My Computing Nightmare

What's your worst computing nightmare? A crashed hard disk? A corrupted Config.sys file? A micro-processor gone haywire?? I believed I have a crashed hard disk yesterday at the end of my workshop in Brussels. I got a blue screen dump prior to shutdown and when I tried to restart my machine in the train, I got read error..

This morning I have to bring my laptop to the office so that the IT guy could fix it. It’s not very optimistic but I sincerely pray that they could recovered my data since I have not make any backup at all for all the work that I have done for AmazING. Plus there are a couple more important documents that I have developed sit in the hard disk.

I am anxious but I know my God will supply all my needs and I shall have my data recovered. Keep my fingers crossed...

Going to the City of Tin Tin

Well, when I write going to the city of Tin Tin, I mean going to Brussels. Since Tin Tin is a cartoon created by a Belgian.

I must admit after a few months of non jet-set lifestyle, it is kind of stressful again to get myself travel for work again. I need to go to Brussels to conduct the final workshop for my current project. Instead of traveling very early tomorrow morning, me and my colleague decided to travel this evening, so that we could get a good night rest before the workshop on Wednesday.

Will definitely check out the city tonight, and see what Brussels has to offer J

An Achievement, A Celebration

Tonight I took the whole team for drinks and dinner at Oni, Den Haag. It is a Japanese restaurant, and although as I suspected, it is operated by Chinese but the quality of the sushi, sashimi and even the dessert are quite good. Of course, it is not as authentic as the Japanese ones.

The team has worked very hard in one way or another to get the AmazING done. I thanked God that I have a great team and the team work is excellence. The client is happy with what we have delivered and even place a tentative order. The client is known for very slow decision making, but I know it is God who intervenes in the situation so that I can shin in my workplace with spirit of excellence. It was a fun night, for one, it is an eye opener and taste bud opener trying Japanese food for the first time.

Guys and gals, thanks for your hard work and contribution!!!

Living Water

Can you imagine could you live for one day without water? It was really hard for me to recall when was the last time in my life. I really need to travel back all the way to my childhood to search for that.

Last night when a brother is installing a new sink in our bathroom, for some unknown reasons one of the newly purchased water tabs was broken during the installation. As a result of that we have to implement unexpected water suspension at home. It was past 11pm, no reversed water (as we didn’t expect this at all) and the result is we have to survive a night without tab water. The teeth brushing, drinking and toilet because extremely uncomfortable and inconvenience even just for an overnight.

Thank God that we managed to exchange for a replacement this morning and now the sink is fixed and life is back to normal.

Thought for the day: Imagine when one is lacking of the living water in life, the Bible uses water many times to illustrate life, Jesus is the living water, and water always symbolizing life. I hope that everyone find Jesus as the living water for their life today.

The Joy of Sushi Making

16th February 2008

Well, to be precise, it should be Sushi Making @ Joy’s place. Johannes got a sushi kit for his birthday last year, and since I only been to the sushi workshop once and couldn't’t rely on my own skill to throw a sushi party, we decided to do it at Joy’s place. It was really exciting and enjoyable night, although we were surrounded by really the very young and those young at heart, despite of the generation gap, we all enjoyed ourselves very much from learning, making and eating our own creation of sushi that comes in different sizes.

This is my first time mixing the sushi rice with vinegar and seasons it to taste. Besides the boys, almost everyone has a share in making the sushi, some cutting the ingredients, other making dessert or making omelet, fish filet as the topping of the sushi. There were 12 of us at peak period, everyone was very open and engaging in very open conversation and of course put some of our brains to the limit during the mind games at the later part of the night.

Joy, thank you for hosting the Sushi Party.

Friday night @ Jordaan, Amsterdam

This weekend is loaded with programs, starting with Friday (15th February) evening where I checked out Amsterdam Jordaan with Sabine Hahn, an ex-colleague who has become my friend. We usually met in different country; the last meeting was in New Jersey, USA in July 2007.

Friday night we meet in a small Italian restaurant in Jordaan area and had a lovely catch-up and dinner together with Sabine Polish’s friends Hanna Lenart and her husband. It was a lovely evening, and we already tentatively set our next meeting point, that will be in Rome...only if everything happen according to plan...

Sweet Hearts

For those who tend to forget! It is Valentine's Day today. A day to cherish your sweet hearts.

Happy Valentine's Day!

A Gloomy Day

Today I woke up and the whole area is covered by a thick layer of mist. It was as if I am in my dream, everything is grey and gloomy. I already knew it from weather forecast, but never expected it to be so thick and it is developing throughout the day. Here is a photo taken from the study room.

Bathroom Renovation

The shower cabin door

The extension of the side wall using this transparent tiles

In preparation for my family visit in March, we decided to renovate our bath room. Although we have a shower facility, there is no proper shower cabin and the water spread everywhere after a good shower. It is not possible to fit a standard shower cabin in due to the original design of the house. Both of us have been using bath tub instead of shower all these while. In anticipation that my family are not use to taking bath in Asia, we decided to renovate our bathroom, starting by installing proper shower cabin using some transparent tiles and a glass door. We have purchased all the raw materials and parts; the renovation is ready to go… The bathroom will soon go through face-lift and will be there awaiting for guests in coming weeks…

A Chinese New Year Feast

Boiling Chinese Fondue

The feast of the night

The guests

Fighting for food...

