Philip's Dream Team

How I wish the school hols will go on and on. . These few weeks of hols have been really relaxing and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. We didn’t go anywhere in particular as I didn’t take any leave. Most of the time, we just pottered around the house and tried to keep the kids occupied.

Heather picked up a new instrument and that made hubby really happy coz he has been trying to get her interested in cello for a long time. She finally showed real interest when her good friend had to sit for her cello exam and she was asked to be the accompanist.

Jordan on the other hand has been growing a lot. With all the good food over the Christmas he is blossoming. Thank God he is still not FAT as he has been active.
During the hols, we had more time on our hands so we went hunting for outdoor furniture for the patio. It was a relief to finally find one which is affordable and which we both liked. Sometimes we would have our lunch or tea at the patio and it’s especially nice when it is windy .
Hubby hasn’t baked any cakes yet. I thought he would but nothing materialized . It ended up with me making lemon cheesecake and trifle. I should be more adventurous but gosh the thought of cleaning up later makes me think twice about baking.
I thank God for a lovely holiday with family and friends. The hols turned out much better than expected. At the threshold of 2011, I wonder what the new year will bring. I trust God for the days ahead and choose to live each day to the fullest.

BLESSED NEW YEAR TO ALL.

I saw this phrase on one of the MJYFers T-shirt. (If I am not mistaken , it was Brandon's). I pondered about the phrase and the following came to mind :

When we see our friends do things that violate the school rules / laws of the nation do we do nothing ?

When we see our friends being blatantly disobedient to their parents do we do nothing ?

When we hear curse/swear words being uttered , do we do nothing ?

When we know that our friends are watching porn , do we do nothing ?

When we see our friends cheat , do we do nothing ?

When we know that our friends are drinking excessively or doing drugs , do we do nothing ?

When we know that our friends are getting too touchy & romantic with their boy/girlfriends , do we do nothing ?

When we see our friends displaying ungodly character , do we do nothing ?

When we see ourselves doing the above things , do we do nothing ?

When we do nothing … keep silent ….that's when evil spreads itself across the land. Sooner or later, it will affect the landscape of our lives.

The devil prowls around like a lion seeking whom it may devour. The devil wants to see Christians do nothing . The devil is afraid when we stand up and do something. As God's children , we must be brave and stand up to do something ; for He that is in us is greater than he that is in the world. So we must take courage that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.

My prayer for you is that you may have God's wisdom to rise up to do something. The Bible says in the last days we will see many who are lovers of themselves, lovers of money , arrogant , disobedient to parents, traitors,blasphemers.... and the list goes on. One of my desires, is to see our youths today , rising up and making a stand for Christ, not ashamed of Christ but being strong & steadfast , crushing the enemy's plans.

Together let us rise up, take the challenge and make a difference !

I wrote this article for the Youth newsletter to challenge them but I think we ourselves called to be ambassadors for Christ in the market place or in our homes also needs to act .Many opportunities will present itself in our lives and in each instance we have to choose what we are to do. When we act as God directs us to , we will be able to do great things for His kingdom.

My friends coated me with birthday cake... choc moose on my hair & face !!! XD

My birthday this year was extraordinary.. :D Okay, it started off the nite before. I had a birthday dinner organised by Clarissa and Evelyn. :D Ate and ate and ate.. haha..and there was cake.. magnificent. :) Thank you everyone who went.. Clarissa, the 2 Evelyns Angelene, Ashley, Melody, Valerie, Sarah, Guinevere, Joan, Edward, Jon, not forgetting Sean. :)

In addition to this, A BIG THANK YOU, to whoever wished me happy b'day (especially at 12 am :D) and everyone (meaning EVERYONE !!!!) who gave me presents. FYI, I've already opened all the presents and I LOVE them..

THANK YOU so much for making my birthday the best one yet in my whole entire life. :D

Mom made me a lemon cheesecake. Her very 1st attempt and it turned out not bad at all.

