Kah Wai, sharing about praising God for exams and praising Him in the exam halls. yeah, i was going to throw a hymnal at him. till i grow up a little more later to realise and understand faith and God's working in each of us. i'll let God's Word answer.
"For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope."(Romans 15:4)

Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness.
Psalm 29:2

Come near to God and he will come near to you.
James 4:8

In the morning, O Lord, you hear my voice; in the morning i lay my requests before you and wait in expectation.
Psalm 5:3

God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.
Psalm 46:1

"I will refresh the weary and satisfy the faint," says the Lord.
Jeremiah 31:25

Jesus said, "Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest."
Mark 6:31

Be still, and know that I am God.
Psalm 46:10

Our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.
2 Corinthians 4:17

Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking in anything.
James 1:4

God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained for it.
Hebrews 12:10-11

back to school...

sometime midweek last week, my best friend since school, Joel Wong, called me and asked whether i would want to go back to school with him on friday to the MBS Christian Fellowship. i thought, 'that'd be nice,' and i was also wondering how to get away with a longer-than-1hour lunch. CF is from 1-2pm. but i managed to get half day off. so that was wonderful.

we went to CF and we were actually more keen to see our CF teacher, Mrs. Lim, who was also our BM teacher last time. it wasn't that nice cause we weren't really hardworking. but she did a really good job drawing the line between CF and studies, though i'm sure she'd like us to have both of these areas equally strong. i had my chapel advisor as my add-maths teacher too. so double the blow.

its been 5 and a half years now. we were wearing our office clothes as we entered. and thankfully we knew one or two, they're our juniors who are upper six now. so we aren't viewed or suspected as some perverted old boys.

when our teacher saw us, she was smiling. i guess, in her experience, not many are still walking on the narrow road after 5 years. and to see 2 of the Christian leaders and are still good friends coming back to CF, is that an encouragement to a teacher?

we did cause lots of trouble (but not enough to see the headmaster), mischievious and playful. i wonder whether as she knew us and teach us, she could see that 'something' there which we had no idea of, and pored her effort and prayers in that hope. yeah, we wouldn't know anything about ourselves, but she made her effort to polish us and she did set her example as a Christian in her work and teaching in school. and faithfully doing it too.

now that i'm typing this, i wonder whether did my sunday school teachers actually had any hope in me during the primary school years. i made them suffer a lot. i was punished a lot too. my teachers called me the 'Holy Terror' cause i was super mischievious but also a bible quiz champion. yeah, they told me that a few years ago.

there are some things that i can't think out. i put myself in their shoes and wonder how they'd just faithfully teach and nurture this some-sort-of-hyper-active kid. i don't know whether they were actually hoping for some miracle or change. or is it right to hope for one? how would they know what each kid will turn out to be? you won't know. so just teach and nurture all equally. hmm... i have no idea... teaching's a gift.

on another view, its amazing what 1 red note can do in the school canteen. having lunch constantly in the range of RM3.50 - RM5.00, RM 1.60 seems too cheap. the drinks uncle is still there and recognize both of us.

oh, the flood...

what makes an employee so hardworking that he stays till 1 am to work?
when he has no choice because its flooded.

on the day when i had to work on a sunday (sigh), it was bad enough, but it flooded too. my first job. weird stuff happens. my manager, colleague and i didn't know it was flooding till the delivery guy call to say that everywhere is flooded. so we ran down to check on our cars in the basement (safe) and also went out to take pictures. after some sort of excitement, dreaded tiredness and fatigues came. we were fortunate my manager let us off today cause we kind of completed our stuff plus some brain damage due to fatigue.

well, nothing happen to me. i did worry if the flood got higher. my side here outside Alliance bank (jalan munshi abdullah) wasn't so bad. Dataran Merdeka was looking like a padi field according to The Star today and the basements, what basements? that bad. just had biscuits for dinner and also hoping that we didn't have to stay over. thank God for safety and flood residing. looking around, the aftermath was quite substantial as i was driving home.

some pictures? i wasn't in trouble. just posing. again, credit to my colleague's Sony Erricson hp.

and i was looking out unto this.

zoomed in closer...

and even closer...

my work?

here's 2 pictures from my colleague's handphone. Sony Ericsson Cybershot. thanks to him.

so here's a picture of me in my workplace.
i was relaxing a bit. it was after lunch. and you can see Wilson, the tennis ball.

when i say i'm blessed with a good working environment, yeah, i can do things like these.

flat screen? yeah... state-of-the-art PC's. every other PC is slower than the office PC. but when i do work, my PC is slow. that's the heaviness of data i have.
phone books under the flat screen? yeah.. need that for my neck. so that i'm always looking straight to the screen.

that's my manager sitting behind me. my colleague and i are always laughing and saying that my manager really got high tolerance to bear us. i'm 23 and the youngest in office.

the teddy bear? all the girls have their bears and their cubicle is quite filled up. so i brought my green bear to fill up and decorate my place. the guys place quite empty. i'm sure some or many will remember it in Adelaide. hahaha.... must brighten up also in office. (extra add-in's and rephrasing of sentences due to 'a comment'. hahahaha)

and of course, with great PC's, comes great responsibility and great WORK too.

sunday and pirates...

it was church camp last weekend, from friday to sunday. i wasn't there. had to work on saturday again. suppose to wake up early and aimed to be there at 9 but decided to take it easy. relax a bit and was there at 11. still have sufficient time to finish up everything by evening.

we were watching pirates on sunday. kah ling couln't book tickets on the telephone cause it was full. but danny asked me to try to call, then i called, and to my amazement, i got places; or so i thought i got. when i was at the booth to collect the reservations, they asked for the 6-digit number. what 6-digit number?
turns out, i had pre-hang up and forgotten to take the 6-digit number after all the details. OR pre-hang up before they could check and tell me that there's no places left and so, no 6-digit number.
i forgotten about the 6-digit number. so now i re-learn again. but we could queue up. kah ling and danny queued while i surveyed the front screen on time slots and availability. we got seats right at the front, but it wasn't so bad. had a lot of leg space.

the part where Lord Beckett was going to die, i'd say its my favourite dramatic scene. i couldn't stop laughing. realizing that he had lost, he was so stylish while walking down the steps towards his death, with everything around him being blown apart. that's dramatic to the max. (so sorry for those who haven't watched it)

music was definitely good.

was capt. jack sparrow a genius? i think he may be. he is a pirate lord; knowing the seas and the pirate laws more than beckett.
i thought there will be a major battle scene between the british armada and all the pirates. that'll be nice to see.

amazingly i have time to watch movies though busy with work. the big project will be ending by June 22 (hopefully). all the good movies will be coming out soon.