Today I finally obtained my Malaysian Driving Licence Class D after 2 years probation. I am happy that the probation is over. That certainly does not mean I will drive recklessly from now onwards.
I want to thank God for His protection upon me the past two years. Also thank Him for wisdom as I prayed during situations when I had to make quick decisions.
At times when drivers kept honking me, I thank God I kept my cool and did not panic.
Even after two years, my driving still sucks big time but I am able to get from one destination to another destination.
For me to be able to drive is a miracle in itself. I will blog about that soon.
Last but not least, a big thank you to Jeff for allowing me to drive his car.
I grilled altogether nine pieces of lamb chops last Saturday. Then I cut five pieces into bite size since we were eating with rice. With the pan juice, I mixed it with the Gravox paste and made the gravy.
With the four pieces left, I made a western style meal out of it tonight. When I cook I like the meals I make to be bursting with colours especially when it is western food.
I think cauliflower, carrot and brocolli make a fantastic combination. Not only are they full of nutrition, the colours make the meal truly appetising.
The verdict: Mum and Chloe thought the meal was absolutely yummy, better than those sold outside.
Well I have to admit that I do not cook delicious meal all the time. The lamb chops can become tasteless if I have to cook more than 25 pieces or more at one go. This happened because the lamb chops were not being marinated thoroughly.
I remember when I first started cooking lamb chops, it only cost RM5-6 per kg. Now the price has gone up to a whopping RM18 per kg, about three times more! The nine pieces cost RM25, still considers cheap as compared to eating outside.
At first I thought a friend opened a shop in 1 Borneo without telling me. But on closer look, there is an additional 't' at the middle and therefore it definitely does not belong to my friend.
This is the first time in two years I did not spend Deepavali in Kuala Lumpur. For the past two years I was able to join Tracy Ten to visit her school former Vice Principal - Mr. Muniady’s open house in Klang.
Today leaders of Canaanland Celebration met together at Kyrugma House to seek God and plan for 2009 from 9a.m.-12.15p.m.
We had a great time encouraging and blessing each other. I felt God’s presence very strongly. We deliberated on the major events to be held next year.
After the meeting Sharon Lai, Monica Leong, Andrew Tai, Alice Hiew and I went to Damai Phase IV (‘Lau Di Fang’) for lunch. All the ladies had ‘char keow teow’ while Andrew had fried noodles. Elizabeth Chung came to join us and she had ‘cheong fun’.
Thank God that the rain stopped when we left DamaiPlaza after raining on and off since Friday morning.
Then all the ladies went to 1 Borneo for shopping in Elizabeth’s car while Andrew went home. There was no parking bay left on the Lower Ground Floor and Elizabeth proceeded to drive up and park on the Second Floor.
The first store we went to was Daiso Japan. I bought a head band, a pack of Scented Potpourri Sachet, a plastic container to put the bread for breakfast, a stapler and a pair of scissors. Everyone bought something from this store except Elizabeth. In fact she did not buy anything at all the whole time we were in 1 Borneo.
I bought a blouse each from Message and Viva. Sharon bought two blouses from Hang Ten. Monica bought a blouse from Message, after deciding hard on whether to buy or not. Alice bought a blouse from Viva.
We went into a lot of shoes, accessories and clothes shop but the only things that we managed to buy had been mentioned above.
I thoroughly enjoyed spending time shopping with all these ladies.
On the way home, I dropped by Servay Hypermarket again since there was no more rain. I could buy the sack of rice I missed out yesterday. I grabbed the last 10kg packet available of the Hill Rice. There were a lot of people in the hypermarket eventhough it was dinnertime.
I wanted to go for grocery shopping after Canaanland Celebration today. Since the rain was still coming down (since Friday) when I left Kyrugma House, I decided to skip my usual place of Servay Hypermarket and opted for Giant Kolombong (all because it has an undercover carpark). I do not really like to do grocery shopping in Giant.
As I tried to turn into Kolombong Road from Tuaran Road, the road was blocked. Construction work is going on outside Giant Kolombong to make the drain wider.
