Exploring Madrid

Entering Spain, the first place that we arrive is Madirid. It's a huge and crowded city, anywhere you go it's just squeezing with people, probably due to Christmas holiday as well. The Christmas deco in this place is extreme, never seen such lighting in any town.

Plaza del Sol and Plaza del Angel:

Another popular thing is European "cosplay", where people dress up random various TV/movie characters on the street. I've seen Mickey and Mini mouse, Alien, Spongebob, Patrick, Jack Sparrow... But if you're taking picture with them, you need to pay them tips.

Random cosplay from day to night:

Las Ventas is another place in Madrid where the bull ring is situated. There is no more bull fight now as it is listed as illegal. However, the museum is free to visit, they display bullfighters' costume and sword, also some bull fight footage (they really stab on the bull's spine =.=).

Las Ventas bull ring:

Another interesting place is the big garden in Madrid. The view there is kinda nice although its near winter, and there's a big lake for boat pedaling. The garden is too big for us to even finish it, probably gonna take more than an hour, but certainly one of the nicest place in Madrid.

Big garden and lake:

No more Portugal pastry, but the famous food in Spain is Paella, basically is a pot of rice, thick sauce and meat (we chose lobster & seafood). This thing can be quite expensive (around €10) depending on restaurant itself, but seriously worth trying. There's another restaurant called CASA, famous with its chicken, quite nice as well.

Paella and CASA chicken:

"For great is his love toward us, and the faithfulness of the LORD endures forever."
-Psalms 117:2-

Hmm... I think big city is not my cup of tea, starting to appreciate the rural environment of Semenyih and Nilai for all these years. Anyway, it still feel good walking in such a big city, just pray that we will not fall prey of pickpocket and any local issues, Amen.

Porto Day Trip

Taking a bus to Porto from Lisbon is around 3 hours and costs €15 one way. Anyway, Porto is really a beautiful place, it looks more "local" than Lisbon. We spent the morning walking around the town (it's quite a hilly area) and found some local restaurant for lunch, the pork & potato dish is superb!

Porto town and lunch:

Porto is situated right beside a river that separates it from Vila Nova de Gaia, one of the great tourist attraction here is the bridges that links them. We actually took most of our pictures at the river side and cross the bridge to Gaia.

Great scenery at the bridge:

There's quite a lot of wine caves here, but it doesn't mean the rocky cave that we thought, it's a place where they keep wine to age in barrels. We went for Calem wine tour, the staff explained their history and wine processing methods. Most of the barrels we saw actually do store wine, and we get to test some of their wine at the end of the tour~ nice stuff.

Wine tour in Calem:

Before leaving back to Lisbon, we get ourselves some pastry again for the long bus ride. Seriously, I can just eat their pastry for all 3 meals whole day, it's really nice. Oh ya, the return trip wasn't too bad with movie in the bus, although subtitle is in Portuguese but better than sleeping all 3 hours.

Pastry for the bus ride:

"Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his faithful servants."
-Psalms 116:15-

Thank God for such a beautiful place, it's been a while since I see such a big area of water. Going new places and tasting different dishes are kinda fun actually. Knowing that God has created all these different things, He is so much more greater, Amen.

Exploring Lisbon

We safely landed at Lisbon on Tuesday morning and found our way to the hostel. We're staying in a 6 beds room and free breakfast, now I know what a breakfast and bed (backpacker) means. We got ourselves a day pass that basically is free for any train and bus ride for the whole day, very convenient for visiting around.

Day pass and hostel room:

Everywhere in Lisbon is like an art center, they have the retro style of architecture at varies plaza and buildings. With that outlook, you can never imagine the interior is actually modern shops and restaurants, welcome to Europe.

Random shots in Lisbon town:

Another famous thing about Portugal is their pastry. For every few steps in town, you'll see another pastry shop (even more popular than mamak in Malaysia). So we did went in a random one for tea time, to my surprise, the pastry are really splendid (average €1 each).

Pastry shop:

After whole day of walking and sight-seeing, we're back in hostel before it's too late (pickpockets are kinda famous too). Without a laptop, the best thing to do after shower is bible reading~ could do extra chapters since it's not my normal sleeping time yet. Oh ya, Portugal's power plug are 2 pins, just nice for my chargers.

Charging phone and camera, while reading the bible:

"The LORD remembers us and will bless us."
-Psalms 115:12-

For the start of this Christmas trip, I've seen a lot new and great things the Lord has given this very nation. Indeed a very different experience to go out and step foot on foreign land. May the rest of the journey be a blessing to my life, Amen.

Departing for Christmas Trip

Although it's not really Christmas break yet, but me and Jacqueline are going to Portugal and Spain for a holiday trip~ then we'll meet up with a few others at different places. This will be my first Europe trip and it's gonna be 9 days long~ from 13th til 21st December.

File important documents (flights & accommodations) nicely:

The rate I got from Beeston was €1.14 for £1, and I just get myself €310 to limit my usage there (flights and accommodations deposit paid). I really thank God that Sean lent me his travel bag so that I don't have to spend another £60+ for one.