It's parade time again!! Since the state government had given the permit to the Methodist church to hold a parade , then by all means we should use this opportunity to share the gospel and the love of Christ to all.

The afternoon before the day of the parade, I was trying to snatch a couple minutes of nap after all the housework but I found that I couldn't sleep coz the thought “ Go get Christmas cards and write messages n scriptures inside to give away at the parade” kept bugging me. So I got up and called the Perkata Gallery and ordered Christmas cards for this very purpose. That very night, our family took some time out to prepare more than 50 Christmas cards by writing Christmas wishes or scripture verses inside to be given away. Hubby had to write all the ones in Chinese . Ha ha … we really made him work !!! Heather and I shared the load of writing in English. Hubby said next year, we will print instead !!

We found that during the parade, it was so much easier for the public to take a tract from us . They even thanked us and wished us “Merry Christmas”. I love it when we shouted out “Jesus loves you” and I felt really blessed when a kid on the street responded to me saying “ Jesus loves you too” !!! Amen to that.

That nite , those who went to the parade freely distributed gospel tracts, “Jesus loves you”balloons, Christmas cards and other goodies to those who came to watch the parade. Eventhough it rained half way through the parade, we had fun and it was GREAT to sing carols in the street.

Next year, we will prepare MORE tracts, little gifts and cards to be given away. God the GREATEST GIVER of all, gave His only begotten Son so that we could have eternal life with Him. So in the season of Advent let us also give. Our prayer is that may those who received the tracts, cards and gifts will turn their eyes upon Jesus, who is....... the reason for the season.

Blessed Christmas to all who read our blog.

I can't believe it. It's almost end of November . Where have all the days gone? Swallowed up by work, cooking and cleaning and more work and cooking and cleaning.

The 1st half of the year , we were busy with the new house. Then we moved in and adapted to a totally new lifestyle. Not long after that my father-in-law and brother-in-law came to visit. We had a good time catching up on family stuff. During the visit, we realised that we spent a lot of time eating and eating. My father-in-law enjoys the food here. That's saying a lot especially for someone from Penang. Hubby always says Kuching food is no match to Penang's. Brother-in-law likes the lifestyle here. I guess it's more laid back compared to the fast pace in Penang. We took them to church and it was the first time our church friends saw the brother and all invariably commented how alike both brothers are in their looks and there were guessing who was older as they couldn't tell.. That was a bonus point for hubby coz he kept telling me that this is pure confirmation he is not aging as his brother is 3 years his junior!! Perasan !!!

All in all we had a relaxing time with them and my kids love the models given to them as gifts by their uncle and the Penang delicacies which their grandpa brought for them.

I am glad school is closed and I hope it will be a quiet time in the office ...no unexpected suddenlies that make me scream “AARGH” . “AARGH “ should be added in the Oxford dictionary as a new word coz it simply sums up how I feel when I have a bad hair day.

With the long break , I am not even sure what stuff to do with the kids apart from going to the library to stock up more reading materials. This is Heather's joy but Jordan's nightmare. Reading a book is akin to punishment for him.

Hubby already knows what he wants to do with the kids. Playing football with Jordan and taking both of them swimming. His recent addition to his “to-do” list is to learn to bake. My bro-in-law gave us a cake mixer. He lugged it all the way from Penang. Hubby is thrilled. He felt baking is something up his alley. We will see about that. All my cookbooks are ready . I just hope they won't be too many “disasters” or “ burnt offerings”. Maybe I should be more positive …. after all he does make good bread !!!!

As I glance at the calender , I feel the rest of the year is going to zoom by pretty fast. Our family will be busy with the usual Christmas dinners, Christmas shopping and church activities. On top of that we are expecting hubby's friend from Ipoh so that will keep us busy and happy. And before you know it, it's 2011 and school will be in full swing again.

