Southbound – Prologue

26-10-2007 When we leave home for Schiphol, the temperature is around 5C. I haven’t see sun for days, and this is normal the typical weather. These photos were taken when I board the Malta Air KM399, the sky and temperature in Amsterdam is dusted with a pinch of grey.

However, as soon as we arrived Malta, the humid and warm 25C kissed my skin, it is indeed a very warm welcome to Luga International Airport. Although the weather is a bit hazy, the heat is overwhelming us. Imagine at the point of departure, I dressed for 5C to keep myself warm in the Netherlands, now I am behave like a peeling onion, stripping layer of myself to acclimatize with the humid and sweat for the coming days.

Natural Fruit Sculpture

This photo is taken awhile ago, I thoughts it is funny to capture this special shaped pear. What does it remind of you? J

I wept on my wedding anniversary

I cannot imagine the day that I waited the most has brought me the greatest damage. I thought we could have celebrated our 5th Anniversary in a joyful way. However, what shouldn't happen has all happened.

I cannot cope with his negative energy, the negativity has overwhelmed me and eventually it was him that spoilt the evening. Why can't he look from positive stand point? The restaurant is noisy, so what? That would mean the business is good. The restaurant is too smoky, so what, unless smoking in the restaurant is banned we have to face this anyway. The american are too loud, so what? Everyone has the right to talk the way they want. Why is every word uttered from his mouth has to be full of negative energy that tear me down and not me build up. What happen to those mentality of a winner?

I must admit, I want to give up... if he doesn't border to keep up what we have built up the past few years, why should I care? How much I have give in all these years and what do I ended up with? One who doesn't appreciate...

I promise myself, I will not celebrate another anniversary...even if we see through another one, I will not celebrate, not especially another one that tear me down.

Lord Jesus, I hate to feel this way, but I cannot control my emotions, the damage is too big, the hurt is too deep. I am wounded and broken, I am vulnerable. Words cannot describe my feeling right now, help me Lord, You are the only one who can help me..... I [pray that You will turn my mourning into dancing, my sorrow into joy...

Countdown to Malta

Finally after months of waiting, we are going to embark to our Mediterranean vacation - Malta.

A small country at the Southeast edge of Europe south of Italy and north each of Africa country - Tunisia.

I am looking forward for this escape, hopefully the colour will change from the dull grey (as the Dutch weather) to some blue sky and that we will be greeted by the nice gozo blue colour of the sea. See you on 26th Oct.

Tomorrow: Our Wedding Anniversary

Tomorrow (25th October 2007) is our 5th Wedding Anniversary. Thank you Johannes for the wonderful 5 years together, I look forward for the 10, 15, 20 and many more anniversaries to come. !!Thank You Lord, for the many blessings that we count each day!!

Hopefully the Lord will multiply us physically and spiritually in the near future and make this picture come to the past..

Isaiah 43:18, 19, 21

18 Do not remember the former things,

Nor consider the things of old

Behold, I will do a new thing,

Now it shall spring forth;

Shall you not know it?

19 I will even make a road in the wilderness

And rivers in the desert.

21 These people I have formed for Myself

They shall declare My praise

Thank you Lord for Your Rhema word today!

The Footprint on the Sand

This photo was taken when we were visiting Chirs, Onki and Jo Jo at one of the vacation resorts called Roompot at Zeeland.

The photo reminded me the figure of a father and a son and the beautiful poem called 'The foot print' written in 1939 by Mary Stevenson

One night a man had a dream. He dreamed
he was walking along the beach with the LORD.

Across the sky flashed scenes from his life.
For each scene he noticed two sets of
footprints in the sand: one belonging
to him, and the other to the LORD.

When the last scene of his life flashed before him,
he looked back at the footprints in the sand.

He noticed that many times along the path of
his life there was only one set of footprints.

He also noticed that it happened at the very
lowest and saddest times in his life.

This really bothered him and he
questioned the LORD about it:

"LORD, you said that once I decided to follow
you, you'd walk with me all the way.
But I have noticed that during the most
troublesome times in my life,
there is only one set of footprints.
I don't understand why when
I needed you most you would leave me."
The LORD replied:

"My son, my precious child,
I love you and I would never leave you.
During your times of trial and suffering,
when you see only one set of footprints,
it was then that I carried you."

