Kenny aka Ah Yat’s Birthday

It’s been a while since my last blog. Works has really got to my neck. I have never been so busy before. I do complain to my sister sometimes, but on the other hand, I’m quite proud of myself of the pressure that I’m having. Every time when my other colleagues share with me about their work pressure and say that they even can’t sleep at night. When I hear it, I felt that they are more suffering than me. At least no matter how pressure and stress I am, I have no problems when comes to sleep. Thank God!

Singing is always my best medicine to release stress. It so happened Kenny’s birthday was just around the corner. Therefore, I suggested a birthday celebration for him at Neway karaoke lounge. Hazel couldn’t make it as she need to attend her friend’s wedding dinner. It is just the four of us, my sister and me, Kenny and Kenny… haha…

Kenny (or we called him Ah Yat) was my ex-colleague cum di di’s roommate. Both of them also called Kenny. So, we decided to call the 2nd Kenny as Ah Yat which is his Chinese name in order not to confuse each other.

We had a good time that day except Kenny who is half-dead. Haha… This is because he was helping out on the exhibition 3 days consistently. Well, surprisingly he still can sing very well that night.

Anyway, Happie Birthday to Ah Yat and may all his wishes come true.

Pictures taken on 22nd June 2008.

New Portfolio

I have started my new portfolio starting in May ’08. I’m more into projects now but on the other hand still handling supply chain management. This has really made me very busy and pressure sometimes. Well, it is still a starting journey for me and I won’t give up so easily. I’ve just started a new project on purchasing and it is quite interesting. The best part is if this project is successful, it will definitely help the supply chain people to speed up their ordering process. And I’m really looking forward to get it implement no doubt this project is not easy to handle.

This month is really a crazy month for me as I have to attend so many meetings and also trainings that my company has planned for us earlier. I have not experience meetings everyday in a week. Phew!!!!! So tiring and I have so little time to do my work when I’m away for meetings and trainings. :(

Thank God tomorrow is a holiday.. but it make no different for me as I have to go to work. Well, actually I don’t mind to work on weekends or during public holidays cuz at least I can concentrate and focus on my work. I really have not much time to work already as I’m going for a short holiday to Cameron Highlands on 25th – 27th May. Yes yes yes….. I can’t wait for the breakaway… Hope that after my break, I will come back fresh and more ideas in accomplishing my work. ;)

Encouraging Prayers - Prayer can transform our lives

Found these as I browsed through some websites and like to share with all. ;)

(1) A Morning Prayer

There are so many things I take for granted. May I not ignore them today.

Just for today, help me, God, to remember that my life is a gift, that my health is a blessing, that this new day is filled with awesome potential, that I have the capacity to bring something wholly new and unique and good into this world.

Just for today, help me, God, to remember to be kind and patient to the people who love me, to those who work with me too. Teach me to see all the beauty that I so often ignore, and to listen to the silent longing of my own soul.

Just for today, help me, God, to remember You. Let this be a good day, God, full of joy and love. Amen.

(2) A Night Prayer

With darkness comes Your light. Earth and sky blend into one, the heavens seem closer now, the day's burdens farther somehow. Your presence is almost palpable.

Watch over me, God, body and soul. Stay beside me through the night. Protect me from harm. Banish my fears. Send me dream that are sweet, fill my heart with Your peace, set my mind at ease. And, at first light, please, restore me to new life. Amen.

(3) A prayer for the Body

Thank you, God, for the body You have given me. Most of the time I take my health for granted. I forget how fortunate I am to live without pain or disability, how blessed I am to be able to see and hear and walk and eat. I forget that this body of mine, with all its imperfections is a gift from You.

When I am critical of my appearance, remind me, God, that I am created in Your holy image. If I become jealous of someone else's appearance, teach me to treasure my unique form.

Help me, God, to care for my body. Teach me to refrain from any action that will bring harm to me. If I fail to prey to a self-destructive habit, fill me with the strength to conquer my cravings. Lead me to use my body wisely, God. Guide my every limb, God, to perform acts of compassion and kindness.

I thank you, God, for creating me as I am. Amen.