We've conquerred Mount Santubong ! Few of us in the cell group had set our goal on climbing the tallest mountain in South East Asia, Mount Kinabalu next year, and we planned to embark on some fitness training so that we will be fit for the climb next year. Our first stop was Mount Santubong, a relatively small mountain about 40 minutes from the city. It is said that Mount Santubong resembles a woman lying on her back. This mountain is renown for it's “single rise” steep slope, very intimidating especially when you are near its summit. We started climbing at 7.45am in the morning, and it took 2 1/2 hours to reach the peak, slightly ahead of our predicted 3 hours schedule . Well, the climb was tough, very steep, but we thought if we were to make it to KK, we had to overcome the fear and physical exhaustion of conquering this mount. With a lot of prayers and encouragements within the team, via Alvin's state of art walkie-talkie, I am proud to announce that WE MADE IT TO THE TOP ! The scenery at the peak is simply amazing, beautiful beyond words ! Alvin, Alex and me , feeling on top of the world ! One of the many obstacles we met along the way..... The fantastic view at the peak plus the cool temperature up there is enough to make you forget all the hardships of climbing. We praise God for the protection throughout the entire journey and thank you Alvin and for the great photos.

Many times we are afraid of changes but if we are honest with ourselves, we can't deny the fact that in this world “change” is inevitable. Sometimes it can be a pleasant experience... like our family always enjoy going away for a holiday eventho some of our trips are short but the change of routine and scenery bring a lot of therapeutic benefits. At times when changes occur, it can be upsetting or even painful.

When our cell group got really big, word was thrown around about splitting into 2 smaller groups. The initial reaction was “ouch”, but since the beginning of 2010, we have settled into 2 groups of 5 families. Recently , Philip and I felt that the Lord wanted us to venture out some more … in building His Kingdom by empowering more people with His word. Sometime early next year, we will move out from the current group and find new people to share our lives with.

We really don't know what to expect but we felt this is what God wants us to do. We feel sad about leaving the current group as we have been together for so long and they are really such a blessing to us. Yet we feel God tugging at our hearts' string to answer His bidding. It will be a big change for us...but we know that when God calls , it is best to obey. After all, we have dedicated our home to God and opening it for another group of friends to come and study the Word and fellowship together should be no problem.

Philip and I strongly believe that the Word of God can transform people's lives. To be able to make a difference in someone's life is what every Christian should strive for. It is not about personal fame or looking good. It is about blessing someone so that they can in turn do likewise , hence creating a rippling effect. God's children should be able to bring positive changes wherever they are. We should walk the talk and change the world .

Earlier in the week, the fridge was running empty and as usual, I made a marketing list for hubby. However, he forgot to bring the list to the market and had to depend on his memory .Upon reaching home, he realised that he got most of the stuff but forgot the pumpkin and the tomatoes. It wasn't a big deal as he could always buy them on another trip.


But “strange” things began to unfold. A couple of hours after returning from the market, Alex rang hubby telling him that he was coming over to the house to pass him something. Guess what ? Alex came and handed a lovely pumpkin to hubby. Hubby was bewildered and amazed.

That's not the end of it. The following day , I was hanging out the laundry and the neighbour's maid called out to me. You guessed right!!! She gave me a bag of tomatoes.


Hubby and I are really tickled by this incident. God provides even the littlest things and He has again open our eyes to who He is.

Our cell group had this fervent wish to runaway from work and the usual round the mill activities so our leaders heartily agreed to go to Sematan. 6 families managed to breakaway and boy did we have fun. The weather was excellent for kite flying, cycling and just sitting around doing absolutely NOTHING.

Beautiful scenery to relax . Fun at the beach.
Fun in the pool.
Football mad. World cup fever still raging at Sematan. Hungry kids devouring the food at dinner time.
Food & more food. Our master chef Alvin hovered over the BBQ pit the whole nite to make sure we were well fed. We had sooo much food we were giving them away to the people in the next BBQ pit. Talk about being a blessing wherever we go!!!!


