Selwyn Tai’s Full Moon Dinner

Tonight attended Selwyn Tai’s full moon at Grand Port View Restaurant. He is the second son of Andrew and Rebecca Tai.

Altogether there were about 20 tables of people. The food was ok. My only complaint was the layout of the buffet table. The restaurant should have put serving trays side by side instead of slanting. Short people like me cannot even reach the other side of the serving trays.

Before attending the dinner, I went to KK Plaza to buy the Schwarzkopf shampoo and conditioner. The salesperson told me that after all the stocks have been sold out, the distributors in KK would not be ordering anymore due to being too pricey in recent years. Is it time for me to stock up or to consider alternative?

After KK Plaza, I parked the car outside Nagasaki Japanese Restaurant and dropped by Tong Hing Supermarket. I have not been to this supermarket for a long time and only discovered tonight the layout of the supermarket has been changed. I like the new layout. It is more customer friendly than before, where there were too many stacked products across all the aisles.

After dinner, Sophia Tsen and I went Parkson Grand, Wawasan Plaza for shopping.

Form BE

Reminder to everyone that your Form BE ie. Return Form of an Individual (Resident Who Does Not Carry on Business) for Year of Assessment 2008 will be due at the end of next month.

I did a rough estimation of how much balance of income tax I have to pay to IRD.

My income for 2008 increased by approx. 30% as compared to income for 2007. But this time round I have to pay 3x more income tax of what I paid last year for income for 2007. Argh!

Properties

My bosses have a few properties that they have been renting out to tenants.

Sometimes I also get blamed for the tenants’ inability to pay rent. But today one of the tenants paid three months rental eventhough he still owes a few more months. At least the boss can get off my back for a while.

Quite a number of friends had asked me why I do not invest in a property and collect rental from it. I told them if I buy a property, I would have to borrow money from the bank and get myself into debt.

Most of the time renting out a property to tenant involved lots of hassles. No doubt good paying tenants do exist.

But I also heard of a lot of horror stories happened to different landlords. Some of them are as follows.

1. Rental in arrears.

2. Stealing fixtures and fittings upon leaving.

3. Demanding deposit back eventhough insufficient notice of moving out was given as stipulated in the tenancy agreement.

4. Arrears in water and/or electricity bill upon moving out.

5. The property turned into a garbage dump site.

There are definitely other ways of investing besides acquiring a property.

Chicken Pox

My nephew Barnabas has been having chicken pox for a fortnight. Now his father also contracted the virus and would be isolated for at least the next ten days.

I had chicken pox when I was in my first year of tertiary education in Down Under. At the time I was sharing a room with a senior and I contracted the virus from another house mate who arrived back from Kelantan, West Malaysia. Her much younger sister contracted the virus and after that passed to her. And in turn she passed to me.

During that time, i had to buy food and cook for myself since my housemates and I did not share cooking. I also went to see the doctor alone. If I can survive that period alone, I think anyone can survive it with their family members around them. I had the chicken pox for only a week and this is the first time I heard that it could go on for more than ten days.

Lunch at Recipe House

Had lunch with Monica Leong after Canaanland Celebration. Service was less to be desired when we wanted to order. The waitress was busy serving other customers with food and neglected us for five minutes. At least she can just plonk the menu on our table and continued with her work.

We both ordered this salmon skin set lunch for RM11.90 nett. Had good time of fellowship.

Monica wanted to make sushi and asked me some of the ingredients she had to buy.

I also bought a packet of udon. Will have it when mum and Aunty Alice go to SDK some time this week.

I Will Rise

I Will Rise

There's a peace I've come to know
Though my heart and flesh may fail
There's an anchor for my soul
I can say "It is well"

Jesus has overcome
And the grave is overwhelmed
The victory is won
He is risen from the dead

And I will rise when He calls my name
No more sorrow, no more pain
I will rise on eagles' wings
Before my God fall on my knees
And rise
I will rise

There's a day that's drawing near
When this darkness breaks to light
And the shadows disappear
And my faith shall be my eyes

Jesus has overcome
And the grave is overwhelmed
The victory is won
He is risen from the dead

And I will rise when He calls my name
No more sorrow, no more pain
I will rise on eagles' wings
Before my God fall on my knees
And rise
I will rise

And I hear the voice of many angels sing,
"Worthy is the Lamb"
And I hear the cry of every longing heart,
"Worthy is the Lamb"
And I hear the voice of many angels sing,
"Worthy is the Lamb"
And I hear the cry of every longing heart,
"Worthy is the Lamb"

And I will rise when He calls my name
No more sorrow, no more pain
I will rise on eagles' wings
Before my God fall on my knees
And rise
I will rise

This song ministered to me during Praise and Worship time in church this morning. I sobbed especially during the part 'No more sorrow, no more pain'. Thank you Lord for touching me and being real to me.