The fruit from our Garden

Me Jo Jo and the Melon

The fruits from the Garden of Bethel. Since early spring, my mum in-law has sowed some seeds of melon, some kind of winter melon that usually use for soup or chinese dishes. The plant grew really strong and produced lots of fruits. This is one of the last few. It is quite big and heavy.

Hopefully our home Bethel will also produce the never ending fruits of the Spirit as written in Galatians 5:22 - The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

One year anniversary in U

Today is kind of special in a way because it actually marked a year milestone that I have spent a year in my current project. This is the longest project that I have ever been in so far. 3 different roles in year, from European program management office lead, try to operate myself at our senior executives' mind and tried my best to match that expectation in setting up the program, install the governance structure, enjoying my high level bird-eyes view on all the countries not having any deliverable at hand. Not too long after that, I was brought from high level down to the earth to perform another challenging role to push France operation to go live with the out-sourced HR delivery model by spending enough months in Bucharest, Romania pulling everything plan, resources, processes, technology together to make it works. That was a nice piece of master art that I have orchestrated and reward myself with a month away for training and vacation in the States.

In July, I got into a new role in global capability release workstream and be the end-to-end solution architect, solutioning the highly impacted business process, conceptualised and making it works from technology perspective. Since then I am commuting weekly to Walton on Thames on 2 nights basis.

Today, on my one year anniversary, with the certainty that I am rolling off from the project and my last day will be 5th October 2007, it will mark the 1 year and 3 days.

Do I have enough of this project? I guess yes, the challenge is not so much the client but our internal team. What is next after working with this client that manufactured most of the things we use, food we consumed daily? No concrete plan for what is next yet, but certainly the end is always a new beginning.

Exponential Multiplication

25th September 2007

Last night I have a very strange dream, it woke me up at 3am in the morning. I am not sure if the dream is a effect after the SOL II lesson on evangelism or may be God is trying to tell me something.

I am not a mathematical person, but in that dream I saw exponential multiplications. It kept repeating and I couldn't hold on to it, from 1 to 2, 2 to 4, 4 to 8, 8 to 16 and so forth. I was awake every time when I lost count on it. When I fall asleep again, the same exponential multiplication repeat again until I lost count and woke up.

I asked the Lord, is this something from You, perhaps God is revealing something special to me. Perhaps this is just another wishful thinking. The preacher from last Sunday gave strength to me. She preached that if there is only one thing for us, it is to remain in the house of the Lord and forget about the past and move to the present without any constraint from the past. I was quite disappointed lately about the fact that I was unable to conceive but the Word of the Lord encourages me to not to rely on the past pattern or cling on the disappointment every time my menstruations started. This month, I am going to look forward without turning back. Although, the dream in one hand could mean spiritual multiplication and outpouring that He has intended for me, it could also mean something in me is multiplying in the same manner to form our child Joseph. It is also not an coincident that Sister Kitty let us to study about the character of Joseph in book of Genesis. Joseph is our long chosen name for our beloved son.

The SOL II lesson also simulated me to start dreaming, have the vision. Now I started to dream about multiplication and about being a mother and seeing the face of our son Joseph and start to imagine his characters. I also seeing myself transforming to a more vocal person when come to sharing the love of Christ. I also ask God to create opportunity for me to share His love with others, in His way, not my way.

Oh Lord, how wonderful it is, if all this will come into the past in Jesus' Name. Amen.

Attic Improvement

Finally our long waited Attic windows (or in Dutch ‘Dakraam’) finally arrived and ready for installation. We have been talking about this small home improvement project since spring and was really glad that it finally happens.

The process of installation was a dusty. In the morning, the worker cuts a hole on our roof top, assembly and installs the window. It only took them about half a day to fully install the day light system.

From now on, our attic will be another sunny space that we hope to convert into a hobby room. Well. we will see how it goes...

Mosaic underground

These days, London underground stations can be as artistic and as creative as the metro stations in Paris.

I enjoyed the mosaic works at the Tottenham Court Road tube station. It really brighten the entire boring and aged underground and giving it a face lift.