There was much laughter especially when we played the “James Bond” game introduced to us by Al. We were screeching with laughter. I was wiping away my tears from laughing too much. I believed we all had a terrific time. Word is going around that we are to head for Sabah for our next CG outing. The guys are talking about climbing Mt Kinabalu and snorkelling. So start saving!!! Now lets see where I kept my piggy bank ???

Thanks to Steven for the excellent photos.

We have been asked many questions regarding the house so we thought we might address some of them in our blog.

Q: How did you find this house?
A: In a nutshell... Philip was taking a detour while on the way to pick me from work and he chanced upon this house with a “For Sale” sign on the gate.
Q : Who designed the house?
A: Well... a lot of the ideas came from magazines, Jac & Alex's house, picking Alex's brain and above all .. we prayed for ideas to come forth. We are receiving very positive comments about our house and we PTL for that. People are also casting admiring glances at our car porch ceiling. All credit goes to Alex.


Q: Where & when did you get all your furniture , lightings etc? A: Over the last few months we were scouting around the city for good bargains and we are happy to catch many good ones. It saved us a lot of money. We bought the house in October and subsequently we took advantage of the Christmas , Year End/New Year, Chinese New Year, Mega Carnival and Gawai Sales to purchase whatever our household needed. That was a huge bonus for us. Actually some of the furniture was from the previous house. Mom did not feel like having so many stuff around the house so we transported them over. Q: So do you still go back to your parents (in-laws) place ?
A: Of course we do and frequently too, though due to work , Philip and I go at different times.

Q: As your house is so near your workplace ….do you walk to work?
A: Are you kidding me ? All the way there in my heels ???

Q: Do you use your music room for teaching?
A: Yes , Philip conducts music lessons at home only in the mornings. He will be at the studio in the afternoons.



Q : Yunno... your house looks small from the outside but how come it doesn't feel that way from inside ? It's really spacious.

A: Er... don't know how to answer this kind of question ???

King of Glory

King of Glory, I worship You
You are awesome, Mighty and true
King of Glory, I adore You
All forgiving, Ever loving

O let me live in Your awesome Presence
Everyday I'll shout Your praise
I want to give You my best in everything
Your every Word shall guide my ways.



Our God is worthy of our utmost praises. This morning I was just so amazed at His creations as I jogged along the waterfront with Heather. As I praised Him, He put this new song in my heart, and I am so delighted to share this song with all of you !

This year St Teresa School celebrated its 125th anniversary with great aplomb and fare. The 1st celebration was in May where a grand dinner was held at 4 Points Sheraton. This dinner was graced by many VIPs and hence more protocol was involved. The 2nd dinner was held in July and this was more towards a reunion of ex-Teresians and many came back from far and wide for this occasion. About 1000 Teresians comprising of ex-students, ex and present Principals, teachers were at Pullman Hotel to party the nite away. This time, there was less protocol and everyone can let their hair down and swing to the mood of the night.

I have many fond memories of my time in school. We were a competitive lot . Each one striving to be better than the other in our studies, yet I don't recall of any fights over such matters. I remember days filled with laughter, moans, groans of impending exams and that sickening feeling when we failed our Physics or Add Maths. I remember my 1st Physics exam and for that term paper I got a measly 40+ and I was hoping for the rapture to take place!!!

Though my friends and I were in the best class, we were never the goody goody ones. We were chatterboxes... yakking away . Once our entire class was punished by our form teacher and we had to stand in the afternoon sun. We felt no remorse and kept chattering away even under the hot sun. We literally drove the teacher mad. She screamed at us from the balcony and prolonged the time for us under the sun.!!! We all had a great tan.

Music class was one of our favourites. We all trooped dutifully into the music room with our recorders and music scores and voila... the minute the air con is on and the door closed.... we were yakking away again. You see ,even tho the music room was next to the staff room … we could yak at high decibels and no one could hear us coz it's soundproof and also Mr. Yap never scolds us for yakking. He would play the piano and sing and blow the recorder and is totally oblivious to us and we to him!!!!