All packed and ready to go:

On Monday night 2 am, we took the bus to city and then National Express bus to Luton airport for 5 am flight to Lisbon, our first stop. I can already hear a lot of Portuguese in the airport, which really add the flavor of travelling to a foreign country.

Departing from Luton airport:

"When the Israelites escaped from Egypt when the family of Jacob left that foreign land — the land of Judah became God’s sanctuary, and Israel became his kingdom."
-Psalms 114:1~2-

I pray that this will be a blessed journey not just to experience different culture and have fun, but also an opportunity to learn more things and witness great works of God, Amen.

Mini Choir in T-street Church

After singing in RFTS, our choir is invited to sing in T-street as the welcoming squad for a Christmas Jazz concert. Too bad, it's very near Christmas break, most of our members are either rushing for assignments or travelling elsewhere. It just left a few of us in the team but we're still rolling on (learnt 3 new songs in 1 day X_X).

Arrive church early to warm up and practice:

So what we did was, for the 90 minutes before concert starts, we were non-stop caroling at the reception desk. We are told that it is very important to enlighten/prepare people's heart before the event to give a warm welcome. Ya, blessing can be in any form, we're just having fun while blessing others, a great experience indeed.

We wish you a Merry Christmas~

After singing for more than an hours, the concert finally started and we can have some refreshments in the kitchen~ Some church members said we did really great, and children are like coming down to the entrance to watch us. Anyway, the real event of the night was great too, some fusion of blue and funk into jazz groove, and most... or all songs are piano driven.

Full house in the concert:

"The longings of the wicked will come to nothing."
-Psalms 112:10-

Finally, the series of choir practices and performances has ended tonight. I've never thought I would be in such a group and how singing can bless others so much. God really works in a very miraculous way, that we are all tools and instruments to spread the blessings, while being blessed at the same time. I hope everyone had a great time, Amen.

CU Carol Service

It's actually quite random as a met this old English man in Chapel and chatted with him. Then I'm invited to attend a Carol Service organized by the Christian Union in Sports Hall. The amazing thing is, they carpeted the whole 8 badminton/2 basketball courts for the event, what a big scale project.

Invitation slip and Sports Hall on a Saturday night:

The service is like we stand up to sing some Christmas songs, accompanied by the brass band (it's super hymn style though). Then the MCs came on stage to talk a bit about Christmas and share some testimonies. Finally, a speaker talked about his wife and the same feeling of love that he felt with God.

Brass band and sharing time:

After the event, they serve free minced pie. Haha, it's my first encounter with this snack and I like it. Although the hall is not fully occupied, but the attendance is still impressive enough, easily 200 people. I would say it's quite a great night, that I see different style of event organizing (or we're just typical Malaysian style =.=).

Mince pie and walking back home:

"The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom"
-Psalms 111:10-

What a blessing to see that the CU is also doing great things for the campus, and many other students of different nations are gathered at the same place as well. Christmas also marks the end of the academic weeks, where everyone will be off for break soon, all the best and be blessed, Amen.

Reason For The Season 2011

Finally, after 3-4 weeks of preparations, it's RFTS 2011, Solid Rock's annual Christmas evangelical event in campus. Reached Portland building earlier to setup the place. I'm involved in band and choir, practices aren't satisfying, and it was full house in the room, that's probably why I'm being nervous and worry.

Gosh... gonna dig out the instruments from this store room:

As what I did last year, our band played Christmas instrumentals for the opening followed by a couple of Christmas carols led by Stephanie. I actually felt so much better after playing in the band, it's more relaxing for choir after that.

Just wanna enjoy the moment:

We only did proper practice in 2 weeks time to clamp all 3 songs in our head. The other sections seems to have experienced singer in it but all of my tenors are new, including me. By the way, it's my first time wearing white shirt, black coat with bow tie! I think £28 to buy that 3 things is kinda good deal.

Silent Night & And His Name Shall Be Called Wonderful:

The Christian Union and Mandarin Fellowship collaborated as well for some performances. CU did Everything skit, it really reminds me of some great memories with the CF and ConneXion people. As usual, there is a short message and I'm always happy to play the background music during prayer.

Skit and message:

For the finale, choir sang We Wish You A Merry Christmas and the band wrap up with Feliz Navidad. Me, Stephanie and Dian Han are in both band and choir, so we are moving around. It just felt great to play music while everyone is exchanging wishes in the hall.

The event ends and we're taking pictures like crazy:

We went down to Beeston for celebration supper. I think it just felt too hyper completing my first event in UK, I wasn't wearing any jacket, only with my white shirt and it doesn't feel cold walking there. It's a Cantonese restaurant, and we actually sang the choir song in that restaurant again, Haha!

A night of fellowship after all the hard work:

"May the Lord be pleased by all these thoughts about Him, for I rejoice in the Lord."
-Psalms 104:34-

Thank You Lord for blessing us with endurance through all the tough times of preparations and practices. I pray that it will be a great encouragement for the Christians who attended the event, and we have revealed more of You to them who are still searching. Most importantly, I pray that this has bond the Solid Rock members closer and stronger. Dear Lord I pray for the CF Christmas event in UNMC next week, that they will come to know You more through commitments. Amen.