KiaSu

The unofficial Singapore word or rather slang "KiaSu" has finally got its ground in the bustling London especially in the highly competitive restaurant domain. It must have not come easy but KiaSu is now the most striking and most talked about restaurant at Queensway, Bayswater district by the Malaysian or South East Asian community in London. Although the name is originated from Singapore, but the restaurant is actually serving typically classic Malaysian dishes. We visited this place twice just over one weekend.

The first dining experience was fantastic, the food was excellence and in fact the best so far compare to other Malaysian restaurants in the city. The otak-otak, satay, Nasi Lemak and my Char Kwai Tiao were just finger licking good!

We returned for the second time where Johannes ordered Bak Kut Teh and Hainanese Chicken Rice while I ordered Roti Phrata and Mee Siam. The Bak Kut Teh is not bad but of the lighter side, the Roti and Mee Siam was excellent and as good as it can be. However, the chicken rice completely put us off. They would have told us that the dish is not available than substitute it with the Hong Kong style steamed chicken as if we don't know the look and the taste of real Hainanese Chicken rice. This dish is complete disaster despite of all the highlight and satisfaction, I just hope that KiaSu will not posses the spirit of KiaSu (fear to lose) but be honest to its returning customers.

Kensington Temple

After we finished with the Notting Hill - Portobello market experience. We return to the Notting Hill gate, we decided to check out the Kensington Temple (KT). Since KT is also one of the G12 church, we somehow have a sense of belonging to this church. When browsing through the poster hanging on the wall, we can easily associate with the School of Leader. However, it was Saturday mid afternoon, there is no service at that hour. We just walked in for a quick look and then visited the book store briefly.

It is always good to be in the house of the Lord.

Give me a little more than a hotdog

I spotted this advertisement in the London underground. I read it few times and yet couldn't understand what is the key messages. I thought what a heck it is trying to say really…FYI , it is an ad from a bank.

The City - Bank

18^th Aug 2007, 9.00 am

This morning I walked to the Bank Tube station to wait for Johannes who was taking the DLR (Dockland Light Rail) while waiting for Johannes to show up from the Bank tube station. This is the first time I stay in the City. This place is pretty much a dead town on the weekends as pubs, restaurants and shops are all closed over the weekends.

Meeting St. Paul's

17^th August 2007, 22C, Sunny

I took this photo of St. Paul’s on a rather sunny Friday afternoon when I sneak out from work to catch a bit of sun shine.

Again, St. Paul’s is flooded by tourists but it hasn’t lost it charms…

Another year older

Today is my Birthday, another year older, another year wiser. No intention for big celebration since I knew that I will be away to USA for a week, what is more I already felt like my birthday for 4 continuous nights already in New York City. The Lord blessed me with this short trip, which already served as a pre-celebration that leading to today 15th July 2007.

This morning, we had a simple lunch with Onki and Jo Jo before we head to church. Today a sister in the church shared about her experience using 2 Corinthians 5:5 - Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come". I felt that the Lord also wants me to take this verse personally and reassuring me that He is empowered me for the next season.

Tonight Johannes brought me to a Indonesian Grill restaurant in Den Haag where we had a meal by ourselves. I opt for Asian food because I have been eating western food when I was in the State. The meal was just perfect to tune me back to Asian's palette again.

This photo is taken in front of the Queen's office. The sculpture is called "The Kiss", it is the Art Neuvo replicas of Gustav Klim.

Happy Birthday to ME!!

With Love from New Jersey

Manhattan view from Edgewater, New Jersey

Me with Manhattan as background

Sunset in New Jersey, along Hudson River

Tonight I went out with S and G. This is the only night I didn't get myself to NYC but explore the charming part of New Jersey. G is very hospitable and brought S and myself around NJ. We had our dinner at one of the restaurants at Edgewater promenade along Hudson River with the view of Manhattan. We sat from late afternoon till night sipping our Cosmopolitan and chatting and catch up our stories since our ex-company generation. Tonight is my last night here, I have been enjoying myself so much this trip. I finally seen New York city from different perspectives as if I am already fall in love with this city. NYC, I will see you very soon, till we meet again in fall....

Manhattan by night

Ladies and Gentlemen, I proudly present the night view of Manhattan skyline from Brooklyn.

Viva Big Apple!! Enjoy!!

Grand Central Station

Our last stop before heading back to Fort Lee was Grand Central Station. Although I have passed by a couple of time during my last visit, but I never actually been into the building itself. It looks more like a grand theatre than a train station. The high ceiling and the constellation drawings are great display, the chandelier also made the terminal building more impression than any other train stations in the world.