I had no choice but to go to Servay Hypermarket. I thought that with the rain coming down, there would be less people. I was wrong. The amount of crowd was the same like on any other Sundays.
I used the basket to put the stuff I wanted to buy instead of using the trolley. I spent considerable amount of time in choosing the vegetables. After weighing all the carrots, cauliflower, cabbages and ‘choy sum’, I went to see whether there were any lamb chops for sale. For the last month or so, Servay has not been selling any lamb chops. (Twice recently I had to buy them from Giant Kolombong).
I chose a dozen of chicken wings and put half a dozen each into two plastic bags. I then proceeded to get two brown onions. After finishing both these tasks, I went to the nearest weighing station but the worker was out of sight. I forgot what was occupying my mind at the time and forgot to go to the other weighing station.
I only realised at the check-out counter when the cashier took out the three plastic bags with chicken wings and onions that I had not weighed those stuff yet. I paid for all the rest. I carried the two plastic bags and went outside to the counter to put the bags there while I went into the hypermarket again to weigh the stuff and bought some more things – toilet papers and a carton of milk.
After paying for them, I went to the counter outside to take my umbrella and told the workers I would come back to take the two bags after I put some stuff into the car. I found that grocery shopping with the rain coming down was really a pain in the rear. I can only use one hand to hold the plastic bags while the other hand was occupied with the umbrella.
After coming home and surfing the internet, I wanted to rest for a couple of hours before dinnertime. But I did not even have a chance to touch my body on the bed.
My brother and sis-in-law met our former neighbours from Sandakan at Damai while having afternoon tea. Mum and I went to meet them and escorted them back to our house for chit-chat while my brother and sis-in-law went elsewhere.
Tonight we went to a coffee shop near my office for dinner. Our neighbours said that they like to go there to eat. (The bosses like to go to this shop to eat the fish and fishcake as well. And sometimes when we had in-house lunch, the bossed also ordered from this shop)
The menu was as follows.
1. Asam Fish Head Curry.
2. Stir Fried Veges with Fishcake.
3. Stir Fried Capsicum with Ostrich Meat.
The food was a tad salty for all of us. The food also lacked ‘wok hei’.
I was not fast enough to pay for the bill which came to RM50 for 5 people.
Today we had our monthly catered food for lunch after Canaanland Celebration.
The menu is as follows.
1. Braised Pork in Soya Sauce. 2. Chicken Curry with Potatoes. 3. Stirred Fry French Beans. 4. Brussel sprouts. 5. Yellow Watermelon.
The cook came quite early to collect back all his stuff. The church workers were busy eating and therefore I went to the kitchen to get some plastic bags to put the leftovers into them. Monica Leong, Mimi Yew and her two daughters Janice and Justine were helping as well.
There was another plastic bag at the bottom of the dining table with lots of bones inside. I was told to bring it home if I have a dog. I do not have a dog but my brother who lives four doors away has and even with bones, I do not like them to go to waste. So I decided to bring it back.
While I was taking up the bag of bones, Mimi was commenting something like, ‘it would be good to eat with rice’. I went hysterical. Bones with rice for humans. Yeah! The rest of the people also had a hearty laugh after I explained to them my thought.
Two nights ago when I came home after work, mum told me I forgot to bring down my hand washing for her to hang on the clothes line to dry. She found the bucket with the washed clothes in them when she came into my room to sweep the floor.
Yesterday I forgot to wear earrings to work again. (Thank God this is not a life and death situation)
This morning I was running slightly late for Canaanland Celebration. Normally I am too lazy to park the car properly as long as the car is within the yellow box. But today I made extra effort and made sure the car was parked straight. While I was doing this, I realised Monica Leong and Lilian Tan were doing the same thing. I found it to be quite amusing. There 3 ladies making sure their car was parked straight at the same time. In the midst of the ‘amusement’, I did not take the car keys out from the car ignition! I only realised when I was inside Kyrugma House when I wanted to put the keys inside a small bag I have reserved for all my keys. I had to request my sis-in-law to pass the spare car keys to me and my brother came to the rescue three hours later.