放手吧!!!

經過這麼多事情發生, 我終於知道他值不值得我去愛和想念的人? 覺得自己好笨好笨. 以為跟他談心事, 他會了解和跟我分擔嗎? 別傻了! 除非他真的很喜歡妳.

所以, 我真的想通了. 從今天開始不要再想他. 不要再幻想跟他會有甚麼結果. 過去的就讓他過去. 現在開始, 我要珍惜值得珍惜的人, 對我關心的人. 放時間在該放的人身上. 雖然忘記他真的很不容易, 但是我一定要做得到. 加油吧, steph!!!

Good or Bad???

Yesterday as I’m about to drive to KTM to buy tickets to Spore, my big sister called and say that she want to admit to hospital as she got rashes all over her body. I made a U-turn and drive to her house. I thought I better don’t buy the tickets first, in case if my sis really needs to admit, I might need to change my plan then.

My brother then called me and says that he can send my sister to the clinic/hospital and I can take care of her kids. So now my sister has admitted. Confirmed is due to dengue. On the other hand, I also don’t need to go Spore already. My sister in Spore has represented us to attend the funeral. Furthermore, I don’t think I can go also now that my sister is in the hospital. She might need me to take care of the kids.

I pray for speedy recovery for my sister that she can be discharge very soon.

Bad News please goes away!!!

Never in my life had experienced so much of bad news at one time. First, my eldest sister was not feeling well for few days and thought of admitting to the hospital for a thorough check. Next, last night my car’s windscreen suddenly broke down. I was terrified as it was drizzling and I couldn’t see the road clearly. I prayed as I slowly drove back and thank God for His protection. As I was feeling sad about my car and waiting for the technician to repair the windscreen, there comes another bad news. My relative who diagnosed with cancer, passed away this morning in Spore. I knew he had a cancer and I already made a plan to Spore to visit him the next two weeks but he couldn’t wait. *sorb sorb* The lesson that I learnt is whatever you want to do, don’t wait! Just like my relative, I can’t see his face for the last time. :(

Too many things happened at the same time. I felt I’m very weak. A lot of my frens asked me to be strong. I know, I understand what they mean but sometimes it’s a bit difficult especially when I’m not a tough person. But nevertheless, I will try to be strong. If God allowed this to happened, I believe He will bring me through it. On the other hand, I’m very happy to receive some encouraging emails and sms. One of my client even prayed for me thru msn. I'm so touched. Here is the prayer that I want to remember it:
Vanessa says: Father Lord, as I commit steph into ur hands rite now, I ask tat u’ll strengthen her, fill her w ur peace and ur Love. Lord, as we know that you can bless us as well u can take away. In all things that had happen in steph life, I pray that she will grow even stronger n more intimacy w u coz only u can satisfy her inner being.

Lastly, I wanna pray that all the bad things will be over immediately and start everything good. In Jesus name, Amen.

A Worthwhile Visiting - 21/2/2008

Many people were too busy with their daily routine, ie. Work, family, relationship, religion etc. But there are also people who willing to spend some of their time to do social work. I was very glad that I’m able to join my colleague’s friends to visit one of the orphanage homes which are Rumah Hope, located at the Paramount.

It wasn’t a well-planned activity that we decided to go. It just happened that when I was chatting with my colleague thru msn and he asked me if I know any of the orphanage home or old folks home that he can go on the last day of Chinese New Year. I gave him a few homes that I used to visit when I was a volunteer for CARErity. To my curiousness, I asked him why you want to visit the home out of a sudden. He told me that he and his friends just want to do some charity, giving them angpow and food to those less unfortunate people. I was very impressed and glad to hear that (didn’t know that there are still a lot of good people out there). Hahaha… just joking.

Here are some pictures that I’ve taken during the visit. The kids were so happy and kept on asking us to come back next week again. I told myself that no matter what, I’m going to schedule some of my time to visit these kids. I also hope that there will be more volunteers to be there for them as well.

Expect Good Happening To You!!

Found it quite motivation and would like to share with all of you who is reading my blog. May God bless you all!!!