New York Stock Exchange

The A-Team posing at the New York Stock Exchange building. This is also where your company was listed. The A-Team consists of SM (UK based Malaysian), GY (American-Japanese mixed), NP(UK based French) and Me (NL based malaymui).

Manhattan Skyline from Brooklyn

11th July 2007, heavy rain.

Today we had another early day from work. Nicholas wanted to head to the city and so we decided to check out SoHo as it is famous for its Chic boutiques. After an hour of shopping in the rain, we head towards Brooklyn to enjoy a famous pizza meal at Grimaldi (just under the Brooklyn Bridge). As this area provide the perfect view of Manhattan, it actually was a great place to unwind in the evening. We managed to enjoy the view of Manhattan before the sunset and also the night view after our dinner.

Manhattan skyline -- Very impressive indeed!!

Empire State Building

10 July 2007, weather is extremely hot and humid, apparently NJ/NY is in the midst of heat wave this week. Well, I should count this a blessing, after all the summer in Europe has been terribly wet and cold so far..

Workshop went well with client today, finished on time. Since Grace has a rented car, we decided to cross George Washington Bridge to New York instead of staying in New Jersey.

We went to upper west side of Manhattan nearby Central Park for dinner. The Cuban dinner was excellence, we shared our starters – calamari and oyster shooters. I ordered seafood paella and it came with a giant lobster and endless of scallops, shrimps and many others. I was struggling with finishing the seafood, let alone the delicious rice.

The night is still warm and young, since this is the first trip for one of my team members; we decided to give him a crush course orientation of Manhattan. We visited Empire state building, straight up to 86^th floor for the night view of NYC. The visibility is around 10 Miles, despite of the crowds; the night view was charming and magnificent.

Glamorous NYC

9th July 2007, 35 C, Humidity 99%, New York City

When I set off from Zoetermeer it was only 15 C, by the time I arrived at Newark airport it was 35 C in the mid afternoon. I have to literally strip off my layers of clothing to adjust to the temperature. Finally after the relatively chilled and wet summer days in June, I once again welcomed by the sunshine and the heat wave in New Jersey and New York. I couldn't wait but check out the NYC and heading straight to Manhattan in the early afternoon. Good to walk on 5th Avenue again and seeing the yellow cabs and the world's famous designer store along the way. Met up with Megan and Liz who happened to be also in NJ and we had a girl night-out in the NYC.

20 Blessings

The following list counts 20 blessings from the Bible for you and me. May it strengthen you when you are down.

1. Why do I say “I can’t do it” if the Bible says that I can do all things to Christ which strengthened me (Phil 4:13)?

2. Why do I feel lacking if I know that God will supply my every need according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus (Phil 4:19)?

3. Why should I feel afraid if the Bible says that God did not give me a spirit of timidity but one of power, love, and self-discipline (2 Tim 1:7)?

4. Why should I feel lacking in faith if I know that God has assigned me a measure of faith (Rom 12:3)?

5. Why do I become weak if the Bible says that God is my light and salvation and I will be strong and do exploits (Psalm 27:1, Dan 11:32)?

6. Why should I let the devil win over my life if the Spirit that lives in me is stronger than the one who is in the world (1 John 4:4)?

7. Why should I surrender if the Bible says that God will always lead me triumphantly in Christ (2 Cor 2:14)?

8. Why should I lack in wisdom if Christ himself has become wisdom for me and God will give me wisdom if we ask Him (1 Cor 1:30, James 1:5)?

9. Why should I be depressed if I can remember that I can hope in God whose faithfulness is renewed every morning (Lament 3:21-23)?

10. Why should I worry, stressed, and complain if I can throw all my worries to God because He cares for me (1 Pet 5:7)?

11. Why should I always live under burden if I know that where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom and Christ has set us free (2 Cor 3:17, Gal 5:1)?

12. Why should I feel punished if the Bible says that there is now no condemnation for those who are in union with Christ Jesus (Rom 8:1)?

13. Why should I feel alone if Jesus says that He will always be with me, never leave or abandon me (Mat 28:20, Heb 13:5)?

