J-Power

Shell has their petrol "V-Power", and thankfully, I have my fuel provider of "J-Power" from none other than...drum roll...Jesus!! :D

Honestly, I have been on the run without any rest since 2 weeks ago. Last weekend was pretty eventful where my entire Saturday and Sunday was fully booked without any time to spare. Then, this week I will be working this coming Saturday too. So far, I've been squeezing in everything required of me or needs me to act on...I squeezed in time with loved ones, multiple gatherings with different group of friends, work, projects, embassy matters, dreams, future, present and everything else in between. I'm kinda satisfied that I managed to attend to each one...One thing for sure, I would never ever be able to do all that was required of me on my own without His "J-Power" keeping me going!!

Song: "Above All" by Michael W Smith - Nice!!

Penang, I like!:)

My 3.5 day trip in Penang had been very enjoyable. In the morning, I'd get an early ride to work, which is just 10 mins away in Port Weld from my hotel on Gurney drive.

I'll talk to people, run through processes, eat, talk to more people, and eat again! haha..

My coworkers in the Penang office were fantastic and warm people with great hospitality. I really had a very good time, laughing, chatting, and eating. I'm glad that I made new friends!:)

Sunset on Penang bridge. On my way back to the Penang island from our mainland Butterworth office.

Food market. I think food from simply any store would be great!

Penang curry mee is the best curry mee I've ever tasted!! It doesn't have the usual curry powder taste, it's just unique and simply super delicious!!!;)

Stuffed chicken in 'Lao Sher tea house' on Burma road. Marinated stuffing was very good!

Penang char-kuey-teow...probably a must-eat while being on the island. I like their big juicy shrimp!! This kuey-teow is from the road side stall on Siam road.

A super-coworker who absolutely has a passion for durians took me to an orchard farm in Balik Pulau for some Penang durians. After living in M'sia almost my whole life, I actually never knew that Penang is the hidden place for the world's best durians!! :P 4 of us ate 7 durians!!! We tried all the famous ones like "Ang heh" (red prawn species), "Cheh pui" (green skin species) and a few others. I had a very enjoyable time!!

In the orchard farm where we ate the durians, the owner also had chickens which laid fresh eggs..hahah, I realized yet again that I'm a totally hopeless city-person..Apart from the 1000 durian trees, they also had other fruit trees, a monkey, dogs, and also rabbits!

My super-coworker was also very kind to make a quick stop for the touristy-me to snap a picture of the Balik Pulau valley.

The sun rising in front of my hotel window in Gurney!

Up North

Greetings! I'm now in George Town, Penang. Will be here till Wednesday to collect some information from our Penang and Butterworth regional offices. Carpooled with another 2 coworkers this afternoon after Father's Day buffett lunch. I was just thinking that I've gone South to JB and S'pore earlier this month, and now up north! Pretty cool since I havent been to these places for a long long while, probably it's been more than 10 years since I came to George Town? But I've gotten a little tired of long drives. Hopefully I'm not tired of long flights yet!

Never alone

Things are actually pretty exciting and challenging at work. Keeps me on my toes and busy busy busy. Manage people, manage timelines, manage emotions, manage interesting characters..racing against time to get things done. It's actually almost impossible to stop and catch my breath. Feels like I actually need to make an effort to surface from the waters to breathe in and then breathe out.

I'm back to the 'unpredictable' life again, where I don't know where I'll be or what I'll be doing post July 31st. The possibilities are endless, and regardless where I end up, I honestly need to take some time off to just take things easy. Probably 2.5 weeks will be a just nice period to recharge.ahha. I can afford it with the number of off days that I have yet to touch. Plus there's the Raya break coming up! Money wise, hmmm...I'll need to spend carefully!

I honestly don't think my mortal mind and body can take the amount of pressure or even capable to make everything that needs to happen, actually happen. But all I have is faith. Somehow I just know that He'll take me through it if He has decided to bring me to it. He has put things at the door step, regardless how challenging it is, I'll just have to get to it regardless of the results. Just do it. Pray. Seek Him. Thank Him. And persevere. :)

A coworker, Angeline, who also likes Jim Brickman, played this song while at work, nice!

Jim Brickman performing "Never Alone" featuring Hillary Scott and Lady Antebellum

Love. Opportunity. Fellowship

Love. There is a kind of love that you do not even need to have a trace of doubt on, it never ceases even when it's a bad day or yo-yo with mood swings. It never judges or gives up hope. It is in abundance, always protects, and never fails. And I believe there is only one kind of love that is so simple, light, straightforward, and never ending. It's God's love!

Opportunity. I believe that when opportunity comes knocking on the door, it's really up to us to decide whether we want to take the extra step to turn the door knob, open the door and step forward. God can only bring it up to the door, and it's for us to pursue it!