Ephesians 6:17 "And take the helmet of salvation…"

When the phone rings at odd times, most people think, “Oh dear, it must be bad news.” They don’t think, “I wonder what the good news is that it cannot wait till morning!”
When we hear, “The boss wants to see you,” instinctively, we think, “Oh dear, this is not good.” But how do we know that it is not a promotion?
Our minds are inclined towards the negative. So to guard our minds against negative thoughts, we are to put on “the helmet of salvation”, which is “the hope of salvation”. (1 Thessalonians 5:8)
If you are going through a trial right now, putting on as a helmet the hope of salvation means that you have a confident expectation of good coming your way. It means that you choose to believe that this trial that you are going through is only temporary because God will see you through it. It means that you believe that this difficult period will end with your salvation — your preservation, wholeness, wellness, health and prosperity!

You may not know what is going to happen this week. But one thing that you can do is put on the helmet of the hope of salvation. And tell yourself that you are going to have a fantastic week!
“Well, you know, Pastor Prince, you never know what to expect. We hear so much bad news these days — another flu outbreak, another company retrenching its workers… I really hope that I will not be retrenched next. But I cannot be sure. I am keeping my fingers crossed.”

No, my friend, biblical hope is not “I hope so”, but “I know so”! You can have a confident expectation of good happening to you because you are not like the people of the world. You are a child of the living God. You have a Saviour watching over you. There are more angels given charge over you than there are demons against you. And greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world. (1 John 4:4) There is every reason for you to have a confident expectation of good happening to you!

Beautiful Saviour

Yesterday i was on duty at home and couldn't go to church. There is always alternate Sunday that I have to stay at home to take care my mom who is a stroke patient. Though my mom has this stroke, I thank God that she is at least not bed-ridden. She can walk slowly with her walking stick.

A lot of the Sundays I don’t feel like missing church as I always brought work back to work (knowing that I won’t be going out to anywhere). But yesterday I felt the urge to spend time with God worshipping Him and reading His Word. Maybe because I overheard some worship songs played by my sis last night. So I decided to play a few worship songs and sang along.

When I started to sing “Beautiful Saviour” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xadN02RK7-4), I just couldn’t control myself but just knelt down on my knees and wept uncontrollably. My tears just fall like a heavy rain. I had a very good cry I would say. I felt so touch by this song of how wonderful Jesus is that every time we called upon His name, He will help us. I always felt guilty when He answered my prayer even though I haven’t prayed. He knows me so well that make me very guilty when I don’t have time for Him.

Thinking of all these, I just cried and cried. I commit a lot of things to God. I told Him that I’m tired. I’m tired of the earthly things that happened around me. Work.. family.. relationship. I suddenly felt like I’m lack of strength, lack of motivation to work. But I felt peace when I worship God.

Many of my colleagues thought that I’m a very tough person that I can handle a lot of works and pressure. But actually I’m not. I’m just a normal human being too who needs support and understanding. Sometimes I’m in dilemma and don’t know who to turns to? My siblings might not understand the work pressure that I experienced recently. To them, I’m a workaholic. I work late at night, I worked during weekends, I worked on public holidays. How I wish God can tell me what to do..

Happy Glutinous Rice Ball (Tang Yuan) Day!!

Glutinous Rice ball in Chinese also called “tang yuan”. Tang Yuan day is a very important day in Chinese believes. According to my mom, it’s more important than Chinese New Year. My mom always said “come come come..eat tang yuan. After eating you are one year older”. Sometimes we will replied “huh, like that dun want to eat lor.. so we can remain our age”.. haha… For me, whether I’m a Buddhist or Christian, I’m not really particular in all these festival, as long as I just join in the fun. ;)

As usual, every year I and my sister will help to make some tang yuan. Don’t know why this year I felt a bit of excited. I enjoyed making tang yuan and looking at the rounded tang yuan I laughed and even took some pics of it. My elder sister make one tang yuan snow man and it’s so cute. Every time when we make tang yuan, everyone will sure create our own tang yuan but this year my elder sister gave command not to do it. Haha…but only her snow man can.. ;p

Here are some pictures that I’ve taken…take a look at the snow man tang yuan..isn’t it cute??