14. Why should I feel cursed or feel unlucky if the Bible says that Christ has redeem us from the curse of the Law so that through faith we receive the promised Spirit (Gal 3:13-14)?

15. Why should I feel not enough in this life if I, just like Paul, can learn to be content in whatever situation I am (Phil 4:11)?

16. Why should I feel unworthy if Chris has become sin for us, so that in Him, we become God’s righteousness (2 Cor 5:21)?

17. Why should I feel afraid against other people if I know that if God is for me, nobody can be against us (Rom 8:31)?

18. Why should I be confused if God is the King of Peace and He gives us knowledge through His Spirit that lives in us (1 Cor 14:33, 2:12)?

19. Why should I keep failing and falling if the Bible says that as children of God, I am more than conqueror through Him who love me (Rom 8:37)?

20. Why should I let the pressures of lives disturb me if I can have strength because I know that Lord Jesus has conquered the world and suffering (John 16:33)? “Be still and know that I am God!” (Psalm 46:10a).

Viva Friends Forever!!

Some times, I wonder if friends are really meant forever. I didn't have a lot of friends as I grew up in my teenage hood; I only have 4 good or rather best friends since my childhood. We went to the same kindergarten, same primary school and joined the same Christian uniform body called - The Girls' Brigade through our teenage hood and learned about God and grew up in Him together. Then we parted different ways due to our further education.

It was a thrill to meet up with Corina after 7 or 10 years. She happened to be at Arnhem accompanied her husband on a business trip and thanked goodness that she asked Jennifer for my mobile number and then we are connected again.

Finally we met in Rotterdam on 6^th June and we had our lunch at Cafe Rotterdam where we had our non-stop chatting, sharing and updating each other about our life, our families, our hope town and our common friends.

Johannes joined us later when he finished he work. We then showed her around Den Haag a little bit and then ended the day with dinner.

I was really happy to meet up with Corina again and see the rest of you very soon if our homebound trip come through this year. I thanked God that although I don’t have too many good friends, but He has given me 4 lasting friendships from childhood to adulthood. Viva FRIENDS FOREVER!!

St Vitus Cathedral - The Gem of Prague

Beautiful spectrum of sunlight in the cathedral
The heights and depths of the building

St Vitus Cathedral is the spiritual heart of the nation as the mausoleum of Bohemian kings and Prague's greatest landmark.

I am really impressed by the architecture of the cathedral and also by the astonished stained windows

These colour stained glass windows are stunning, the different facets of colours penetrate through and gently reflected on the wall are really lovely. The sort of enjoyments of the eyes are uncomphrensible. Whenever there is enough sunlight shines through the stained glass, the characters of the story as-if becomes alive again.

~~~~

Charles Bridge

Charles Bridge's construction started in 1357 under the auspices of King Charles IV, and finished in the beginning of 15th century. As the only means of crossing the river in Prague, Charles Bridge used to be the most important connection between the Old Town, Prague Castle and adjacent areas until 1841. Also this 'solid-land' connection made Prague important as a trade route between east and west Europe. The bridge was originally called the Stone Bridge (Kamenný most) or the Prague Bridge (Pražský most) but has been the "Charles Bridge" since 1870.

The bridge is 516 meters long and nearly 10 meters wide, resting on 16 arches shielded by ice guards. It is protected by three bridge towers, two of them on the Lesser Quarter side and the third one on the Old Town side. The Old Town bridge tower is often considered to be one of the most astonishing civil gothic-style buildings in the world. The bridge is decorated by a continuous alley of 30 statues, most of them baroque-style, erected around 1700.

During the night Charles Bridge is supposed to be a quiet witness of medieval times. However, it didn't happen during our trip as we happened to visit Prague on the Easter weekend where everyone decided to go to Prague too. During the day, it is almost impossible to navigate through Charles Bridge without bumping into other people. It is a very busy place where painters, owners of the kiosks, and black sailors trade to carry away some money on the tourists.

The alley of 30 mostly baroque statues and statuaries situated on the balustrade forms a unique connection of artistic styles with the underlying gothic bridge. Most sculptures were erected between 1683 and 1714. They depict various saints and patron paints venerated at that time. Among the most notable sculptures, St John of Nepomuk. Beginning in 1965, all of the statues have been systematically replaced by replicas and the originals have been exhibited in the lapidarium of the National Museum.