Blessed Birthday CTY

I really thank God for making our paths to cross.

May God continues to guide you and your family to even better and greater days ahead.

Trust in Him and do not turn to your left or to your right but focus on Him who is the author and perfecter of your faith.

'The one who calls you is faithful and He will do it'. (1 Thessalonians 5:24)

'I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know Him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and His incomparably great power for us who believe.' Ephesians 1:17-19a

Dinner at Berjaya Palace Hotel

What dinner was more important until I had to miss CTY’s birthday dinner?

Actually if it was not for the fact that the person who invited me for the function was the Organising Chairman, I would not have to think twice and declined his invitation outright.

My ING Insurance Agent DL invited Sophia Tsen and I to be part of his company’s annual dinner and presentation night.

I parked the car near ‘Chiu Thai Seng’ Supermarket and went in Sophia’s car. I was glad she suggested we did that because if I were to drive up to the hotel and find a parking bay, I think I would change my mind altogether and leave that place without a second thought. Not only was the vicinity within the carpark was so steep, there were hardly any more parking bays available. The security guards were not helpful in assisting the guests to the hotel in finding a parking bay.

The function was held at the top floor of the hotel.

We met DL at the entrance and after tearing the perforated part of our ticket for lucky draw, he ushered us into the ballroom. All his guests were seated at the last row from the stage. Almost everyone was wearing cowboy/girl gear as the theme for the night was Cowboy Night.

In between an eight course Chinese dinner, we were entertained by different people, which included dancing, singing, video clips, etc. Recipients of awards also gave their speeches.

DL organised the function superbly. It would be a hard act to follow for the organising person next year.

Before the night ended, it was time for lucky draw. Sophia won a prize (as she wondering whether she would) and there was another winner from our table as well. And the person who picked out the lucky draw was DL.

This was a fridge magnet given to each person to commemorate the event.

Satay and Tg. Aru Beach

After lunch, my brother and sis-in-law went home.

CTY wanted to bring his wife to have ‘sotong’ at Bukit Padang. At first I thought he wanted to bring her for hiking and then have the ‘sotong’ so I did not want to join them. But when I realised they were only going there to eat, I decided to join them.

But on the way from leaving our housing estate, CTY asked me what other food we can eat besides ‘sotong’. So I mentioned satays behind Cathay Cineplexes in the city.

CTY alighted his wife and I in front of the satays shop while he went to look for a parking bay. I ordered 10 sticks each of chicken, beef and lamb. Since we only had lunch not long ago, the satays did not taste as delicious as if we were hungry. Nevertheless we managed to finish eating the 30 sticks. CTY had two hot drinks while his wife and I had one each.

Our next destination was Tg. Aru Beach since CTY and his wife have not seen the beach during daytime.

After standing and observing the people for ten minutes, we went to sit down to have a drink. CTY ordered a large glass of pineapple juice and his wife coconut juice. The ‘ABC’ I ordered was served in a medium size round plastic container with two pieces of watermelon and a piece of papaya sticking on the side of the container. What a sight!

We chit-chatted and before we could view the sunset, we had to leave the beach because I had to go home and get ready for dinner.

Lunch at Arriva

Arriva is situated in Lintas Plaza, the corner lot facing the newly built carpark after the roundabout. This clubhouse is quite new. Set breakfast is at RM4.50++ excluding drink. Set lunch is at RM12.00 which includes soup, main course and herbal drink.

CTY treated my elder brother, sister-in-law, his wife and I to lunch as tomorrow will be his birthday but his wife would be going back to West Malaysia on the same day. And tonight I could not join them for ‘bakuteh’ dinner as I have a function to attend.

My sis-in-law found a lipstick smudge on her glass of water.

My lamb chops with sauce were quite tasty though some of them thought the chops were too tough. CTY did not like his Curry Chicken.

Thanks to CTY for the lunch.

Curry Chicken

Lamb Chop

Rice and Vege

Prawns