My New Office - Preliminary

Finally our new office renovation has completed. We have already started to shift our workstation bit by bit to the new place since yesterday. I was very excited with my new place and was blessed to have a room sitting with my subordinates. As I'm in-charged of the call centre, it will be good to sit with the customer service agents.

Below are some pictures that I've taken last night. It's just a preliminary pictures and once all the cubicles are up..I will post again, ya.. ;)

1. My workstation

2. The order centre

3. The managers and executives workstations

Lonely Christmas for me :(

This year will be a lonely Christmas for me. :’( My younger sis and 3rd elder sis will be going to Spore next week to celebrate Christmas. As for me, I will need to be at home with my 2nd elder sister to look after our parents. I wish I can follow them too as I have not experience having Christmas in Spore. Not only my siblings, most of my friends also going to Spore.

So, what am I going to do for Christmas??? Help!!! :(

Saloon

Today is a public holiday for Selangor. I brought my mom to saloon to get her hair permed. As usual, every time I bring my mom to saloon, instead of sitting there waiting, I might as well get a hairdo too. Since Christmas & New Year is around the corner, I decided to do something to my hair. I don’t wanna perm or cut my hair as I wanna maintain my long straightening hair. ;)

So, I went to dye my hair and highlight as well. My gosh..I was not able to accept the result at first! It was quite bright especially the highlights. I asked myself, "Steph, you are real daring". haha...

But after looking at the mirror many times, it's not that bad lah..just that I'm not used to it only. It's good to create something different. Just treat it as New Year new hairstyle. ;p

很可惜的運氣 ;(

Sigh...為甚麼要讓我知道呢?知道了又拿不到! :( 過去那兩年都沒有機會拿到lucky draw,但是這次沒有去就給我拿到.很可惜的我同事既然沒有聽到我的號碼宣佈. 今天上班我另外一个同事才告訴我我的號碼有宣佈. 不過已經太遲了. 沒有得拿了.

不是你的就不是你的啦.

又是傷心的一天

本來昨晚打算要去 company’s annual dinner. 怎知到一早老板良就叫我回去做工. 因為我們剛剛拿了一个new business. 這個生意不容易做而且每个product都很貴. 所以我們要很小心做每个processing.

我以為做多十二點多就可以回去了.因為我兩個妹妹要去saloon, 我必須要趕快回去. 不然她們不能趕到回來讓我用車. 我已經很努力很快的把工做完但是還不能做完. 時間一个小時一个小時的過, 我就很擔心, 因為妹妹一定會生氣我的. 到三點我還是不能做完. 我妹妹又打電話來了. 知到我趕不到回來她們就很生氣了說我每一次都是這樣. 完全忘記今天是我要留在家照顧媽的.

我真的很傷心,很失望. 為甚麼她們不能了解我呢? 她們以為我很想在週末里做工嗎? 我都已經很累了, 兩個星期都做工. 但是不做也不能, 畢竟這个是new business嗎? 而且也不是我自己一个人做. 我同事, 老板良和我的下屬都有來.

我只是要她們了解我, 體諒我. 如過我趕不到, 她們可以明天去saloon的. 在我心裡, 我真的很希望她們能對我說, “姐, 沒關係的, 你慢慢做,但是不要太遲回來因為你要準備去 dinner.” 很可惜的她們甚麼都沒說, 只是生氣我罷了. 你說我還有心情去dinner嗎?

我駕車回來的時后, 一邊駕一邊哭. 為甚麼我的家人總是不了解我.

My First Overseas Trip (Taiwan) – 15th Nov to 22nd Nov ‘07

I was very excited and looking forward ever since I have signed up for the Taiwan trip organized by my company. It was my first overseas trip and also my first experience sitting on the plane. Since young I have been enjoying watching the plane/helicopter flying up the sky, one after one but I have not try sitting on the plane before. That’s why this trip was kind of exciting for me.