I remember how I dread Chemistry coz we were all terrified of Mrs Hon. The whole class could be left standing in the Chemistry lab coz we couldn't answer her questions. She was really “garang”. Because of her “garangness” I did well for my Chemistry O levels. We had a few man teachers whom we would giggle over. We could twine En Razali our BM teachers round our little finger. He was so gentle we hardly have any homework. Then we had Mr Paul who took us for Physics and he would rattle on and on about the ticker tape timer and until today I still don't know why we have to send the trolley down the ramp??? But Mr. Paul is ever so debonair. When he retired , Mr Teo a fresh graduate took over. He was so shy then but by the time Mr. Teo was Alison's teacher he had toughen up already.

Teresians Then

Teresians Now

When I walk thru the school corridors, I feel surrounded by memories of years gone by and much of who I am today was forged thru the years in STS. Now Heather walks the same corridors that I used to walk and studies in the class I used to slog in and who knows probably sitting on my chair too. I hope that she will have many wonderful memories of her days in school and live out our school motto : AMARE et SEVIRE (Love & Serve)

Mom and dad were in England to attend Carol's graduation. So prior to their departure , mom borrowed one of my gold necklaces . It was actually a wedding gift from her and dad many years ago and she borrowed it coz it went very well with the attire which she was going to wear for the graduation ceremony.

On the day of their return , she couldn't find the necklace in the luggage after searching high and low. Everyone assumed that she had left it in the hotel in London . The hotel said there was no record of lost n found necklace. My sisters informed me that she moaned and groaned about it the whole trip back.

Jac informed me of the lost necklace while mom and dad were flying back from Miri. Surprisingly , I didn't panic. I just told God to send His angel to slip the missing necklace into the luggage and asked Philip to stand in agreement with me over the prayer.

When mom and dad arrived home, she opened the luggage to get the gifts out for the grand kids. Lo and behold..... one of the very first thing she fished out from the luggage was my necklace. It was just right there.... not buried deep in the clothes but just right there !!!! You should see her face and dad's face. There were utterly shocked by the discovery coz they said they had searched this bag over n over yet it was never inside. I could see mom's eyes all teary coz it was just too overwhelming for her.

Well ….. God knows that necklace has great sentimental value and He took care of it for me. That's our amazing God.

We moved in to our new home on 10.7.10 and we are jumping with joy so to speak. We are exhausted from all the shifting, sorting and cleaning but we are grinning from ear to ear. On the day itself, and on subsequent days we had soo many unexpected visitors who dropped by to help, chat and check out the house. Jonathan takes the trophy in helpfulness. He gave the sofa and the dining table a good wipe, wiped the sliding door, held the vacuum cleaner to suck up the dust when Alex drilled holes for the pictures etc etc

Spanking clean sofa and dining table.

Our very first meal was cooked by hubby.... instant noodles!!! Is this a sign of emerging cooking skills ? Lets see how far he can progress.

Nowadays , hubby takes verrrry looong showers. In the past , he is in and out of the bathroom in a jiffy. Now with the new shower he is taking forever in the bathroom. He enjoys the pouring rain effect. So guys , if we are ever late for meetings …. take it from me... it's not my fault ok ??!! Jonathan and Jimmy like the shower too. They are asking whether we can host a shower party.

Heather loves her room. The princess of the house decorated her room with the help of Aunty Jac.


Jordan's room is all blue and daddy is looking for pictures of aircrafts to add on to the room. Daddy is thinking of some big blow up pictures or posters.

The master bedroom... our private sanctuary.

The family room in the master bedroom is the perfect place to unwind after a hard day's work.

Music room.


We praise and thank God for a beautiful home and to our family members and friends, we want you to know that we are grateful for all the gifts and help rendered. May God bless us all to His glory.