Just thought of these 2 words while taking a shower. ahha. Anyways, I'm not too sure if I've shared before, but I've always wanted to get into fellowship with other Christians ever since I moved to Florida in Sept 06. I made some effort but never tried hard enough to bring myself close to the desired outcome. Fast forward to April 09, a pamphlet with a list of locations/names/phone numbers of all cell groups was distributed to all at church. I really took it as a sign from God that "it's time!". I checked out the nearest location, checked out their group photos, and decided on which cell I was going to attend. It then took me another few more weeks to actually pick up the phone and dial the cell leader's number and the 3rd Friday of April. After my first cell meeting, which was more of a games and intro session, it took me another few weeks to finish up my work, and all other things. So today, I went for my second Cell session!!

Today's cell group meeting was so spiritually refreshing that I literally felt much lighter at heart. Probably felt like all the thoughts and worries that clogged up my mind has been washed away. The number of people who turned up today was almost double the people I've met the first time. There was a lot of laughter and sharings, and today we also sang worship songs, studied, prayed, celebrated a birthday, ate and discussed about an upcoming wedding.

After missing almost all the fellowship sessions at work for the past 1.5 months because of meetings and presentations, I finally could make it for today's lunch session. It was just 2 coworkers and myself. There wasnt a bible or any preparation, but we just shared over lunch- sharing our challenges, and prayer needs.

After missing church for 2 weekends in a row because of exams and treasure hunt, I'm really looking forward to go to the Lord's house this Sunday!!

I'm really tired and ready for bed, but I'm really rejoicing in the fact that I know Jesus, and I really yearn to be able to remember His ways and honor Him in all that I do. It's really easy to lose these thoughts while going through daily life, but I know He will never give up on me, and so I should never stop trying!!!:P

Good night!!

Fun times along Southern trail

Orchard road on a Sunday afternoon!

From my hotel window in JB, we saw the sunrise over Tebrau straits that separates M'sia from S'pore. The buildings in the horizon is S'pore!


On Saturday morning, with just probably less than a handful hours of sleep, I practically dragged myself to the office for the flag off of our Treasure Hunt trip. My team members turned out to be really fun people, they just make the most amusing comments...ahaha. I laughed lots along the 8 or 9 hours journey. We did pretty well in the first stage, and it was really interesting to hunt for the answers amongst the myriad of shop signs. The only problem was, we were moving too slow in the first few questions, and ended up arriving at the check-point 1/2 hour too late...which probably meant lotsa marks being penalized, so naturally we werent the contenders for any prize this time. Anyways, one of the new tasks in this year's treasure hunt was to catch flies. hahaa, it was just hilarious.

After we arrived in Johor Bahru, we continued the next stage of hunting within the mall itself. This year, the company invited a super funny entertainer to perform, it was just a pure 1.5 hours of entertainment listening to him sing various popular hits in all the main languages and poking fun at some of the employees. It was also quite sweet when he made all of us hold hands with each other and swing to the music. Not to mention the time he asked us to swing our napkins like a cowboy! :P

On Sunday morning, some of us drove over to Singapore to check out the great S'pore sale. It's really my first time visiting the malls on Orchard road. My memories of S'pore has always been in fractions...After my 12 years old graduation trip, it was all flight transits...the last visit was a 1 day trip during 2007 Christmas, and this time, another 1 day trip..haha. Anyways, the sale in S'pore wasn't desirable simply because the prices weren't too low to begin with, and plus our weaker currency, the discount just got lost in conversion. hehe, my most favorite places to shop is still in the US!!

It was interesting to navigate myself around the malls like Ngee Ann City, Atria, Tangs and Lucky plaza. The streets were basically flooded with a non-stop stream of people, and incredibly, I bumped into my mom's cousin in the mall! crazy crazy... Anyways, all the Indonesian/Filipino maids were having their Sunday day off, and it was definitely great fun to see them hanging out shopping and catching up with friends. Made me think how Misi would have missed her days working in S'pore because she's basically stranded in our house as the M'sian law do not allow them to go out for breaks.

We only left S'pore at around 5 sth 6 after a MOS burger dinner (rice burgers!!). And the entire journey home took about 8 hours from the original 4 hours because of all the crazy traffic. Haha, we were so bored in the car that we ended up trading ghost stories...haha, even though I still didnt get to check out Johor Bahru city itself because we stayed in "The Zon" hotel which was just across the bridge fr S'pore, I still had alot of fun in the 2D1N trip...good times!!

I honestly think I'm in a severe state of lacking proper rest...After so little rest, lotsa activity and a mountain of work over these few days, my brain is ready to shut down anytime....Good night!:)

Going South for a Hunt

I'll be heading South of the peninsula to Johor Bahru tomorrow for the annual treasure hunt! Last year, in my maiden hunt, my team and I got the first place..but this year we won't be defending our championship position as all of us will be competing in different groups. I'm with the Corporate & Regulatory Affairs and Legal coworkers...haha, it'll be interesting!

It'll also be my first trip to JB city itself, have just passed by the state to go to Singapore twice, but never gone through any parts of the city. Also, we might drop by Singapore on Sunday before coming back. It's gonna be a hectic hectic Monday-Tuesday next week, but oh well, it can wait :P

Have a great weekend!!