Saturday 9th February 2008, the 3^rd day of Chinese New Year, we have a big Chinese fondue feast at my sister-in-law’s house, together with 2 friends from UK that were staying with us over the weekend plus some other relatives.

There are 16 of us feasting on a long table with one proper Chinese fondue set and the other side of the table with a rice cooker which serves the same purpose.

Mum as usual over prepared the food and the whole tables are full of raw squids, scallops, fish and other types of meats. Furthermore, there was abundance of vegetables to choose from.

We were all stuffed and there were still lots of uncooked ingredients lying on the table that we have to pack home and think of another way to cook them.

CuRi Forum

Attendees of the day

Presentation on South Africa

Presentation on India

Sunset in Amsterdam, view from my office

Within my company and community, I am the lead of diversity taskforce. Since the shift of labor market two years ago, we have been hiring non-Dutch colleagues extensively that there is a need to create a group to cater for their needs. The group that I have founded is called CuRi Forum which means ‘Culturally Rich’, a melting pot and an international cross road in the Netherlands. Last Friday 8th February 2008, we have our 3^rd CuRi Forum event in the office, where Pension situation is clarified and explained to our foreign colleagues. Furthermore we have two cultural presentations on the country and the work ethnics especially on the differences in Dutch working ethnics. The countries in spot light were South Africa and India. In most situations, we are amazed at the cultural richness of other countries but yet people have made a choice to work in the Netherlands for their personal development, extending their opportunities despite of the weather. This group has now members from 21 countries and it is growing constantly.

Happy Chinese New Year

Well, tomorrow is Chinese New Year again. Wishing all of you who celebrate this festive season a Happy Chinese New Year

恭喜发财

万事如意

主里蒙恩

Shall We Dance?

Since this weekend, Johannes and I started to dance at home. Dancing was one of the thing we talked about doing together for years but never got the time or the will to get it done. This weekend, out of the blue, I learned English Waltz and Cha Cha from Johannes. Besides picking up the steps, the more important part is to coordinate the movement with your partner. The first few rounds was rather stressful but once I got into the rhythm I seems to start closing my eyes and let my legs move naturally according to music and swing in our living room. It is also a very subtle physical exercise that after an hour I started to feel that my legs are really tired and sore. But I like the idea of dancing and hopefully we will practice a few more time before venturing to the actual dance floor

A New Home Deco

Since our nephew Jo Jo arrived 2 years ago, we have to indirect transformed our house into a child friendly place, and thus I have to hide most of my fragile display items. My little piggies collection has gone underground for almost a year and a half.

We have been searching for a display unit for our living room, but couldn't’t find one that we both agreed for months. Finally, as we went to Ikea to buy a sofa bed (in preparation for my family visit) last Saturday, we spotted this and immediately it became our one of our acquisitions. Now it is fully installed and on displayed in our living room. And my little piggies also now back on display on the 3rd level (not captured in this photo). This display unit has becomes the center piece of our living room.

As for me and my household ....

Last Sunday, my mum-in-law (far left in the photo) got baptized. On Sunday evening, we went out for the dinner in Den Haag to celebrate her baptism. We are glad that she is now also actively going to the church on Sunday. May the Lord bless her physically, emotionally and spiritually, I pray that she will learn more of the Lord each day. The bible says 'as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord'. I thanked God that one more family member are added to the kingdom of God.

Litty Matty

Since the last two Sunday at church, little Matty came to me automatically during the praise and worship time in the service and wanting me to carry him. He is really cute and chubby. The funny thing is he can really worship the Lord, he claps his hands and his body moves according to the rhythm of the music. Last Sunday after the service, he came to me again and stayed with me at the coffee table for a long time. He is such a famous boy in the church that is usually pre-occupied by other sisters from the church, I feel really special when he comes to me. God bless little Matty.

Factory Outlet Adventures

5^th Jan 2008

This is our first cross boarder day trip of the year. We decided to drive to Roubaix, which is a town close to Lille, France.

L’Usine – a typical French designer factory outlets in a converted old mill which I believed only for domestic French market, since non of the sales attendants are willing to communicate in English, stocks are piled up like a warehouse, where you have to dig into the stock and find your precious items. If you really make an effort to browse through the items, you can find really quality goods here. http://www.lusine.fr

Mc ArthurGlen – a usual chained outlet presenting the shops in a certain village style that provide certain level of comfort shopping http://www.mcarthurglen.com

Both outlets are closed to each other, but the scales and the variety of shops they offered are pretty small selection compare to other outlet stores. Although we visited 2 factory outlets in a day, but our wallets are saved and have not suffered any damage , Johannes got some bargain from L'usine and I just got a nice set of handmade wine glass from McArthur Glenn.

