Saturday, November 1, 2008

The Ray of Dhamma

1st - 12th October 2008

It was really fortunate to attend the Vipassana Meditation Camp for the 2nd  time, hope it could be 3rd, 4th, 5th...and many time more.

A lot of awakening and realization, so excited to share with family members and others after back from this camp. However, this biggest challenge is: how to maintain the practise/ cultivation for the rest of my life. Physical tiredness is really a hindrance especially my new job is so much far away from Kota Kemuning:( . When they is a will, there is a way; hopefully J.O can be my inspiration and "tauladan" as well.

Friday, September 19, 2008

Moonlight Resonance


15 Sept 2008, Sun.
Meet my 2 mums: my mother in-law (left) and my mother (right, carry Yu Xuan). Both share one commonality - can cook good foods!
J.O perform his "standard" smiling face, both of us have a rounder face as compared to few years ago.
It was a raining nite, thus cancelled our Tanglung parade and 'hang' up the tanglungs at the home yard (sheltered). It glown like the beautiful flowers at night:)

Me, busy serving different types of Chinese tea besides the variety of  moon cake. The only 'food' (should be dessert) I cooked was the pinky-jelly with assorted apples. 

My Lovely Workstation

13 Sept 2008, Sat.
Pictures taken outside IKEA, Damansara Mutiara. Long time didn't visit to IKEA as it is so far from my house. Courts Building is located opposite to IKEA, but their traffic was terribly low that day (or all the while?). These areas really like a concrete jungle.
From the idea as petite as "wild flower", IKEA is able to promote the Swedish culture so subtlely, not to say the Swedish cookies sold next to the coffee counter. Malaysian's enterprise should learn from them.

See, this is my new workstation, not bad huh, a product from IKEA. It is not easy to find a workstation for 2 (normally, cater for 1 person only). Thanks to IKEA for offering this good piece of furniture. The length of the table top can fit into my Avanza aptly, if the length is extra an inch, we will need to get their delivery service.

Saturday, September 6, 2008

INCOVAR D&D 2008


7 September 2008 (Sun.)

amigos para siempre = friends for life, that is the title for 1st INCOVAR Dinner and Dance, which held at Holiday Villa, Subang Jaya, 6 September.


Now I affirmed that "white" is the favourite color of Sister Kah Yein. Brother Chin Kah looks much more younger without his spec.

Long time no see: from right: Mabel, Anne and Wee Boon ( still as slim as 9 years ago!).

Introduce the sexy babe of the night: Wendy Goh (right)

A group photo with Datuk Dr, Victor Wee (strip shirt) - The Father of Independence for INCOVAR.

Ego Vs The Truth

6 September 2008 (Sat.)

"Light travels faster than sound"...
         Ego takes everything personally. Emotion arises, defensiveness, perhaps even aggression. Are you defending the truth? No, the truth, in any case, needs no defense. The light or sound does not care about about what you or anybody else thinks. You are defending yourself, or rather the illusion of yourself, the mind-made substitute. It would be even more accurate to say that the illusion is defending itself...
- Pg. 68, A New Earth: Awakening to your life's purpose,   by Eckhart Tolle

在宇宙间,确实有真理的存在;然而在人与人相处之间,是否真的有这么一个definite的真理存在?抑或着是个人的角度观点不同而已?

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Food, food, food

1 September 2008 (Sun.), right before we left Muar, Brother Shao Hua bring us to this nice restaurant to have dim-sum. Their dim-sum are delicious with lots of variety; the charges rate also much reasonable compared to Tai-thong in KL.
J.O and I really had too much good foods for the past 3 days. Wilson and Pei Pei give us a lunch treat at Han Woo-Ri (Korean BBQ) at USJ Taipan. Really put on weight liao:(

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Merdeka Trip to Muar

30 August 2008 (Sat.)


Picture taken at the main entrance of Yong Sheng Food Souvenir Shop. Their mooncake packaging is unique and presentable, so I bought 5 boxes of their mooncake premium selection as souvenir.
There is a nice scenery seafood village called "Oasis Bay" at Muar. The owner has really built up a recreational park for his customer. Unfortunately, the location is not really strategic, I wonder how many visitors know about this place. Anyway, the food is good, especially their Thai-Style cooking.


See, my little nephew Yi Xuan enjoying this place a lot.
Group photo with my 3rd aunty and her family in this food garden.
My 3rd auntie has a green finger, look at this man made lotus "pond", marvellous!

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

The End of Famine 30





24 August 08 (Sun.)


10.00am:
Quite a boring day I would say, except for the noble reason why we want to take part in this charity programme. We (J.O and Mummy as well) arrived quite early. There are not much stall or programme for the 8000 participants to "kill time". I am quite ok with the dull arrangement as I have Eye Asia magazine and "Awakening to Your Life Purpose" to read. But Eckhart Tolle's book is quite difficult to absorb mainly due to the noisy environment. Anyany, J.O and I still manage to try something new, which is to have drawing paint on our hand.

