Blank

My mind is a piece of emptiness. I seem to understand what I'm reading yet there's also so much that I don't! So much to memorize but I am not sure if I'm capable of doing it.

Then, there's the difference between reading, understanding, and memorizing; and actually applying it.

Haiz... another round of stress...

Farewell...

Good friends, good food, good ambiance, good conversations - that's the description for today's gathering to bid farewell to Poh Lan, a dear ex-colleague and friend, who will relocate with her husband to KB.

It was indeed a rare occasion to gather just the five of us as everyone has been so busy with work but we made it nevertheless.

It was back to our regular hangout at Hana.

I was tasked to order from the menu since the ladies trusted my tastebud =D We ate more than the food shown here because I was too preoccupied with eating :)

We chatted and updated on each others' news. Time passed by quickly when we were having a good time. The waitress had to deliver the bill to our table as they were closing. They were kindly 'shooing' us away :)

We continued our conversation while standing outside the establishment before snapping some pics for remembrance.

Poh Lan had to leave early but the rest of us went to have a cuppa over at Starbucks.

My delicious Choc Cream

Good luck, Poh Lan. Thanks for being such a kind colleague. Thanks for your partnership and friendship all these years! I'll miss you!

Serendipity - not!

My joy was actually short-lived and I only realize it more than a month later - yesterday. I decided to call up KL to check the status of my study leave seeing that it has been quite some time and I have yet to receive any letter from them.

After calling Mr ZY, the person-in-charge, he put me on hold for awhile to check on my file.

"Cik, kita belum dapat fax dari cik lagi. Cik dah fax ke ni?"

Haiz...

In about 15 minutes, after digging through my files (and that was after some venting of steam and kepanasan and whining and complaining to myself), I find myself at the same photostatting shop to fax the said letter again. There was some problem getting through initially but it was done when I heard the familiar sharp-pitched sound generated by the fax machine.

Upon reaching home, I called Mr ZY to inform him that the letter had been faxed. After some (feigned helplessness) questions on when I should call again to check if he has received the fax, he obligingly went to the machine to look for it and said that he has got it. Phew. At least I'm spared of making another call to the gov dept just to check whether they have got my fax.

I did not stop there. I further inquired when I should be expecting the official letter (if I could get it within two weeks' time) from them now that all my documents are intact and they could proceed to process my application. Mr ZY said he would process it immediately BUT it all depends on the pegawai yang meluluskan.

"Kalau dia cepat, tak de masalah, rasanya cepatlah tu surat cik dikeluarkan. Cik bolehlah call balik saya untuk check status surat cik nanti."

Haiz... so I'd have to call again...

***

The reason why I'm so frustrated about this whole thing is that my coursemate who is also on the same study leave as me has got his letter in September. His application was processed without the need of extra letters of verification of our uni whereas they required that I get the letter.

We are doing the same course in the same uni, registered at the same time, offered the same study leave by the same gov dept in KL which is handled by the same people and yet one needs verification and the other need not. And yes, once I found out that my coursemate had received his letter already without needing any extra verification, I did inform them and Mr ZY was surprised but... they still want the extra doc from me.

Where is the logic in this?

Why, oh, why, DD?

Having grumbled and all, I'm still grateful for the liaison man, the patient, soft-spoken and polite Mr ZY. I can assume that he is a nice man, at least based on our few phone conversations.

Lesson:
If you want things to get done at gov dept (if you are too far away to be there physically), don't forget to call, call, and call - just to remind them of your existence and to 'help' them to keep track of your stuff coz they can't really keep track of so many things, can they?

Grit your teeth and speak nicely, gently and politely though you are steaming and boiling inwardly and outwardly.

Try to push them to process your stuff a lil quicker without them knowing that you are pushing them by asking more questions; feigning cluelessness and helplessness.

***

I will only know if the above really works only AFTER I have the black-and-white safely in my hands.

Oh, please, oh, please, DD...

Anyway

I came across this lovely poem by Mother Teresa, who borrowed from Kent M. Keith's The Paradoxical Commandments. There are just so many real life lessons to be gleaned from the experiences of great people like her; those who 'walk the talk'.

Anyway

~ Mother Teresa

People are often unreasonable, illogical and self centered; Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives; Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies; Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you; Be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight; Build anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous; Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow; Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough; Give the world the best you've got anyway.