Anyway, it was a good venture since we haven’t done that for a long time.

Old Year’s Day

The table is set, the Christmas light is on, the candles are lit and the food is on its way to our home.

While waiting on the guests I played some smooth jazz music and start reading the annual year book from my company which entitles ‘ECHO – European Concert Hall Organization’ with beautiful pictures of concert halls all over Europe. The quiet moment ends as soon as the first batch of guests arrived.

We waited for awhile and finally the food arrived and is set on the table and ready to be served. This has been a yearly ritual; the New Year’s Eve (or rather as the Dutch put it as Old Year’s Day) is either taking place at our home, my sister-in-law or my mum-in-law’s place.

Mum cooked a lot of good dishes, mixed veg bird nest, prawns, fried chicken beacon, roasted Duck, Chinese cauliflower, fried wantan, steamed fish, fried oysters, fat choi mushroom (traditional Cantonese new year dish), crab claw, scallop & squid mixed veg and nonetheless the chicken corn starch soup.

Eet Smakelijk

Bon Appetite

Selamat makan

吃饭

Enjoy your meal

My 2007

With 2007 almost coming to an end, I tried to count my blessings for Year 2007 which is ‘The Year of the Next Level’ for us. . 2007 is a work and life balance year, I enjoyed my career and the challenges I faced and the satisfaction of overcoming them.

In summary:

• I grew a level higher in my knowledge of God and His plan for G12 and how I can be part of it. The vision of G12 is much clearer and dearer to my heart now.
• I grew a level higher in my management style, leadership skill and my capacity at work.
• I developed a slightly deeper relationship with my CARE group members.
• I extended my territory by setting my feet on Eastern European countries. And to the part of USA that I never been before.
• I grew a level higher in forgiving and relating to people especially my family, friends, co-workers and counselees.
• Of course physically I grow a year older (a bit more pigmentation, wrinkles) and a little side-wise.

Above all, I enjoyed 2007 to the fullest because of the provision of my God Jehovah Jireh who provides every need abundantly, unexpectedly and supply that overflow.

	2007
	Work	Life
Jan	3 Business trip to Paris, France 22 Business trip to Bucharest, Romania 29 Organized Community Event & Sushi All the way	20 Fly in early to Bucharest, Romania for sightseeing 22 Ladder of Succes - Consolidation Class - started
Feb	9 Focus Group Outdoor Event at Dorhout Mees, Biddinghuizen 19 Special EALA overnight event at London city, UK	4 Attended Creative Writing workshop in Amsterdam
Mar	8 Business trip to Bucharest, Romania	L All work no life L Consolidation class - ended
Apr	16 Business trip to Prague, Chez Rep. Business trip to Bucharest, Romania	19 Easter weekend in Prague, Chez Rep. 25 Stay over weekend in Bucharest, Romania
May	13 Core Manager School Training at St. Charles, Illinois	18 Stay over in Chicago 19 Visiting Miami, Florida
Jun	28 Project based at Rotterdam - ended	Visiting Miami, Florida 13 Malaysia Food Fair, Den Haag 18 Corina Power visiting Rotterdam
Jul	10 Business trip to Fort Lee, NJ 18 Project based at Walton, UK - started	12 Manhattan, NY 15 My birthday celebrated in a quiet way
Aug	Project based at Walton, UK	4 Johannes 40th Birthday Party 11 Oyster Hunting in Grevelingendam, Zeeland 18 Weekend in London 25 Day trip to Port Zeelandé
Sep	Project based at Walton, UK	7 Weekend in London 15 Beverwijk China Town 16 Garden makeover 17 Ladder of Success - SOL II - started 21 Home improvement - installed daylight system at Attic 22 Day trip to Roompot, Zeeland
Oct	Project based at Walton, UK - ended	15 Ladder of Success – SOL II - ended 26 Wedding Anniversary trip to Malta
Nov	12 Business trip to Frankfurt, Germany 19 Office Party at Den Haag 26 Project based at Amsterdam - started	4 Wedding Anniversary trip to Malta 7 Sick for the first time of the year 11 FMC 12th Anniversary Celebration
Dec	13 Overnight community event at Noordwijkerhout	15 Anna-Marie visiting Netherlands 18 Sick for the Second time of the year 26 Christmas Family Dinner 31 Old/New Celebration at Home

Welcome the Chin

Alessi full Mr Chin series

Queen Chin and King Chin

I got to know Mr Chin series when I was browsing in one of the department stores in Frankfurt. It caught my attention since then. I am referring to a series of kitchen accessories created by Alessi. The Chin is a cross-over of Italian innovation and inspiration of Taiwan National museum; as a result it is a east meets west creation. This Christmas I successfully introduced Queen Chin and King Chin into Bethel as a Christmas gift to Johannes of course.

We just washed them and are waiting for them to get dry and then fill them with salt and paper, hopefully they will be serving during the new year dinner.