1.30pm:
All the invited artists/ singer starts to entertain us, one by one...I am still fancy about auntie Francisca Peter's vocal, it is really fantastic. She is still agile and enenergetic as before, but it would definitely better if she can shed off some kgs from her body. I mean she looks as beautiful as before, the only difference is her body weight lor.

3.55pm:
At this moment, the superstar Michale Wong (Guan Liang) already performs his master pieces namely "yong qi" and "tong hua"; but I think the more inspite part will be the take home message delivered by the Vice President of HELP University, he remind us not to complain too much about food and other material possesions, to believe that we as an individual can really make a difference to the world. The child foster programme seems quite good, hmm, will consider it later.

P/s: Not feeling hungry over these 2 days, is it because we took different nutritious and energy drink such as hi-cal milk, fruit juice (in pack) and soya drink? If we are going to take part next year, must try drink only the plain water practises/ challenge.

The Start of Famine 30

23 August, Sat.

9.50am:
I am still eating in the office. I told Ms. Yap and Mely that I wanna to eat till 10.00am sharp, then officially enter the Famine 30 campaign. I had 3 buns for breakfast with assorted "Bak Kua", cheese and tomato and one cup of old town white coffee, not bad huh.

3.15pm:
Today is actually the graduation of the hardworking and religious Mr. Tony Ow. All our family members gather at Kajang (Tokyo Studio), to take the memorable family photo.

5.00pm:
Tony and his gf bring us to Kee V restaurant (near Sungai Chua), they are famous for the Hot and Sour Soup and other local dishes. The dishes looks yummy but J.O, mummy and myself only order for soya drinks and milo, fasting mah. I agree with what Wilson said: "happiness is because of togetherness and not because of the food". Thank you for the morale support, brother.



7.50pm:
I change my mind and drop by SABS to show our support for the Buddhist Hymms Singing Competition. After all, this is our homeground event. I sit still for the performance while J.O is walking around to "tegur-sapa" with friends. Ya, is quite boring for him to stay long hours at home to support the US team. He needs time, space and companion to talk, no man is an island in this world.



11.30pm:
Finally it is the turn for our SABS Youth (English Group), I know they have try their best, the spirit to participate is far more important than awards. However, I believe SABS choir group will improve after learning the experience from this event. Happy to see that there are so many young and talented Buddhist Hymms singer in Pennisular of Malaysia. Only some of the solo performance and singer that I can remember, like: Karuna Tan Yi Wen (daugther of Brother Tan Huat Chye), the pretty teen singer from BUDS who looks alike Sue Lyn, Poh Imm's
daughter and so forth.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Unfold the Secret of Nature




17.08.2008 6.15am-11.15pm

What a wonderful and fruitful trip for me. From the unique programme, I had found out so many new secrets about our beautiful nature.

Daun Kulim
Our Kulim in Kedah is named after this tree called "daun kulim", we let the students guess this object during the senses game with blind folded condition. Most of them hate the smell, they frown and gave the answer: this is garlic.

Daun Kapur
Daun kapur is small in size, it definitely smell better than daun kapur, 'cos the students thought it was manggo.

Cicada (riang-riang)
I still remember whenever I enter into the jungle for activities or picnic at "burmeese" or "Austin" (famous recreational placed at Taiping), I always heard the sounds of a noisy insects. "Rupa-rupanya" they are one kind of worm and knowen as cicada or "riang-riang" in B.M. Cicada has a miserable life where they live underground for about 12-14 years. At the end of the day, they only have 2 weeks for matching.Once it is done, that's the end of their line, poor creature:(
Crown of Shyness This is really a unique concept. It happens in the tropical forest where 2 or more trees leave the private space for each other to enjoy the sunlight and to grow healthily. What a thoughtful behaviour among the nature creation. You see, personal space is not only important to humans, but also among the plants and trees.

Jari Hantu
What is so special with Jari Hantu leaf is they can glow at night. The leaf seems to have 8 fingers, when its grasp together in the form of dried leaf, it really looks like a palm of a devil/ monster.

Peacock Fern
Not all leafs are in green leaf, and I am not looking about red color maple leaf or some other leafs or plants in autum. There is a special species of leaf which appeared in green and blue color, really attractive. According to Hana, this plant is called "Peacock Fern " is not tall enough to obtain the sunlight and run its own photosynthesis (This plant normally found at the shady place). Thus, the blue color is actually helping them to capture different ray of sunlight for photosynthesis.

Dragon-fly
Do you know that Dragon-fly do not lay their eggs on top of the flowers as butterfly and bees normally do. Dragon-fly laying eggs in the water, cool...

Pond Skater/ Water Criket
Pond skater/ Water criket is a form of indicator, it indicate that the stream water is clean enough, otherwise, they won't be able to survive (in polluted environment).