Very unfortunately on the first day, we supposed to board a plane at 2pm and it ended up flight cancelled! Can you imagine that we have been waited from 12pm (as we need to check-in 2 hrs earlier) to 6.30pm only to know that the flight need to be cancelled due to technical problem!

All of us were so upset and especially me, as this is my first overseas trip leh!!! :-( I even got teased by my colleague saying that since I like to see airplane so much, now I got the chance to see until the next day! Haha…so bad of her. :-(

Due to the cancellation, the airlines need to arrange for our accommodation and meal for the night. We got to stay at JW Marriott Hotel in Putrajaya. It was a very beautiful hotel. So you say is this unfortunate or fortunate?

The next morning we woke up at 4am in order for us to catch the 8am flight. Waking up at this hour reminds me of the 21 days fast and pray where I need to be at church at 5.30am.

Finally I got into the plane and off we go.. I was lucky to get a window seating (actually I beg my colleague to swap the seat with me..hehe..first time mah..) but it was on the wing’s side! Sigh…but better than nothing. Almost the whole journey I was looking at the outside view and I’m really enjoying it.

It takes about 4 hrs and 10 mins to reach Taipei. As soon as we touched down, the coach was waiting for us outside the airport. And so the tour guide started to share about Taiwan and the places that we are going to visit. I wasn’t really concentrated what the tour guide is talking as I just want to enjoy the Taiwan’s scenery.

I know where we are heading but I did not know it takes so many hours to reach the destination? And furthermore the roads are terrible…up down up down the hills. I almost want to vomit if the tour guide didn’t ask for a break. It took us 7 hours to reach the destination. We have already sit on the plane for 4 hrs plus and now we need to sit on the bus for another 7 hours?? Oh man…how to stand? The whole day is wasted on the traveling and we don’t have a proper meal feed into our stomach and because of that, most of us already feeling not well and one of the elderly also vomited. It has really destroyed my mood on the first day.

Overall the trip is just OKAY. The weather was terribly cold in Taipei and the food is not very nice too. Every morning woke up at 6am to have breakfast and start our journey at 6.30am. Every morning is the same breakfast (white porridge with veges) and I’m really no appetite to eat cuz I don’t like porridge. I missed my Malaysian food. ;( My colleague felt pity on me, she said people usually put on weight when they travel but I’m the other way round…haha..

They said I chose the wrong country, I should be going to those western country where I can enjoy the western food. I guess so. That’s why now I’m planning my next year trip to Germany. Perhaps I’ll be celebrating my birthday there in Germany some time in July ‘08. Can’t wait lor…

Here are some pictures that I’ve taken throughout the journey. Some of the historical places are really beautiful too.




the three important people [driver (Nam San), Taiwan's tour guide (Alex) and Malaysia's tour leader (Daniel)]

very serious soldiers and you cant touch them or they will shoot!

this is 101 Shopping Mall not IOI Mall, okie? This is what the tour guide alwiz reminds us..haha..

the most interesting place..called Yeliu Stone Park..can you see the fairy shoes (2nd pic)? Unfortunately I didn't managed to finish the walk as it was freaking cold and drizzling!!

this is the so called "Gunung Berapi" place..

eaten by a dragon before? im goin in now to check out what's in it's stomach..haha..

Taiwan is full of temples and statues of God..almost everyday we go to temple. how i wish the tour guide can bring me to visit church one time.. ;p

guess what is this at your first glance? Fishballs?? dat was my first glance, and when I went nearer..my gosh..it's stones la.. so cute..

the 1st cultural show..i like their costumes..i meant the ladies costume ;)

and then we went to visit "Ling Zhi" factory..have not seen such big ling zhi before

The first place we went at Hua Lien..the longest journey..

This is the place where we can collect all kinds of stones...these are my colleagues crazy collecting stones after hearing the hotel owner's story.. ;p (just kidding). but the stones is not just a normal stone, it's really unique.

Taiwan is famous on Stones. This hotel owner grew rich by collecting stones.. So why are we working so hard to get rich? Go Taiwan collect stones la..haha...

Sceneries along the way..(1)

Pictures up the sky..can you see the clouds?? How awesome is God's creation!!

Pictures of Planes..