My 5 Cents

I am in KL....

Runny nose in the morning...

Running around whole day...

Soccer at Mamak at night...

Back in my college...

I still can drive in KL with a manual car...

Sleeping late....

A reminder of my ex-college life =)

Christmas week
Christmas in Bukit Mertajam this year was rather quiet. Gone were the days when I could join the youth fellowship to go carroling, gone were the days of frantic christmas present buying. Christmas has literally become yet another day. This is especially reinforced by the fact of the culture here. Shops everywhere are playing Chinese New Year music instead of Christmas songs! Bah Humbug!

YWAM (Penang)
Few days before Christmas, I made a trip down to Penang to attend a YWAM: DTS promotion program. My aunty brought a bunch of YWAMers from Kuala Lumpur to help the local YWAM team "enlighten" the post high school students about various opportunities to serve in YWAM. My brother was the only musician that day. We siblings have music blood deep within us.

Unfortunately, as much as I would like to participate in DTS; Christina is going off to do her DTS in Germany =); I have already planed to settle down in Perth and start my career right off. No pre-breather before I launch myself into my career.

In fact the only pre-work rest has already been taken here in Bukit Mertajam. The past few weeks have been a mindset changing experience. I personally feel that God has indeed close the doors for me back in Malaysia, at least for the this moment. Perth like the land of Canaan has been promised, lays right in front of me to step forth and conquer.

D-Home High Tea Function
I met my first Dato! and made friends with him!! LOL!! I also met Wei Joa after two years being away from Malaysia.

D-home is a non-government organisation that helps families who have family members suffering from mental disorders. They provide awareness programs, education on mental illnesses, and recently added a couple of trained therapist into their league. So now they even provide counselling and therapy programs. 

The high-tea function was a way to end the year by getting all the committee members, workers, volunteers, and clients for a simple get together. The meeting started with a few introductions by the committee and the standard thank you speaches. This was followed by lunch and then more speeches. Malaysians really like to talk!

It was only after the even that I really got a chance to talk to the committee and get to know them more. Many of them have also suffered from various mental illnesses, therefore making them the best candidates to spearhead this organisation. When I first started doing psychology, Malaysia had only 17 official psychologist. Now coming back after two years, I am quite glad to see that there is a slow and steady movement of growth in the dissemination of mental awareness. Not too sure how many psychologist we have now though

Christmas eve
My family went to Peniel Christian Fellowship, PCF (Used to be called Prai Christian Fellowship). Before I move to Grace church last time (I am currently now in Faith Christian Community church, changed church with my family), I used to attend PCF when I was a baby. But my family wanted to move to a church that is nearer to my home and we found Grace church.

Anyway, we went back to my old church for a Christmas play. My parents still have many friends back in PCF, many of them have not seen me for a very long time. Honestly, even if I were to meet them on the streets, I would not be able to recognise them.

The play was basically a short glimpse of the bible and the reason for Jesus' birth and death. It can be seen that they took quite an effort in preparing the props. At the end of the play, they had a very un-christmas like performance of a 24 Chinese drums. The analogy was something like drums have always been used as a form of communication with people. So the drumming at the end signifies the communication with us and Christ. Well, something along those lines. But none the less it was a good performance.

Oh I also met an old friend from my youth days. Enrique, he acted the part as the devil. Whohoho..

Pastor Kheng Loon
 

Adam and Eve

My friend Enrique, a.k.a serpent.
My brother calls him Jabba the Hutt cause of his long tail

Oh, holy night 

Hey! Isn't that Joseph? Wait! Aint that a lady?
They ran out of actors!

Light my way


Unchristmas like character.

But it was a good performance

Apparently no one told them that
standing on the drums can spoil them

My 5 cents:
Run here run there! Busy busy busy!

Happy New Year

WARNING
Please Don't Laugh Too Loud

Mertajam Hill
One of the things that I miss about Bukit Mertajam is Tok Kun. Whenever I talk about hiking in my hometown, Tok Kun comes to my mind. The lush green flora, stupid monkeys, the hammocks in between the trees, etc.

Lush greens, you don't get this in Perth!

After two years, I find myself back in a familiar place. This time armed with my photography gear. The hiking routes are still pretty much the same and for the first time, I am able to capture the beauty of it to share with everyone else.

Beauty in the sky and beauty on the land
 

For those who do not know. Tok kun is basically Mertajam Hill, hence the name Bukit (It means hill in Malay) Mertajam. Anyway, Tok kun is split up into two trails: One which requires you to hike into the junggle following a dirt track it later joins up with the tar-road, while the other is a tar-road which leads you to the top. Normally I would used the hiking trail as there is alot more to see. It it also take double the engery and effort to climb. It also can be quite tricky especially with the slippery rocks and wet leaves.

