Unimas--I'll be back soon!

Sigh! 10 more days..10 more short, few days before it's time for to head back to Unimas. And it isn't going to be as convenient this time round, I bet. No longer staying in the same dorm, with the same bunch of close friends living just minutes apart from you. It'll definitely be different. And the worst thing is, I've been given a place in this new dorm in the new Unimas campus, 5-minutes drive or so away from the current old one! It was my 'smart idea' actually to not rent a place near the current old unimas campus. And a few of my friends followed suit. I was worried that we unimas students will be moving to the new campus soon. Didn't want to sign that a one-year contract after renting a place nearby, a condition which most tenants are required to fulfill, aside from the 2 or 3 months downpayment we have to dig out from our own pockets. There'll be too many complications after that. So applying to stay in a hostel sounded like a better option. And I was so glad I was given a place to stay inside unimas...yeah, inside... but in the new campus. This means that I'll have to find some kind of transport to the old campus each day, since classes will most probably be held at the old one. Well, transportation-wise, it didn't seem that bad, until I got quite a disturbing news from an 'inside source' working in the current new unimas campus today. Apparently, the new hostel in the new campus, the one I'm supposed to stay in during next semester, may or may not be ready when semester reopens. If it's true, then I may be stuck, lodging-wise. Possibly have to ask someone to drive me from home each day to unimas. How troublesome! Now I really wish I didn't let my driving phobia stop me from hitting the road. But I don't know how true is this piece of news. I'm hoping this will just be pure gossip, some untested pre-assumption. I'm keeping my fingers crossed, hoping that things will eventually work out well.

So till then, till the chaos starts... well, I guess it'll still be holiday time for me. Or working time. And until then... I'll just have to enjoy these few days while it lasts! It includes having a good sleep, something I'll definitely be deprived of when holiday ends...hehe! So bye! Got to have my precious nap now. Cheerio! ^_^

The Craft marathon

Just came back from my church's ministry centre just now, after a full whole day of designing, cutting and gluing. Guess what I did today?...Well, obviously it has something to do with craftwork, in fact, almost EVERYTHING to do with that tedious thing called C.R.A.F.T, which to me is a combination of the following descriptions:

C

-- Cutting till your hands get numb

R

--Redesigning, after already designing the things you're supposed to put up, then take them down again to make sure the deco is perfectly & strategically placed! Believe me, craftwork projects can be extremely, and excruciatingly tedious!

A

-- ART form that requires A LOT of patience, plus delicate hands, plus creative improvisational skills to make do with the whatever resources you already have ( if u want to cut down the cost).

F

-- Fun. ‘Are you sure?’ you may ask. Oh yeah, I sincerely do mean FUN...not the sarcastic form of ‘FUN’. Especially if you’re doing it for a shorter period of time, for the FUN of it (there… there’s that ‘F’ word again—FUN), then yeah, you know…it’s FUN to do it. But when you’re required to go through days upon days of thinking, drawing, cutting— a full-fledge CRAFT MARATHON, it’s a different scenario altogether.

T

-- Time consuming. Whether you’re doing a teeny-weeny, cute and simple lil’ craftwork (like a little cardboard and sponge photo frame), or a slightly bigger project like a board deco, it’s still pretty hard work, and very time consuming.

So there… I’ve given you a hint. No..no, nothing to do with photo frames. Yes, it has something to do with display boards… yes, and I was decorating it (well, my Mum and I were decorating it, to be precise). Ok, Ok, I’ll throw away my stick and stop beating around the bush, (don’t wanna whack your brains out trying to figure out what I’m talking about). I was actually helping to decorate two large promotion boards and a game stall for an upcoming FAMILY DAY EVENT organised by my church. The whole CRAFT MARATHON started the week before last, to be exact— from searching through the photos to be developed and displayed, then delicately cutting the pieces of coloured paper and gluing it to make some shapes and patterns out of it. My sis was supposed to help me out with the craftwork and deco stuff, but was too busy with her sport’s day training, marching training, piano & violin classes, piano exam.. blah blah blah. So it became this one-girl task at first, until my Mum stepped in the help me cut and draw out things for the promo board on Monday night. She did a major part of the craftwork for one board, and I did the other. Thank God for Mum’s help… I can’t imagine what would have happened if I’d done this alone. So I spent the whole night in church yesterday, decorating the boards with my mum & bro. The team of other church helpers came too, but they were doing other stuff—decorating the whole hall, and their individual game stalls. So, with that dire lack of time & manpower, we couldn’t finish decorating the boards and my game stall on time, and had to continue our task early this morn till nearly evening today. Took the day off from church office work. But phew, at last a major part of the task was completed! A few alterations, adjustments, and a game’s rules display cardboard left to do, which I’ll complete later. Yahooooooooo! I’M JUST SOOOOOO GLAD IT’S ALMOST FINISHED! But I’m feeling pretty sleepy now, since I didn’t sleep well the past few nights… So, I’ve got to catch up on my sleep… which mean I’ve got to tchao! Au Revoir, folks! That’s all for now. Cheerio!

