In Remembrance of a Friend

Passed Away on 11 Dec 2008

Lee Concert (29 November 2008)

Finally 29 November 2008, Saturday, had finally arrived !! Had been waiting for this day like I had been waiting for the day to strike 4D. The difference is 29 November 08 came and gone, but the day that I strike 4D seems to the day when the sun rises from the west - It will never happen ! Ha !

Lee Concert is held on this very day at the Singapore Indoor Stadium. This concert is so called 'organise' byLee Zhong Sheng, and he invited his good friends, who are also composers cum singers and who along their path of life had 'befriended' - guitar. The concert is a star studded event! We have Lee Zhong Sheng, but of course, Emil Zhou Hua Jian, Zhang Zheng Yue, Tanya Chua, Chen Qi Zhen and lastly my favourites, Mayday ! Lee Zhong Sheng had moved on from a composer to a guitar maker. He also presented guitars to the above-mentioned stars but Mayday went down to his factory in China and learn from him how to make guitar ! Is that cool or is that cool ?

All I can say is the concert is really different ! The stars presented a couple of songs and also told the audiences how they first got in touch with the guitars. In short, their fate with guitar ! It is a touching, heart warming and cosy concert. I loved Tanya's voice. Sultry and husky. Qi Zhen voice is also superb. Crystal clear ! Emil Chua is funny and entertaining. Zhang Zhen Yue's song, "我爱台妹” is such a fun song ! You can tell that Lee Zhong Sheng really enjoys singing. He is such a humble guy. Mayday really got the crowd standing ! Though not the whole concert hall, but their supportive fans were standing ! Of cos, me being the No.1 fan also stood up to gave them support.

This time round, Kelly flew back from Macau to watch the concert. Eddy, her boyfriend also came. Lena could not make it and so was replaced by Carol ! The 4 of us totally enjoyed the concert !

Life in the Waiting Room

Extracted from 'Strength for the Journey'

Life in the Waiting Room

“They who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength.” Isaiah 40:31 ESV

We’ve all heard the prayer: “Lord, make me more patient—and do it now!” Of all the spiritual virtues, patience is one that tends to be troublingly elusive. Let’s face it; if patience is a virtue, most of us are not very virtuous. It’s flat out hard to wait.

Think of how you feel when you’re late for a critical engagement and caught in a traffic jam. I find it tough when I’m in a hurry and rush to the “10 items or less” line at the grocery store, and then have to wait while the guy in front of me pulls 16 items out of the basket and casually chats with the clerk. How did I know it was 16 items? I counted them, piece by piece!

When life or people don’t measure up to our expectations, being patient can be quite a challenge. But it’s clear that God wants us to develop this character trait. After all, patience is more than a virtue—it’s a fruit of the Spirit. It reflects His very presence in our lives, for He is a patient God. If He weren’t, we all would have been annihilated long ago.

So what’s our problem?

There’s a good probability that our struggle with patience has been unsuccessful because we’ve been trying to focus on our own agendas and timelines and not trusting that, for reasons best known to Him, God may have a whole different schedule for us. Our propensity to live with a short fuse is all about forgetting that God puts us in His waiting room on purpose, because He is often doing something behind the scenes while we wait.

It might be as simple as teaching us to be more concerned with the struggles and feelings of others rather than being totally taken with our own interest and plans. There is plenty of evidence as well that God interrupts the normal flow of our lives to open unusual opportunities to be used of Him in unexpected ways. Or, it just may be that God wants to give us the opportunity to show what His patience is like by demonstrating it to others.

One thing we can be sure of—God’s time is always the right time. His management of our situations—whether in traffic or in the “ten items or less” line—is always the best management. Patience is not learning to wait for others; it’s learning to wait on God and to cooperate with His work in our lives. Next time impatience begins to stress you out, stop and ask God what He is saying to you; ask Him to show you why your expectations and schedule have been hijacked.

Then take a deep breath and trust. Trust that He is at work in you and in the situation.

So, the next time you have to wait, “wait for the Lord”!


YOUR JOURNEY…

• What kinds of situations make you impatient?


• What are you waiting for right now?


• What are some ways that God might be working in your situation while you wait?


• How has God caused you to better understand patience today, and what will you do to develop this important trait?

Free laptop? Not for me.

Was out having lunch with friends today. She was eagerly checking what is the better brand of laptop - Lenovo or Fujitsu. Her "company" is giving her a laptop so that she can work while overseas. The other friend commented that it means that the company would expect her to work from home and more like everywhere and everytime. I agree.

I believe in "no free meals in this world" so when a company give you a laptop, it means they expect you to work from home. If they give you a PDA, I guess they expect you to work 24 hours and action immediately.

It sets me thinking. Yeah, it is nice to have a laptop "given", and ego swells, but is it worth it? Is it worth risking the full rest when I get back home and during the weekends. As I reflect, my one and only thought is this - My rest is important to me. Without a healthy body and a restful mind, how to continue the fight next week.

As Long As There Is Diamond !

John: it's my wife's birthday
Peter: what's your gift to her?
John: i asked her what she wanted
Peter: what did she said?
John: anything, as long as there is a DIAMOND.
Peter: what did you gave her?
John: playing cards

Don't You Love To Say These To Someone ....

Up Your Service !

I love this advertisement ! Good - Cheap - Fast Service !

How to have "Ai Pih" & "Ai Cheeh" service.

This is only practical. It's 2 or the other. Take your pick !

My new found love ...

Why I am such a big Ashin fan (lead singer of Mayday aka 五月天) is because he is very talented person. I admire his talent in writing lyrics and I think they are like poems. I have been reading the lyrics penned by him and I fell in love.