Left: Dirt road; Right: Tar-road
 

The scenery there is quite beautiful. Many people say there is nothing much to see. But personally I feel that it is just because we are rushing through the journey to get to the top and we do not stop long enough to try to find nature's beauty.

An old man doing Tai-Chi in the jungle

Monkey!!

We have huge bugs!!!!

As long as my feet

 

As much as I like to mock, poke and make fun of my own country. It does has its own beauty. Though I am applying to get my PR and settle down in Perth. Malaysia is still very much my home country and though it is a thrid world country, with interesting political signatures, I will, and can, say that I am proud to be a Malaysian =)

Proud to be Malaysian

My 5 cents:
Third world country, thrid world mentality, first world beauty.

My 5 cents:

"...I am determined. to make the best out of my holidays. The heart is a hardy-creature which hardly knows when to just give in and embrace the silence of darkness."

-Gravity like lunar landing-

****************

Also I am going down for a function in Penang. D'home is an organisation that helps cares deal with family members who suffer from mental illnesses. They would be having a christmas gathering, with all their clients. I am going there as an escot for my mom and also to get to know a couple more psychologist in Malaysia. Good place to network. Also, Wei Joa will be there!!!! Ah my wonderful mamak and football kaki! Nyak! nyak! nyak! Finding company in Malaysia is tough!!!

Deciphering the Will of God
And I only thought that high school leavers are the only ones experiencing the cross-road phenomena. The cross-road phenomena is when we come to a stage in life when we are faced with multiple option but can only make one choice.

Finishing uni now, I realised that my limits are endless. I suddenly found myself standing in the entrance of the world's largest train station with a free ticket in my hand. The ticketmaster gave a friendly gesture and ushers me into the waiting area where I see multiple platforms and trains pulling in and pulling out.

I am a planner. A very kia-siap and kia-su planner. Most of my life and days are planed in advance and I irked at the thought that I cannot control my life. Paradoxically, I am suppose to surrender every thought, action, plan, and desire to God? The incongruency drives me crazy at times. I guess this is what stewardship means, to be a manager and not own the things that are given by God.

I have already started a prayer group. Interestingly, my prayer group consist of people who are in the same boat as me. Fresh graduates deciphering the will of God.

Prayer points:
1) Relationship with people in General
2) My job and what it means to be a Christian
3) Overall calling and purpose.

God has provided me with an awesome job, good church, and wonderful support group. But I believe that there is alot more than just work, ministry, and fellowship. I am just afraid that I will miss the best path and I would then need to face a rushing current and fight my way upwards. I do not believe that God will abandon us even if we make the wrong choice. No thunderbolt. We would most probably be still living, just that we would have to work harder on the consequences of our choices 

Suddenly the song Shawdowfeet, by Brooke Fraser, makes alot of sense. I guess BM will not be a place of holiday making afterall. But interestingly, God has brought me back to my hometown. To my little corner in my room, to decipher His will for my life in Perth.

*PS - Lineke was right about fearing rejection. I guess my fear for rejection level has pass its threshold. I used to be able to hold this philosophy, "Reject mar reject lor!" (Reject all you want!)

My 5 cents:
Interesting what a cup of coffee and a friend can affect your life under 24 hours.

Shelly Bridge BBQ
I was suppose to post this up before I left for Perth, but I got so busy house moving and all until I forgot to post this up. Anyway, now back in BM, and with a couple of hours to spare (actually I am bored sick!), I can now reminisces of what I did in Perth.

It was Sunday, after church and all. I was still rushing around packing my stuff and allocating them into boxes and sending them away to various friends' houses. I did not want to trouble one single person by putting all my boxes there. So I separated all my stuff into three places.

Back to the barbie, Jackie came and pick me up at about 4pm-ish to Shelly Bridge. We were the first to arrive and we chose a nice spot to settle down. The rest of the "crew" arrived a few minutes later, at first ignoring us, thinking that we were some random couple pak-thor-ing (dating).

Anyway, we got our gear ready and it was time to start the barbie. One thing I love about Perth is that BBQ's stoves are always easily available at parks. The government does a good job in providing such facilities. But I guess the applauding shoud not only go to the government but the citizens who keeps the facilities clean. If it was in Malaysia, you would have people stealing the metal stuff to sell as scrap metal!

As you can imagine, the food was wonderful, company was great. And the weather was almost near perfect. After our scrumptious dinner, we went for a walk.

I always liked Shelly Bridge. The scenery there is really beautiful. The water always calm and on a good day you might even get to see dolphins. Sometimes I would just ride my bike here to just do my quiet time.   

It was a good night, with good company. Missing them now =(

My 5 cents:
Missing Perth