You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and your God;
It was never between you and them anyway.

The Paradoxical Commandments

~ Dr. Kent M. Keith

People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered.
Love them anyway.

If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
Do good anyway.

If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.

The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.

Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway.

The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.
Think big anyway.

People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.
Fight for a few underdogs anyway.

What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.

People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.
Help people anyway.

Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world the best you have anyway.

Nobody

Gosh, I really love this song! It's my current favourite. I first heard it on Monday when Jojo, my dance instructor, introduced a new line dance routine to the English version of this song. I just could not get the tune and rhythm off my head for these five days.

So today, I googled and found that it is originally sung by Wonder Girls, a 5-piece Korean SYT (sweet young things) band. I have no idea what they are singing. I only like the melody and rhythm.

(Youtube uploaded by mnet, Nov 18, 2008)

I have also just discovered that the line dance routines posted on Youtube are quite comprehensive. Here's the dance steps to Nobody performed by Nancy (a dance instructor in KL, I think) and her team. The steps and styling are slightly different from Jojo's, more feminine and gentle. Love it!

(Youtube uploaded by senipadu, September 11, 2009)

Baby-sitting

I had a day out with my old buddies today, Jason and Shirley, and lil Rio. It was really good meeting up with them again. The last time they visited from Australia was about one and a half years ago. It was a day of shopping for them as they tried to buy their year's worth of supply here in KK due to the favourable exchange rate.

Rio giving me his most charming smile
in exchange for a sip of my iced Milo

After meeting up for breakfast in Damai, we went to 1B as Shirl needed to get her office wear. I found myself taking up the role of a baby-sitter to their lil tyke, Rio, and ended up at the toys section in Parkson. Rio went bonkers over the toys, the interactive TV games and the Lego set. It was so amusing to observe his reactions to all the colourful toys there. Since it was the morning of a working day, the store was literally empty and he had the whole section to himself.

An architect in the making

Playing Alphabet Park

Absorbed in the cartoon

A quick smile for the album
before quickly gluing his eyes on the TV again

After dropping Shirl off at the hairdresser's to get her hair fixed, we went to Citymall for lunch at Old Town and to hunt for shoes. My left shoe came off while in 1B.

Jason fulfilled his craving for Asam Laksa, Rio had a Strawberry toast while I had nasi lemak. The lil boy surely knew what he wanted when he ordered kit-chai ping (iced lime juice), much to the amusement of the waiter.

It was not a 'shoe day' for me. The few shoe designs that I liked did not have my size so I ended up part walking-and-dragging my left foot. Jason managed to buy a pair of sandals while lil Rio spied on an arcade and made a quick dash for the Daytona Race.

All too soon it was time to get Shirl. When Jason went in the salon to get Shirl, I taught Rio to praise her mom: Mom, you look beautiful!

However, we arrived a little too early and Shirl was not done yet so we had to wait for another five minutes.

So I asked Rio to repeat the line to his dad. Over-excited and smiling gleefully, Rio quipped: Mom, you look beautiful! What happened to you?

Jason and I laughed our heads off because it sounded so wrong! We corrected him and made him repeat the 'correct' phrase.

Poor lil tyke. I think he got confused because finally, when Shirl got into the car, Rio turned to her and said: Mom, you look NOT beautiful!

Hahahaha...

Kids say the darndest things.

Officially Missing You

This is a beautiful cover of Officially Missing You done by a pair of twins, Janice and Sonia. I thought that their harmony was really good and Sonia has done a great job singing and playing the guitar at the same time.

(Youtube uploaded by Jayesslee, Sept 28, 2008)

This song is originally sung by Tamia. While the twins sounded sweet, I feel that Tamia's voice is much richer and deeper.

(Youtube uploaded by TamiaWorld, June 12, 2007)

Love Story & Viva La Vida

(Youtube uploaded by onlinesuccess44, May 18, 2009)

However, because of copyright issues, Jon Schmidt rearranged another remix - Love Story meets Love Story.



(Youtube uploaded by carlosian2, Aug 28, 2009)

How cool is that?

Retreat: Oct 17 - 18

Waking up at noon last Saturday, I pottered about at home and took my time packing up my clothes for an overnight AWLT retreat at the Beringgis Beach Resort. It was the team's 13th annual retreat and my tenth! I only left home at 1.30 p.m. while the rest had gone up earlier at 9 a.m. for a game of paintball.