Female Fire Fly Most of us know fire fly can fly and their lights form fantastic scenary at night, such as the amazing night scenary at Kampung Kuantan, Kuala Selangor. However, I learn about a surprising truth...female fire fly can't fly, they look like milipede and crawl on the ground. Of course, they also shine like the male.
Tapir I know about Tapir from one type of Malaysian stamp. The Malaysian Nature Society (MNS) has make it more famous as it is their "spoke person" or kind of symbol. Little that I know, Tapir actually is an huge animal, as huge as dinasour! Remember, kids, Tapir is our endanger friend and we should do our best to protect them.

LadyBird Youngsters nowadays are so creative. For example, what you can think of when required to create a theme cheers for the group called "LadyBird". Here is a funny version: "One lady five birds, so we are ladybird". That group actually consists of one female student and five male students:)

P/s:This wonderful camp makes me thinks of my wonderful scouting years. Thanks to Cikgu Aziz and Mr. Ng, both of them has lead us to grow tougher, hopefully I can contribute the same effort to the youth.

Jungle Tracking at Night

16.8.2008 *** 9.00pm

From the vanity world suddenly enter into the green jungle. I reached FRIM wooden hut (H3) just in time to join my students for a jungle tracking at night. today is the 16th day of the "Chinese Ghost Month" and we are walking through the jungle, for most of the students, this is their first time to experience jungle tracking, moreover is at night. I really admire sis. Lee Hua for her comments on this Nature Camp which scheduled on 16-18 August, she said: we are buddhist, we shouldn't be so superstitious, infact the July in Chinese Calender is an auspicious month, is about a fallial daughter who wants to save her mum from hell...thank you Lee Hua for give us the moral supports.

Besides, Narjua and Hana are also another 2 great personalities, they are leading and managing 31 youth ( 12-18 years old) to explore the jungle at night, somemore set up certain level of difficulties for them to over come ( using rope to "climb" down a stiff and rocky slope with limited tourch light)...especially si Narjua, this "super big eye girl" easily capture our students attention and follow her instruction, we were delight to have them for this camp.




Enrich Personal Image


16.8.2008 *** 7.45am - 7.00pm

This is a world of branding, everything is about branding including our self-image. Today, I am attending the "Enrich Your Image Sucess Workshop" presented by Evelyn Ch'ng, my senior from USM. My company is one of the co-sponsor. She talk about character, credibility, charisma, clarity and c...(opps, can't recall). Off course, the participants are requested to check out their colors, and without any surprise, I know my color is cool light.

I enjoyed the sharing session by the guest speaker Elaine Daly. This former Miss Malaysia is really a beauty with brain. She was gifted with all kind of good qualities yet so is "lucky" enough to know what she wants and so determine in pursuing her dream. The same thing goes to Evelyn, she has tried all best in getting what she wants and she is also helping others to achieve their dreams. CLARITY is POWER!








Thursday, August 14, 2008

Let's Start Creative Writing!

Today is the last day of the PR, Media Management & Creative Writing Workshop organized by Atcen Commuciation Sdn. Bhd.

We were sweating and scratching our head so much as the intensity of the creativeness increased. The most important message I took home is to be more observant, otherwise is difficult to describe and to build character, finally to be able to live the story.

Our speaker Ms. Aneesa Alphonsus looks glamour like a celebrity ( I wonder if anybody has asked her to host any TV programme??). She was kind and patient enough to answer all our questions and gave us personal guidance whenever it is possible. I has been inspired to read more fiction story books in order to pick up my English writing skills. Hopefully, I am able to finish one book per month, sounds not over ambitious, isn't it? I know it will be easy to say than done, so this sharing serve as a reminder for me.

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

The Ugly Cat


I love cat but J.O doesn’t. I guess that’s was due to the bad experience left by “tan tan” (弹弹). For him, anything not pretty, not nice, not fun can be called or related to “cat”. So, he noted my new handphone case as “chou mao” (丑猫) ‘cos it neither looks like a bear nor a cat, too ugly. But, I think’s is funny, I like its patches and I am fond of this “chou mao”.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Learn to blog

I want to learn to blog by today itself. It is rather an old mission for me to achieve. In fact, long before the "inspiration" from incident 308, I had realized how powerful a blog can be. However, thanks to Aneesa, she has affirmed my will to learn on this new media:)

吴淡如说:勇气与机会都是稍纵即逝。写博客也需要一定的勇气(或许很多人不能认同)与捉紧开始 “按键”的机会。漫漫长路也总该有个起点,就从今天开始吧!

P/s: 原谅一个人真的有那么难吗?对于患有“爱情洁癖症”的常在心而言,时间看来不只是最好的良药,也是唯一的良药。程亮痴情求谅的一幕幕与表白,看在过来人眼里,难免百般滋味上心头。