P/S: Oh, yeah, I promised to write about my miracle healing..so here’s quite a quick one: I was miraculously healed of a severe sore throat I had on last, last Sunday, one that was pretty bad that I could hardly swallow my saliva without experiencing some intense discomfort. Couldn’t even talk properly, much less sing during worship, since the pain was quite excruciating. Healed during the Sunday service itself, the pain gradually disappeared over the following few hours after the service. And by Monday morn, the pain was totally gone. Praise the Lord! But I’m now down with flu. Got it from I-dunno-who, and I just infected my mum with it. Oh my! So don’t get too close to me if you happen to see me… unless of course if you want to get infected, which I hope not. Sheeesh, I sound like a leper now. Oh boy!

Hi there folks!

I know, it was days since my last entry..partly because there seemed to be nothing particularly interesting happening in my world, except for a miracle that occurred last Sunday. Believe it or not, I was miraculously healed of a throat infection... thank God...or else I won't be able to speak for days! I'll still call it a miracle healing, whether it is a minor miracle or full-scale miracle, nothing is too small for God to deal with. This is one of the interesting thing about the nature of God— He's never too bored or too tired to look at the tiny, minuscule details in your life. Our slightest needs and desires get met each day, sometimes even without our realization. Come to think of it, it’s truly amazing that an all-powerful, omnipotent God, would be so interested in such a relatively insignificant thing like a puny, fallible being’s needs and desires. A perfect of balance of God’s great power and authority, as well as a deep love and compassion for the people He created. What a great God He is!

Oh, about my testimony...I'll give the full details in my next entry (which i'll post in a few days time, if possible). Didn't blog much the past few days since I'm suffering from this weird pyschological & situational 'malady' I'll call the 3Bs. phenomena:

(1)

B

logger's Block (but it's on the verge of a 'cure' now or else i wouldn't be writing this)

(2)

B

usy few days—with church children's ministry deco and scriptwriting stuff to do, some other personal stuff, books I MUST READ too (can't leave that out...an integral part of my life). But I tend to get too ambitious.

(3)

B

iting sense of frustration over things I can't control, future plans..blah blah blah ( The reasons are too many & too personal...hehe).

Oh, about my reading…a topic I can talk about for hours, if possible. B-O-R-I-N-G topic, I know. But I’m currently in the midst of reading a few books, mostly pertaining to my current topic of interest—relationships (no, no, not that kind...but about how to get along well with the people around you, being more compassionate), books like Alan Loy McGinnis' “The Friendship Factor” and Les Parrott's “Relationships:How To Make Bad Relationships Better and Good Relationships Great”. I’ve also just finished reading the following fantastic book:

John Ortberg's "Everybody's Normal Till You Get To Know Them"

This book’s definitely a great read …among Christian literary circles. Ortberg currently tops my list as the most witty and humorous Christian writer yet, with such a magnificent and unique gift of narrating. Almost every single page made me chuckle… and the message he wanted to put across was presented in such a powerfully mesmerising, insightful, yet creatively witty way. It made me saw a whole new dimension to relationships between people and a fresh style of writing that could captivate readers no matter what topic was discussed. Boy, I truly enjoyed every single detail written in that book, and literally couldn’t put it down. A must read, definitely!

Well, that’s basically all for now! Don't want to get into other nitty-gritty details right now. So, enough of my my blah-blah-ing this time round....and stay tuned for my next post! Cheerio! ^_^

I'm so tired, or was tired, or was extremely tired! Whatever...