It also ignited my love for Chinese. I scored a B3 for my 'O' level Chinese, which for me is quite a feat. So I'm trying my hand at writing in Chinese. As you can see, I had post 2 of them and I still had a few penned in my doddle book. I'm beginning to love Chinese and it is one of the most beautiful language. One word can mean so much.

My new found love ...

听不到吗？

你听不到吗？
我的失望，我的心伤，我的寂寞，
我的无奈，我的纳闷，我的悲痛。
你为何一直听不到。。。

我还不能忘记

过了这么久，只能对自己说。

我还想着你，你还在我心，
你还在我心，我不能忘记，
我不能忘记，我恨我自己。

我恨我自己，我不能忘记，
我不能忘记，你还在我心，
你还在我心，我还想着你。

以到了现在，我还不能忘记。

Mayday aka 五月天Concert (Part 1)

Being a fan of Mayday so of course there will be a blog on it... =)

I splurge again for their concert. This is the 2nd time that I bought their most expensive tickets which I think is the most worth it concert. First time when I attended their concert - Final Home 當我們混在一起世界巡迴演唱會 in 2005, all the concert goers stood up and wave with light stick in hand and it was like that all the way to the end. Everyone was high all the way and I scream and cheered for them all the way to the end of concert.

I remember a diver friend, Bernard who got me interested in this band. He bought their "farewell" concert CDs, becos 3 of them had to be enlisted to serve their country and the other 2 guys further their education in music. Before they got enlisted, their popularity was spreading fast and wide. After their enlistment, the 5 of them gathered again and started to put their heart and soul into making music and from then on, they were unstoppable.

You might ask "Why I like this group so much?" Well, they are super talented, funny, and their passion in music makes my heart flutter. Ashin, the main lead singer besides singing, composes song, write lyrics, arranges the music, plays the guitar, studied architecture in University and to me the cutest of all. He also wrote songs for some of the famous singers. Most of their songs are quite rock and upbeat but their less upbeat songs are also wonderful to the ears. You should listen to the lyrics. It is meaningful. Go read the lyrics to the song - Yang Cong (洋葱 ）aka Onions in Chinese and Gong Lang (憨人）aka Foolish Man in Min Nan Dialect (similar to Hokkien). Interesting song title isn't it ? The lyrics are meaningful !!

Oh yes, he is a saggi and so am I ... He is born on 6 Dec 1975.... =)

New Formula: We = Complacency ?!

com·pla·cent [kuhm-pley-suhnt]

–adjective 1. pleased, esp. with oneself or one's merits, advantages, situation, etc., often without awareness of some potential danger or defect; self-satisfied: The voters are too complacent to change the government.

2. pleasant; complaisant

Recently, the most talked about word is 'COMPLACENCY'. MM Lee Kwan Yee mentioned it.

“Complacency sets in when a people have not suffered any shock or setback for a long time, as in Singapore without jihadist terror attacks, although we have ceaselessly talked about it and prepared out (sic) defence.”

The Goverment matter-of-factly brought it up.

“People’s Action Party MP Lim Wee Kiak called complacency a ’side-effect’ of an overly successful Government and civil service.

‘This has bred a dependency mentality in our population who will blame the civil service and Government if any of their needs are not met,’ he noted.”

Newspaper published it. Netcitizens quoted it. A friend of mine told me she is loving her current state - complacency.

Seriously, how did this word get to be in such a state of popularity? I think it is more used than our favourite "Wah Kao" nowadays. I reckon the Mas Selamat Kastari case which had hit the headlines for weeks kickstarted the whole thing.

So are we Singaporeans complacent? Have we become self-satisfied? Have we become less aware of potential defects? Or had this word become the replacement for "tai-ching" blame? How did the blame get shifted from you-know-who to us?

Well, of cos you know the existence of Mas Selamat before he got this famous isn't it? If not, shame on you, shame on us. Cos Wah Kao, ignorance is not a bliss here, so stop being complacent !

I'm in the Mood for ... Baking !

After watching the chinese variety show "Qiang Tan Chen Gong", it got me in the mood to bake. Called Val, and asked her if she and the kids are keen to bake fruit bun aka rock bun. Got my sister excited and she agreed to come earlier so that we could bake in the afternoon.

After the kids woke up from their afternoon nap, we started the baking session. Initially, we just asked Jo to pour flour into sieve and Bryan to sieve the flour is a good idea. Then, I decided to promote them to next level and involve them in the rub-in-method of the butter into the flour is a major disaster. They are not too quick with it and most of the butter are on their hands instead of being rubbed into the flour. The recipe was for 24 cookies, but we ended with 16 cookies. No prize in guessing where the portion for 8 went to.

Val and me got excited and decided to try our hands at muffin. Partner didn't read the method in detailed and in the end, muffin ended up not looking strange and they tasted strange too.



Well, will experiment again and hopefully, the next batch will look like muffins. Most importantly, they should taste like muffins.

Kowloon, Hong Kong (30 Jan - 3 Feb '08)

Went with Felicia to Hong Kong to organise an event for a medical company. On the last day of event, we finally had some action. As there was some miscommunication between hotel and us, so we need to release the rooms to the hotel way earlier. Hotel staffs and us were all congregating in the foyer to wait for rooms to finish early so that the hotel staffs could turn over the rooms. Rooms that we anticipate will end later, we switched them to rooms that could be returned later. In the end, everything went well and boy, were we all glad.

The team




Tram / Metro System aka MTR


"Star" Ferry / Streets of Hong Kong


Some places that I visited ....


Scenary from Hotel Room

Skyline of Hong Kong


All in all, Hong Kong was fun. It had great food and great shopping. Whatever I saw from the drama serial or movies, I saw it all ! Looking forward to going back Hong Kong again. This time as a tourist.