Here are some pics of the paintball session from Debs' and Wun2's cameras.




























Craving for really fatty food, I made a stop at Burger King and bought a BBQ Double Grilled Onion Cheese burger set that comes with free onion rings! The onion rings were superb! The crispy crunchers sent me down an aromatic memory lane. I think it has been more than 10 years since I last had BK's onion rings. The burger was delicious too.

Yummy! Nom nom nom...

Confession: I ate all of them while taking a leisurely drive to the venue, hence the turtle-paced journey. Definitely not recommended for fast-driving and amateurs. Note to self: Will not eat and drive, again...

I arrived just in time for the 3 p.m. indoor games session handled by Debs, Fifi (labeled by James) and Wun2. It was a smaller group this year compared to previous years' but nevertheless, we had great fun.



Yup, we found out that Uzbekistan is a country name that is hard to pronounce under stress and the three female musketeers thought that San Francisco is a country ;)



At 4 p.m., it was free time. Tradition has it that the boys and men will be in the shallow pool for a game of water basketball.

The boys warming up

Bel2 and Mel2 in the kiddie pool

Aww... cute Bel

Fifi's failed attempt down the water slide

The girls, as usual, snubbed me for a decent photo of them :P except for Wun2 :)

I went for an evening walk along the beach with Susie. It was windy and cooling. The cloudy sky protected us from the harsh glare of an evening sunset.

Serenity

A jet plane cutting through the sky

I returned from the walk to find that the girls had also joined the boys for water basketball. It was definitely a first for the team! They gave the boys a run for their money because they could play really well! Bravo!

Every year, someone is bound to be a victim in the fun but violent game because of kiasu-ness (fear of losing). One would think that the men would play and behave more gentlemanly since it was the ladies' inaugural participation, but no!

This year's first and thankfully, only casualty was Victor, who suffered a long, unsightly but fortunately, superficial scratch on his chest... *painful*


I had a dip in the pool too and stayed on with Wallace to shoot some rings long after the rest had gone. He was the runner when my shots strayed because this aunty was just too lazy to move much. Warning: You may call me aunty only if you are young enough to be my children :P

As I made my way to the function room after dinner, I passed by the lobby and saw this simple flowery decoration.

Samson led worship before we had another round of gelling time. It was a round of Michael's famous stretching and massaging exercise before Debs took over.










We found out that some of us are quite poor in relaying visual and audio messages but are decent 'actors and actresses' ^^ We capped the night session with some hot beverages, courtesy of James.

But the girls were not ready to call it a night as they visited Debs' and my room on the pretext of studying for school exam. Fifi and Nana actually brought their Maths books to the retreat for revision -.- Of course their noble intention failed miserably as they were soon enticed by Wun2's (the 'too free' post-PMR student) suggestion to play guessing games - white magic.

Debs and I also chipped in and introduced some games that we used to play when we were young from ages ago... black magic, 9-squares, Johnny woops, Mrs Pearson, pencil trick, blah... blah... topped with potato chips and more jokes before they left our room at midnight.

I dozed off soon after but woke up sometime in the night and couldn't go back to sleep. There I was tossing and turning for nearly two hours, I think, before sleeping soundly again. Both Debs and I overslept and only woke up around 8.30 a.m., with just another half an hour to spare for brekky. We made it nevertheless.

Sunday morning saw Samson leading worship, Michael sharing his sermon, all of us taking a groups photo and yours truly facilitating the group sharing. It was the time where we shared what we have learned for this year, how we can contribute more and our hopes for this team. It was also a short time of encouragement and I hope, openness.

After a buffet lunch, it was time to go home. The short retreat had come to an end.

Here, Wun2, the 'entertainer' held her audience captive with her black magic.

 
I was to send Nana and Wun home but the 'post PMR student' was itchy to make a detour to somewhere else, anywhere, before going home. We ended up going for roti canai. Surprisingly, Nana could finish what's before her and took another bite from Wun's plate! It was also Wun's first roti canai -.-

Nana finally posed for a pic. No choice, or else walk home ;)





Girls, sedap right?

Though not all of us went, those who did had a jolly good time. I know I did...


Something old, something new;
Of the past but mostly present;

Something revisited but not pining;
Not bitterness, only memories.