Hari Raya Qurban (Sacrifice)/Hari Raya Haji 2007

Living in a multi racial society like Malaysia, we observe a lot of public holidays as compared to many other countries. There are fourteen public holidays nationally and Sabah as a State has another four days for namely Good Friday, Harvest Festival (2 days) and TYT’s birthday/Malaysia Day. Altogether as Sabahan Malaysians we have eighteen days of public holidays per year.

This year I still have 15.5 days of annual leave but I won’t be taking any for the Christmas/New Year period. In 2008 I will be entitled to 21 days of annual leave.

Today I woke up around 10am. I haven’t woken up at that hour for a long time. But then I went to dreamland at almost 2am which meant I only slept for eight hours.

I did not go anywhere and decided to relax at home today. The weather has been cooling without much sun and now the rain has come down. Such a nice and cooling day for a change.

Eventhough I enjoy buffet spread, I can eat simply as well. For brunch, I opened a small can of Yeo’s Mutton Curry with Potatoes (recommended to me by Sharon Lai a few months ago) with the leftover fried meehoon from yesterday. For afternoon tea, I had an egg tart (which is also grannie’s favourite). (Maybe another thing to eat more of and live longer life :))

Tonight Chloe Chong and Alistair Ng are going to perform at the Gaya Christmas Celebration organised by the Sabah Council of Churches and Dewan Bandaraya Kota Kinabalu (KK City Hall), an annual event third time running.

Read more about the Gaya Christmas Celebration 2007 here
http://www.eventmalaysia.net/gxc

Snack

This is one of my favourite snack. It is called Hokaido Shredded Squid (also known as cuttlefish).

Before my uncle Peter Lee came from Hong Kong a few months back to celebrate grannie’s 102 birthday, I specially requested him to get this for me.

It is available here but the price is very expensive. It’s a bit cheaper in Hong Kong compared to here.

Love and Forgiveness

As a Christian, I have been struggling with these two topics for many years.

How can I love (agape) and forgive those people who have done the following things to me?

1) Leave a deep hurt and scar in my heart
2) Said things that unkind or unnecessary
a) I had been accused of having an affair with a colleague.
b) I had been told I acted like a boss eventhough I was only acting out my
responsibility.
c) And so many others.
3) Etc.

But God’s words in Matthew 6:14-15 ‘For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins’.

When Rev. James Wong spoke in Canaanland Celebration on 18 November 2007, he mentioned something like ‘If you have not been hurt, how would you know how to love deeply? If you have not been totally forgiven, how would you know what forgiveness is’.

Again the Lord reminded from the Lord’s Prayer ‘Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors’ (Matthew 6:12). Moreover Christ left us an example to follow in Luke 23:34, ‘Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing’ when He was crucified for not doing anything wrong.

Since I have been wrong by people, I would be the one who have to suffer the consequences if I do not forgive. Isn’t it kind of unfair that I am the one who have been hurt and I am the one who has to do something about it?

Living a victorious Christian life is indeed difficult but we have the grace and strength of God to help us to overcome our weaknesses. Apostle Paul in his letter to the Church in Corinth ‘But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness”… For when I am weak, then I am strong (2 Corinthians 12:9-10). God’s divine power enables us to overcome our weaknesses.

The best thing to do is to forgive and commit everything to God, who is Omniscience. I believe God is a fair God and He knows what He’s doing. He has allowed all these things to happen to us for a reason and I believe we can only grow from glory to glory through all these hardships. Otherwise, if our life is smooth sailing all the time, where will be our character molding to be like Christ come from?

Isn’t he cute?

This is Isaac Tai, born on 4 April 2007 to Andrew and Rebecca Tai.

Isaac is a joyful toddler and likes to smile a lot.

Yicks what are those?

Those are white hairs! And they don’t belong to either grannie or mum.
They are mine. Yes, I have white hairs for 20 years. Believe it or not?

I have a bad habit of pulling any one I can lay my sight on. This can get tedious and time consuming since they are everywhere on my head. I hold a mirror on one hand and a tweezer on the other.

Fridge Magnets

These are my collection of fridge magnets.

Secret of Long Life

If you want to live a long life, eat this fruit.

Why do I say that?

Grannie is 102y.o. and this is her favourite fruit – ‘hung mo’ (English skin) lychee. Need I say more?

That and drink at least one glass of beer every nite. :)

(Postscript: Inspiration at 1.30am: 'hung mo' lychee is called custard apple in English. We have a custard apple tree at the backyard to cater for grannie's demand)

Gift Boxes (Photo)

Gift Boxes

Last night as I was writing my blog regarding the dinner I had at Grace Point with Sharon Lai and Monica Leong on 16 November 2007, I suddenly remembered Monica’s request last Sunday.

She asked if I know where she could get small gift boxes to put lollies/candies inside for each of her eight invited guests for the Celebration of Hope programme.

I told her I had some and the size I can give her. She indicated that it was the right size she’s thinking of.

I vetted through my collection last night and I found I had exactly eight different flowery designs.

Well, you might ask where did I get all the gift boxes from?

Hehe I brought in all the way back from Down Under when I came back in 1994! I was working in a gift cards/boxes/ribbons, etc production company and all the boxes were considered ‘rejects’. Only we who worked in the factory will know which one to discard and bring home for our collection. And we were allowed to bring them home.

Warisan Square Christmas Gift Vouchers (Photo)