The only thing i can think of right now are two BIG WORDs-- 'SLEEEEPPY'and 'TIIIIRRREED'...Zzzzzzzz. It was the cause of my not wanting to post anything for the past few days after my trip. WHY? Well, just wanted a break, then helped out at the NO APOLOGIES seminar for three days, together with Esther and the bunch of other church youths. Dunno what NO APOLOGIES is all about--it's a cool program tailored to promote abstinence among adolescents and young adults (ages 12-25)--something u don't hear very often.My mum was one of the facilitators, and the students were taught via various activites--drama, games, role play etc, and also through a video, slides and a No Apologies Workbook. It's a great program--join it the next time round. I'll inform when the next one starts.

I was given a cool Focus On The Family calendar and journal for my effort. If u all dunno where the Focus On the Family Kuching office is--it's at Jalan Mendu (Just before Sekama Road), somewhere next to my cousin's coffee cum steamboat place--"Tokyo Corner". It's a cool place--I mean the Focus Center, with plenty of books and resources by various authors like the famous Dr James Dobson-the founder of Focus On The Family.

Ok, back to the topic about the No Apologies seminar--the closing session of the three day program ended yesterday. So I'm now back at the church office today, and tomorrow too..and the week after.. till my semester break ends. Sigh! I'll miss working, can't imagine going back to that crazy jungle of uni life.The burning mid-night oil stint,piles of assignments...arrgghhh, i can't bear to think of it! Sigh!

The KL trip I was supposed to write about:

Sorry I didn't write anything about the KL & Genting trip I promised to write about...was too busy with things….slightly too lazy and tired to type out something to be exact. But now that I’m back to my old self, and old hometown Kuching… here’s a juicy bit of stuff about my 5-day trip:

The trip went on pretty okay, albeit it taught me a little lesson on patience and self-control, and of course the benefits of everyday exercise since I became quickly exhausted after each ‘marathon’ tour or lengthy ‘walk’ around the streets of Malaysia’s capital & Genting. Woke up at 4a.m on Sunday afternoon (29th May, and was off to the airport and to the plane at approximately 5.45a.m. We took an early flight at dawn because the seats were fully booked due to the school holiday season. The moment we touched down at KLIA...it was a quick rush all the way to my Aunt's apartment at Subang, then at 10.30a.m, we walked, caught a taxi, then a train, then a bus all the way to Genting, and after that it was a horribly long wait at the Genting Skyway.... Horribly long because there were practically hundreds of bobbing heads milling around, and not the mentioned the long queue which packed up the entire waiting area. The waiting alone swallowed up an entire 2 hours of our time. Imagine that--Two long hours, carrying and dragging my luggage across the whole way! I was sweating profusely, arms terribly aching by the time I was in the sky cab.

I thought our torment was over…but we were clearly in for a mega shock, and another round of sheer torture---we had to get a number (like those you get while waiting for your turn at banks or polyclinics) before we could check in at the First World Hotel at Genting, and worst still…we had to wait for over 200 families to check in before it was our turn—the number we were given upon reaching was a 970, and number flashing on the screens at that time was just slightly over 700.Yikes! Even with 32 reception counters at the waiting lounge, the hotel was clearly under-staffed since I believed over 1000 rooms were due to be booked by that day. So you can imagine, by the time we haggardly and tiredly waded into our rooms over two hours later, momentarily relieved from the intense fatigue of having to lug our large luggages all the way up and down from the taxi’s boot all the way to torture zone, it was already almost 6p.m.

Our state of elevation didn’t last long…for another surprise came uninvited: The room was small—but it didn’t matter at first, until we discovered that it didn’t have many of the facilities deemed appropriate for a deluxe room—no clothes cabinet, mini refrigerator, small coffee table, plus poor air circulation around the room, which we had to bear for the rest of the two days we were there. And we spent over RM 130 for that room! My Mom, ever the fighter, couldn’t believe it was a deluxe room, and walked all the way back to the reception counter to request for an explanation and possibly some help, since no one picked up the call of enquiry she made. And although after some amount to probing, and demanding for an explanation, she was given the confirmation that that tiny hole we were given was and is actually a ‘deluxe room’. Bear it or leave it!