The theory of my absentmindedness is somehow linked to my insufficient sleep was totally incorrect because I had 8.5 hours of sleep last night.
Some people just cannot take instructions. They think they know everything eventhough they do not know much. The function of the mouth is not only to eat but also to talk, in particularly to use it to ask questions when one do not know much. It is not fair when I am the one who gets blame for someone else’s laid back attitude. *sigh*
I have not been out of the office for lunch for a long time. Today I managed to break my normal routine. The bosses left work around 11.30a.m. My colleague NE and I went out for lunch to the foodcourt at Giant Kolombong. There was a drizzle while we were walking there.
I wanted to have ‘Pan Mee’, the same one I took away last Sunday for lunch. I asked the person at the stall whether he put sauce into the dry version of the noodles and he said he does not put. So I changed my mind. I would prefer dry ‘Pan Mee’ with sauce.
I ended up having ‘Soto Daging’ – a bowl for RM4. This one is less salty and has less MSG as compared to the one I normally have at a coffeeshop called 'Mifta'.
On the way home, there was massive traffic congestion due to the rain. Some parts of the road outside my housing estate were flooded by about half a feet.
Tonight I had extra dose of energy and made sushi again.
The boss had a meeting in the office during lunchtime. He told his wife (lady boss) to order from Pizza Hut online at noon.
The following pizzas were delivered to the office around 12:45p.m.
1. 2 Large Pan Super Supreme
2. 2 Large Pan Pepperoni
3. 1 Large Pan Hawaiian Supreme
4. 1 Large Pan Thai Seafood
5. 1 Large Chicken Supreme
6. 1 Large Royal Masala
I had a slice each of No. 1 and 4-6. The first two slices tasted great since the stomach was hungry. But by the time the third and fourth rounds, the flavours seemed to taste the same. My stomach felt so bloated after lunch.
When everyone almost finished eating and enjoying drinking the chinese tea, one of my colleagues, YKK mentioned that if JE is around, probably there would not be any leftover. YKK was probably correct. No one dared to confirm his thought but deep down I am sure we all agreed with him.
Altogether there were fourteen people devouring 64 slices of pizza. There were ten slices leftover. Some of my colleagues took away to eat at home while I ended up throwing away four empty boxes. The office boy already threw out two other empty boxes before he left work earlier than I.
When I reached home after work, I had stomach ache. That was probably from the pizzas. I had to go to the loo to relief myself. Glad to say I am ok now.
(Since I am on the topic of pizza, I just realize I have not made it for yonks. I am not free to do it on Deepavali. Oh well, some other time)
I have been busy with work as usual but at least I do not have to work OT during weekends for a few weeks now.
Yesterday I finally finished one of the company accounts for the auditors to audit. That was really a big relief to me. Before 2008 is over, I have two more companies accounts to get ready for audit as well. I am aiming to finish before the deadline.
Today I managed to file away a lot of documents on my desk and around where I am sitting. This is not an urgent task to do and therefore I have allowed the documents to accumulate until several hours were insufficient for me to file them all. Shall continue to do so tomorrow if I do not have more important and urgent matters to attend to.
I have not mentioned anything about my colleagues for about one and a half month. That’s a record!Does that mean nothing happen at work lately?? That would be the furtherest from the truth.When JE took indefinite leave at the end of July, most of my colleagues and I thought that life would be much better in the office. How wrong we were.Instead what happened after he left really shocked us. Scenario 1 My colleague NE bought ice-cream and put it in the freezer with her name written on the wrapper. She already took one bite and therefore the wrapper should be visibly seen to be opened. But “someone” (we know who the culprit was) took the ice-cream and had a field day with it! Scenario 2
The “someone” could not finish the beef noodles soup during lunch. Instead of disposing the leftover inside a plastic bag to be thrown into the rubbish bin, she dumped the food into the sink! When NE saw the food in the sink, she shouted but the “someone” quickly walked out from the pantry and pretended nothing happened.
