New Year Eve 08

This is my 28th post of my blog, and it's gonna be the last post of 2008. Well, am I celebrating or going anywhere for countdown? Nope, I'll be staying in Semenyih to study, exam is just around the corner. Anyway, there're only me and Hinn in the house studying, Isaac went to com lab, Eugene and Teng went back to Seremban for a reunion BBQ/new year countdown, and Audri is still in KK...

Hinn and my study table:

Well, I'm not a city boy, staying at home for New Year Eve is in fact what I did for the past 20 years, and I'm OK with it. Besides, I never did countdown before (at least in the real world).

I had once doing coundown for new year 04, while playing Ragnarok Online Chaos server (online game). I still remember I'm an acolyte just finished training at Payon Cave and everyone was gethering at the entrance doing countdown. Once it reached 2004, everyone spammed their skills (I used ruwatch and heal). Haha, the wizards' meteor rain and Lord of Vermillion really rocked the screen.

Another one was the countdown for 2008 (366 days ago). I was having semester break at KK, surfing around the net for nothing. Suddenly, Carl nudged me (msn), he was already in UK by then. We chatted until Malaysia's midnight. I told him I never did real countdown before, and we did it together (online), although he still has to wait for 8 hours, haha. So basically, I did virtual countdown twice.

Most people will ask what we accomplished in this year. Besides completing diploma with the CGPA I wanted (I prayed for it so much, and God answered ^_^), I'm now a university student instead of college student *upgraded*. In this year, I once again experienced academic climax (final year project in Nilai UC), and what's next? Everyone will be going on seperate ways. However, I'm still stuck with my major "sidekicks". Maybe God has more plans for us... Haha, who knows.

To those people in Nilai UC (July 06 - July 08):
"These two years are great, thanks for being part of my life."

Today is a starless night, I can't even see the moon in the sky, but there're firecrackers sound from far. Excited for 2009? Not at all, it's not my style to think too much. One thing I'm sure of, studies will be very tough for the coming two years. Well, I used to pray for Nilai UC, Inti and KTT a lot during their exams. Now they're either having holiday, going oversea, graduated or applying for job... As I said, everyone is going seperate ways, but just wish you guys all the best.

I was thinking more about my 2008, and here comes Isaiah 26:12, "LORD, you will grant us peace, for all we have accomplished is really from you." This is very true, as the phrase said "ask and you will be given", all the prayers will come true at the perfect timing. Thinking back how I grow spiritually, LORD has been faithful to me. LORD, as another year comes, new challenges are waiting for us. Please stay near to us, open our heart to You, and may Your kingdom comes. Also praying for students in University of Nottingham and Leeds, bless us for the coming exam. In Jesus name I pray, Amen.

Christmas Eve 08

I'm quite busy with my revisions as my first semester's final exam is approaching, that's why my Christmas Eve post delayed so much. I spent my Christmas Eve with the Chan family as we're preparing for the Christmas service at First Baptist Church (FBC), Petaling Jaya. Actually, the day before they're planning to shop around KL, but since it was my first time celebrating christmas, they decided to do it at home, cause the real christmas wasn't about shopping. Besides, shopping is nothing special in Malaysia.

Aunty Elizabeth woke up early again to prepare another turkey. Yupz, I had 2 turkeys in a christmas, my very first christmas! Base on the experience we had for the party, this time the turkey's gonna be good. We add on some honey too. Instead of using the slow oven in student house, now we're using the good one in aunty's house.

My breakfast:

This turkey has a mass of 5.6 kg:

I found something interesting, they have these chocolate (from UK I think) packed into an eyeball and some other shapes. I was playing with it for quite a while before eating it, feel so "Addam's Family".

While the turkey was inside the oven, Aunty Elizabeth and Cheryl went to a saloon around Inti to wash and style their hair for the following day (christmas service) and I'm going to have a haircut too. Charles stayed at home doing project and watching the turkey. The last time I cut my hair was in Sabah during early September (my birthday), my very first post of this blog. *Haha, it's been 4 months already*

Before:

So 3 of us entered the saloon, Cheryl and Aunty were sitting a row behind me. Here comes the fun part of the day, I had a very "nice" chat with the hairdresser, in cantonese:

Hairdresser: "Your hair is really thick and long this time, how long was the last time you've been here?"
Me: "???"
Hairdresser: "Your twin ah, dunno elder or younger one, has less hair then you. You have so many hair, just like your sister and mum."
Me: "Oh~"
Hairdresser: "Why so long didn't come already?"
Me: "Emm... cause graduated from Inti already and continue degree in Leeds, UK. Now come back for christmas break."

Haha, he thought I'm Carl, but Carl is still in UK. So I continue chatting by using Carl's profile. I wonder can Carl speak cantonese...

Me: "In UK, the saloons charge quite expensive, so I rather to cut my hair when I'm back."
Hairdresser: "Oh, it should be very cold there until your sideburns grow so much."
Me: "Oh... ya (laughing a bit), very cold..."

I think it's because of Carl's identity, he charged me RM14 only ^_^, he's quite fast too. So, this is the outcome:

We came back and prepare for dinner, I helped Cheryl cleaning the dining table while Aunty Elizabeth was busy doing the other dishes in the kitchen. Since it's Christmas Eve, so the atmosphere of the house will be more beautiful than normal.

Around the house

I was playing with Cam Cam, but I never knew that he's camera shy:

The dining table:

Then, Uncle Chan came back from work and dinner is served! Yeah, what a wonderful Christmas Eve dinner. Thanks alot Uncle and Aunty Chan, Cheryl, Charles and Carl!