Not that I want to sound too critical, but not having a refrigerator really spoilt our plans of having a fresh meal. We brought loads of roasted chicken, cheese, fresh milk and other food to cut cost, and we ended up having to throw away a whole piece of chicken after that. What’s more, the stench of human excretion had to be endured with bated breaths, and ignored to the best of our ability. But it seemed that our rooms were not the only ones direly lacking in resources---we were confronted with the same odour as we hurriedly scrambled past the other rooms too as we made our way to the lift each morning! It just goes to prove how misleading advertisements can be at times.

I enjoyed myself tremendously at the outdoor theme park though. Could finally try out the many different rides I missed the last time I was in Genting. Tried one of those slightly hair-raising rides twice (can’t remember what it was called), once in the morning and once at night after 9 p.m. The impact I got was clearly different—it was freakier and dizzier at night, as expected. Then we went around the indoor park, and did a lot of window shopping, a bit of arcade game playing, then on the last day at Genting—a few rounds of bowling, which definitely showed that I needed A LOT of practice at it since the ball I threw became too attached to the little ‘drains’ at the sides of the lane. Haha! Well, at least those fascinating rides and games somewhat made up for the bad experiences we had with our sleeping arrangements. So it wasn’t that bad after all.

Went back to KL on the 31st May…and the journey ‘home’ to Aunt Helen’s condo was much smoother than I’d expected. We didn’t encounter any other hassle, strolled around KL Central, then a train ride down to Carrefour and Parkson at Subang Jaya for ‘a few’ hours of shopping. Bought plenty of reasonably cheaper items there—a new canon printer, sewing machine, food items and stuffs. We finally arrived at my aunt’s apartment pretty late, loaded with a whole bonnetful and armful of boxes and baggages. Phew!

1st & 2nd June saw a flurry of activities that included window shopping, hopping onto one bus to another, etc. To cut the long story short, we covered many places—KLCC, Mydin, Petaling Street, Tesco, Ikea, The Curve, 1 Utama, Giant, Sunway Pyramid and so forth….I couldn’t remember all the places since there were too many. We tried out as many different modes of transportation available—Taxis, metro buses, KTM trains, Putra LRT, and the oldest form of transportation—our two feet. I finally knew what it was like to have blisters on each of your feet, and a sore heel to match. A very sufferable but enlightening experience I must say. And my Dad even commented that I walked like a duck the whole while…haha, I didn’t know I had the talent to wade around like one of those Quakers. Not bad! Maybe I should try perfecting that duck quack a bit—you know, to be more authentic. Oh well!

3rd June—phew, it was back to home sweet home. Took a final tour around every single floor of KLIA before boarding the plane home—to the serene and peaceful Kuching. Sigh, nothing, not even the so-called dizzying glamour of big city KL could match the tranquility of humble old Kuching. Oh well, as they say, nothing beats home!

P/S:We didn't manage to get hold of a digicam, so we snapped photos with a manual one instead. Will upload photos of the trip when the photos are ready.

A new Poem

Just wrote a new poem a few days back.. while i was in Genting, watching a TV show, listening to one of those dialogues between a daughter and mother, when a thought just ran through my mind. So this poem is the byproduct of a quick, few seconds of jumbled ideas and personal ideologies, flashing across the cerebral cortex at lightning speed;fleshed out by a few systematic choice of words all quickly compiled into a concise poetic form of art. I prefer to call poetry an art, though some may choose to debate on this--calling it some form of nonsensical gibberish or sheer waste of time and effort. Anyway, read my poem-- comment on it as much as you can, even if u think this poem is utterly silly. But if u consent to the opinion that any form of poetry isn't worth your reading, then just keep your opinions to yourself. If otherwise, read on, guys and gals, and enjoy:

Façade of Fear

Sweetness gingerly staring forth
beneath the secret wishes, tamed
stunted by fear’s clamour
for an unleashing, so unrefined,
thus, strained.

It jerks forth a cry
murmurs under dark blankets
dripping, soaking, seeking comfort,
tugging muscles, a pale grin
pulled wretchedly, exhausting

Not in purpose, unlikely,
a farce, though subconsciously,
pressure found, misunderstood,
the reasons for its likelihood,
in a weakling haunted
by Honesty’s conscience.