Scenario 3 Most of the time I am the first one to arrive at the office.
Before I do anything else, I have to switch on the following items.
1. Modem 2. Air-conditioner 3. Electric water boiler 4. Water pump 5. Network connection
At the end of last week as I was about to switch on the air-conditioner, I could not find the remote control for it. I searched every nook and corner but still the thing was nowhere to be found. I went into the boss’s room and took the remote control to switch on the air-conditioner.After the two colleagues who are sitting nearest to the air-conditioner arrived, I asked them whether they had seen the remote control. They said they saw the thing the day before. They searched for it after I went away but until today no one mentioned to me they have not found the thing.
I guess to them losing the thing is not a big deal since it does not belong to them. They do not consider it to be their responsibility to look after things in the office eventhough most of the things do not belong to them. Sometimes I really do not know what is wrong with these people. They act as if they are the bosses and the real bosses really have to kowtow to them.
Mr. Chang invited our whole family for dinner to Gaya Seafood Restaurant. His parents-in-law and sister-in-law came to Kota Kinabalu from Peninsula Malaysia since Thursday to attend a relative’s wedding banquet.
The menu was as follows.
1. Poached Prawns
2. Wet Buttered Crabs
3. Herbal Chicken
4. Stir Fried Fish with Ginger and Shallots
5. Two types of Shellfish – Elephant Trunk Clams and ‘Tung Fung Lo’
6. Veges
7. Garlic Rice
I did not eat a single prawn. The serving for the crabs were really large until there were leftover. The herbal chicken was very soft and tasty. The fish was very fresh. The shellfish were cooked to perfection – not too soft and not too hard.
I left work at 1.45p.m. and drove to Kyrugma House to attend the Usher Training given by a Singapore pastor, Ps. Lam Tien Keong. The training was attended by members from BCCM Likas and Canaanland Celebration.
He is such a humourous man. We all had a ball with all his antics and jokes. Nevertheless, we all I am sure had learnt something applicable for our ministry.
Eventhough the training was done in Mandarin, I could understand about 75% of what he was talking about.
Before some of us left at about 4.15p.m., we had some refreshments – fried meehoon and bun.
A car was blocking my car at the car park and thanks to Sharon Lai who managed to reverse it out for me. If I were to do it, I think I may have to take more than five minutes to do that.
When I login to Facebook this morning at work, I had a pleasant surprise. One of my favourite high school teachers had finally joined! I was so thrilled. I have been trying all kind of ways to be in contact with her and finally my persistence paid off.
After one of my colleagues came to the office, I drove to the main Post Office to collect a registered letter from Standard Chartered Bank.
The previous week the postman had tried to deliver the letter to my house twice but mum was at the backyard and did not hear the postman honking his motorbike.
I arrived at the post office slightly after 8a.m. and I was glad I did not try to drive in the car park at the post office. There were so many cars circling the car park and some cars were already double parking. I parked at Segama and walked over.
I had to give the person attending to me my Identity Card. He went inside the building to find my letter and I was happy to finally had the letter with the Standard Chartered Bank VISA Credit Card inside.
Sometimes if people do not collect their documents after a fortnight, the post office would send the documents back to the sender. They should give consideration for a longer period of time because sometimes people may be outstation or have gone overseas.
As I was driving out from my housing estate, I was glad that I managed to brake on time. There was a car in front of me doing 20km/h! I could not overtake since there were incoming cars on the next lane. When the car reached the main junction, I thought the driver was going to go straight but instead she made a half turn and went up the kerb. As we were outside the rice warehouse, I managed to overtake and saw that the driver is a lady who maybe in her forties. Thank God for His protection upon my life.
I arrived slightly late for Life Group at Mr. & Mrs. Chew Chong Bin’s house after doing some grocery shopping at Servay Hypermarket, Plaza Juta.
