My 1st Dive Trip - Tenggol Island

10th-13th June 2010

After all the difficulty of finding the best weekend for the trip, we finally went!

Teresa, Chen Way, Jia Yi, Tee Hui and myself were candidates for the OWD while, Michelle, Pinky and Alex were leisure divers. We met at MRR2 McD's before we began our journey to Dungun around 8.15pm. It was a pleasant drive with clear weather. By buddy was great at entertaining me throughout the drive. Just quite a bit of road kills remains on my car (don't worry, just insects). We arrived at Mayangsari Resort around 1am only to find the key card don't quite work for our room. I was going to destroy the key by using too much force. Thank God we had Way who somehow opened up the switch to make it work. The reception ppl won't be much of any help at that hour.

Together with Divemaster Nicole and our Instructor Soo, we left for Tenggol Island excited and just couldn't wait to jump into the waters. :) We stayed in the center resort - Tenggol Island Beach Resort. We were supposed to repeat most stuff that we have learned in confined water. Some were easier and some were more difficult to execute in sea water. We only did 2 dives but most of us were quite tired from it.

The resort's food was pretty good. Love the rendang and spicy chilly sauce. We even had desserts during tea time, barley and red bean!

We managed another 4 dives the next day. I didn't feel tired. Well, I'm usually very energize when I'm on a holiday. We saw so many corals and fishes. We were pretty lucky we get to see a turtle as well. I was told that visibility was a little poor so we can't see that much further but it is this condition that the whale shark loves to come out. One has been spotted. Somebody even managed to take a photo of it from the boat. They are very shy so they usually swim away pretty quickly when spotted.

I was attacked during my last dive. By a trigger fish. I remembered I thought I hit something quite hard with my fins. The 2nd time it felt like a pulled. But being blur me, I didn't see anything. Of course the next thing I saw was Soo, so I figured he was pulling my leg. It was only after we surfaced and confirmed by Nicole that I believe. :-p It would have been a terrible end for me since the trigger fish has teeth strong enough to crush corals. Apparently we passed it's nest and I was a little to near causing it to go crazy.

It was a fun group to dive with especially with our shark, I mean instructor. He's always trying to drown me on the surface, pull Tee Hui off the boat ladder and he absolutely love to hug Way. :-p Some of the girls called him Way's second wife! Haha. Think he observed Way is always so super sweet to Jia Yi :-p

Can't wait for my next trip. Yes, we are all certified :) but I need some extra practice.

Calvin & Jing Yee

5th June 2010
My younger brother and his girlfriend of 13 years finally got married. We had the traditional Chinese Wedding Tea Ceremony yesterday. I don't recall my house being packed up with so many relatives and friends before!

A simple wedding dinner was held at Bangsar Seafood Garden Ballroom. This is a great place to have weddings. The ballroom is impressive, the food is great AND they have Saroj, the AV guy who can do live switching with the little CCTV cameras. It helps when you are blocked by pillars.

Thank God for great friends. My brother and sister's friends were very very supportive, sporting, generous and helpful in every possible way. Lots of thing would not have been possible without them :) Oh yes, I have a sister now.

Photo by Olivia

Friends

Friends are truly God's blessings.

As we prepare for my brother's wedding tomorrow, I continue to witness the greatness of friendship. Friends will be there for you
when you are down
when you need an extra brain
when you need a ride even it is far or inconvenient
when you need talents, gifts, skills you don't have
when you need extra love and care

They will lend you
their precious toys (expensive gadgets)
their money even though you didn't ask
their luxury cars even though their not in town

Friends, you are the greatest. :D

Global Day of Prayer

Just had a great opportunity to serve with my favourite people - techies under Livewire! for Global Day of Prayer. Glad to have my sifu around this time too. The day before was Run for the Nation where people all over our country run for 5km and pray for our nation. :) The Klang Valley churches gathered to pray at Shah Alam, Stadium Malawati. It was probably the largest gathering of believers for a prayer meeting. It's great to witness the many people praying for our beloved nation. Looks like there is still hope here.

Photo by Choon Ean

KK with Colleagues

13th-17th April 2010
Yes, I was in KK again. It's my 5th trip. Since I don't travel much, this is probably my most visited state.

Glad that we had the opportunity to visit Sabah as part of our Team Building + Meetings + Training. I simply love Sabah. To me, it's the most beautiful part of Malaysia. We have to admit that Malaysia always brand ourselves with all things East Malaysia.

We stayed at the beautiful Nexus Resort & Spa. Nope we didn't have spa. Neither did we have much time to even enjoy the pool or the 6km private beach. Wish we did cause I suspect I won't be able to afford to stay there. Plus, I don't like the idea of being so far away from KK town or even the nearest mall. It's pretty inconvenient unless you only want to hide in the resort. Love the quietness of the resort though. Oh and there is free wifi almost everywhere! We also had a nice BBQ dinner (well, we had chef to do the work, we just ate) by the beach.