After the dinner and cleaning, I take some snaps of myself again. Cheryl said she liked this picture because I'm smiling naturally, as in not acting cool. I'm quite happy with this hairstyle, even I smiled until my eyes closed (although it never opens), I still look good (as always).

Oh ya, I wanna tell a simple and clean joke about why 24th Dec is called Christmas Eve.

When the calender first strikes 24th Dec, Adam told her: "It's Christmas, Eve."

What a coincident, I'm talking about 24th Dec in this post and today is Isaiah chapter 24. It says in verse 18 "Those who flee in terror will fall into a trap, and those who escape the trap will step into a snare." I was talking with Aunty Elizabeth and Cheryl about the reason most of the people entered Nilai UC, and most of us are escaping something (at least for those people that involved in our talk),but God, I knew none about You by that time. Now, I'm facing another big challenge (and there're more to come), please lend me the courage and strength for not trying to run but facing it. I believe You will bring me through it all! Also pray for other fellow Nottingham students that are spending hard time, lets crush this exam! In Jesus name I pray, Amen.

Christmas Party in Student House

Our Nilai Service planned a christmas party on Monday (22nd Dec) night. There'll be food, games, gift exchange and caroling. As usual, there'll be a lot of preparation for these kind of events and human power is needed, so Robert and me are there to help the Chan family (also to enjoy)!

A day before it (21st Dec), Cheryl dug out all the random stuffs that can be made as gift. We gonna prepare extra gifts because there'll always be somebody that didn't prepared or forget. Robert taught me how to wrap present as I never did it before, and I wrapped over 10 presents!

Oh ya, just a little boxed in scenario. Uncle Tome and Aunty Frances gonna have a flight back to US on that night too, so it'll be the last meeting with them. Our Nottingham bible study group prepared a photo album with some of our bible studies' pictures and messages inside as a gratitude. I presented it to them before they're heading to the airport. I really thanks LORD for bringing them to our life, which strengthen our faith and also helped us throughout our spiritual growth.

Robert practiced so much for the caroling session as we're gonna have a series of christmas songs and he'll be the one only one playing guitar *really respect and appreciate his hardwork*. Me, Cheryl and Charles were busy mapping the programmes for the party.

That morning, Aunty Elizabeth woke up early and started marinating the turkey*believe me, it's not easy*. We packed all the stuffs needed for that night, and went Giant to buy some more food.

Aunty Elizabeth took me and Robert to the student house first. Here's the tough part, we gonna start cooking! We're taking care of the veges, nuggets, hotdogs, potatoes, wedges, turkey, curry chicken and log cakes (that's a lot to do). For the first time of my life (ya... again), I cut so many potatoes and hotdogs, thanks Robert for teaching me again or else my fingers will be the victim. Robert and Aunty Elizabeth were inside the kitchen cooking and baking the turkey, so sorry that I can't help for that part. Luckily Tess and Carol came to the rescue, they arrived early to help!

My greatest achievement on that day is, I decorated the swizzroll cakes into super nice christmas log cakes *I love my creativity*! The snow are icing sugars, decorated with candies from Austrailia.

As Chris Abner and his family arrived, they reinforced the kitchen force and told me to be incharge of the gift registration for gift exchange later. Honestly, I'm kinda messed up as I didn't really manage the situation nicely for gift registration. So worried that I'm gonna spoil the whole party.

Students came around 7 p.m, most of them are African students trapped in Nilai UC during semester break and quite a number of them from KTT arrived too. There were more than 60 of them, amazing! Anyway, we started with the food first. Surprisingly, our cookies recieved a lot of possitive feedback, I'm glad about it.

Then Chris shared about the real meaning of Christmas. Next, I'm invited to share a testimony of myself about how, when and why I accepted Jesus Christ as my personal savior! Actually, my testimony isn't a bombastic one like others that is so touching and overwhelming, but I just hope that we can all share the wonderful love of our God with each other. Then, we have games. I'll be the one explaining the rules and Cheryl will be the game coordinator, they really had a lot of fun.

For the gift exchange session, although it's quite "kelam-kabut" but at least everyone get a gift. Finally, the turkey is ready to serve, Aunty Elizabeth's recipe was incredible! Too bad, KTT students have classes the next day, most of them left at that time. Then we had caroling, I think the turkey boosted them up, they sang so loud and powerful... hope they can sing like that every Sunday. Robert did well in leading the caroling session, his hardwork pays.

We ended around 10p.m, and cleaning took us about 1 hour. I washed the dishes at the kitchen, since that's what I know how to do. We were splited into 3 cars to go back, where Robert drove the van and I followed him. On the way back, Robert asked me whether I'm tired or not since I'm so quiet. Thanks for the concern buddy, but I'm just thinking about my coming exam. The last time I had this kind of fear was during SPM, even during A-level I'm better than now. Hope God really bless me.

Today, I'm reading Isaiah 19, which is talking about a message for Egypt. For the Almighty will say, "Blessed be Egypt, my people. Blessed be Assyria, the land I have made. Blessed be Israel, my special possession." Jesus, thanks for this little garthering to celebrate Your majestic arrival to Earth to fulfill God's Great Plan. You have really been faithful to my life, for blessing such a wonderful time and experience for my first time celebrating christmas. LORD, I pray for Carl, Audri, Hinn, Shaun, Colin, Matthew, Kai Seng and other faithful followers of Yours. I pray that they will lead well in their respective ministry for organizing christmas events to glorify Your name. Be with us LORD, Amen.