At Life Group tonight we were studying the life of Joseph, who despite of his early hardships in life after being sold by his brother, rose up to be a man of prominence in Egypt. There are so many things we can learn from his life.
I stayed and had supper, which I rarely do. We had homemade soup noodles (‘yee mien’) and drank ‘lo hon ko’ herbal tea.
I arrived home at almost 11p.m. and did not go to dreamland until after midnight.
I was glad that WYY agreed to meet AK and I for dinner at this restaurant.
I made a booking for a table for three during lunchtime. I told the person attending to me on the phone that I would be using the sushi voucher and therefore to give us a table next to the sushi train.
AK and I arrived at the restaurant first and started digging into the plates of sushi before WYY arrived. WYY does not eat sushi and therefore she had ‘Ten Don’ (deep fried shrimp bowl with garlic rice) from the a-la-carte menu and one plate of boxing chicken.
We had a good time of eating and catching up with each other. I lost count how many times the waitress filled up our hot green tea.
I asked WYY why she did not call either AK and I when she thought that she does not have a single friend in this world. I was glad she explained that it was not that she does not consider us as her friends. She was so stressed up that she forgot and she thinks that family members should be the one to help her and not friends. So I am glad I have not failed her as a friend.
AK and I had altogether a dozen plates of sushi. We did not order anything else from the a-la-carte menu.
We arrived at the restaurant before 6.30p.m. and left at almost 10.00p.m. – almost 3.5 hours of great fellowship and encouraging each other.
(The previous time we had such a get together was about three years ago at Penang Restaurant at the Waterfront Kota Kinabalu)
Before we went to Warisan Square, Alice Hiew drove home to get her seasonal pass for parking at this commercial development. Monica Leong and I were inside Sharon Lai’s car and she drove to Alice’s house to fetch her so that we can all go in one car.
Sharon and Monica each bought a pair of shoes from Charles & Keith.
When Alice and I were queuing up for the fitting room at Padini, a couple tried to jump queue. I thought they had a friend already trying on clothes inside the fitting room so I let them passed by us. But when someone came out from one of the rooms after trying on the clothes, the couple was about to walk into the room but I stopped them by saying, ‘Excuse me’. They had no choice but to wait for their turn.
Monica also bought a blouse at Padini. I found one black blouse, extremely comfortable but as I was about to queue up to pay, I saw the workmanship was not that fantastic as the threads were all sticking out and decided to give it a miss.
Alice found a pink blouse at one of the boutiques and is deciding on whether to buy or not. She could take her time since her workplace RHB is located at Warisan Square as well.
Alice treated us to McD’s vanilla flavour icecream cone. Thanks Alice.
The last place we went to was Factory Outlet Store (F.O.S). I bought four blouses, three really thin ones which are suitable to wear at home and one thicker one. And all for a total bargain price of RM24!!! Three for RM7 each and one for RM3. I cannot be the judge right now as I have not worn or washed the clothes. They are made in Cambodia. Sharon also bought two t-shirts.
This was the first time I went shopping wearing a pair of 2 inches high heels for more than three hours and thank God my feet were not painful.
Sharon drove Monica and I back to Kyrugma House to get our car before she drove Alice home.
Before going home, I stopped by Tong Hing Supermarket at Damai Plaza to buy ham and Recipe House to buy 2 packets of seaweed and a packet of sushi rice.
Next I went to Servay Hypermarket at Plaza Juta to get some crabmeat but found the ones they have for sale too expensive and ended up buying the crabmeat at Giant Kosan. Before I went to the check-out counter, I bumped into Michael Heng. He was in his sports gear, probably after exercise.
I believe life itself is a gift from God and in having a relationship with Him.
I am on this earth for a purpose. I do not seek to change the world but to touch the world of one more person if I could, as long as there is breath in me; and to be a blessing to others.
A food lover who totally agrees with the chinese saying 'to be able to eat is prosperity'.
For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favour and honour; no good thing does He withhold from those whose walk is blameless. Psalm 84:11