On the 1.5 day of team building, we crammed in time to Kinabalu Park and Poring Hot Spring & Canopy Walk. The Canopy Walk was changed to much shorter than it originally was last year. It was a very long drive away so we kinda spend quite a lot of time in the bus. Some of the guys managed to kill time by gambling and losing lots of money to each other! We had a short walk in Philipino market in KK town. Had our telematch (team building) on Sapi island - terribly organised by some clueless duo who think they were funny. Glad we managed to have a short snorkeling session before lunch - a little too short. But the place was getting polluted. Lots of trash in the water.

Managed to catch up with Eric and Mun Yee. Met Nora as they were preparing for their trip to interior Sabah. They sacrificially drove me back to my-far-away resort twice. Had the great privilege to sit in Mun Yee's new (still covered with plastics) car! Hehe.

Hopefully I'll get to dive on my next trip to Sabah!

Dew Leaders

Today, we planned a special dew gathering as a little farewell for Steven who will be migrating to Canada in July, Debbie who is moving on from full time church media and Monica for her 10th year as a full time church media staff. Since we had most of the crew around, it kind of turn into an appreciation for leaders and full time staff. Choon Ean made a folder for each of us and had all the crew signed on them. Oh, we also took the opportunity to celebrate her birthday!

Photo by Monica

Steven is the longest serving Dew Crew Head of Ministry. I can't even remember when but it must have been at least 8 faithful years or more. We have been through so many events, hours, and challenging times together in this ministry. He has always been there when we needed help or simply listen to (my) grumbles. It's going to be very different without him around. :(

I am happy for Debbie that God has called her to do new things in life. So glad that she will return to crew to serve as a volunteer. It is a reminder that God has a plan for every chapter of our lives.

Monica's 10th year in ministry is significant mark. It is rare for to find a long serving media staff but she has made it. :) We pray that God will continue to use her to create beautiful masterpiece for His glory.

New Adventure - Diving!

Always wanted to dive. I wanted to dive 12 years ago. I didn't even know how to swim then. In 2000, I decided to take swim course to fulfill this dream. This isn't the cheapest hobby around. Just couldn't afford diving then. Not like I'm currently earning much more than when I first started working but I figured if I waited any longer, it would remained a dream forever.

During my Sabah trip for Mount Kinabalu climb last year, I managed to squeeze in sometime and tried Discover Scuba at Sapi Island - sort of a trial for people who may be interested to take up Dive Course. It was a little terrifying then but very exciting too! After that trip last year, I want to make effort to try something different/new/adventurous or at least make a short trip annually. I think it would help keep me sane.

Finally signed up for the Open Water Diver Course with Global Scuba that Chen Way recommended. One of the main reason for signing up for with Global was that they provide unlimited pool sessions till the students are ready for the real thing. Oh, they had a promotion at the same time as well.

Tee Hui and I had our 1st lesson today at Selangor Polo Club today. We were there from 10am-7pm and in that duration complete all 5 modules of the pratical session for confined water. We are not that confident yet so will be going back for another round of practice plus another session for theory and test. After that, we will be all set for the island! Yipee!

CNY 2010

Felt I didn't do much this CNY. As usual, I helped cook reunion dinner, served with the crew cause I'm local and I CAN go to church on 1st day of CNY. My biggest contributions were probably taking care of a friend's garden and another friend's dogs while they were back at their hometown. Somehow some of the excitement for CNY has slowly shrunk through the years. I did look forward to the days off so that I could actually catch up with some TV series... like Heroes. Haha. It's the joy of doing nothing much. Praise God. :D

Dew Media Appreciation 2009

We had "another black t-shirt 4 Dew Media" this year. Haha.

Interesting idea by Debbie. We feasted at Bernard's Bistro at Centrepoint but didn't manage a take a group photos due to the space constraint. We enjoyed each other's company so much we adjourned to another place... Kitchen Creatures and had a blast getting fat on the brownies while doing what the crew enjoy most - taking silly photos of ourselves for our own entertainment. Photos by Joseph and Oli.

Livewire’s Charge Up! Conference 2010

This is the 5th year running of Charge Up! Conference - organised by Livewire! Can't quite count by number because in 2008 we had 2 conferences - 1 in KL and 1 in KK. I totally missed last year's conference at Penang. :(

This year, it is back in KL and held in Dream Centre for the 1st time.

I was serving in the "O" team this year. My task was simple. Just take care of the Hall 2's sound. That also meant I get to sit in for all the sessions held in that hall. Hehe. 3 sessions of PowerUp! and the other sessions were for photography.

Rev Sivin Kit was the speaker for all our Power Up! sessions - funny, geeky and real cool. His message were simple and very relevant for everyone. I like how he told us that we can sleep during his sermon! Probably the 1st pastor who gave such permission! Haha.

14th - 17th January 2010

Photo by Grace

This year marks the highest number of delegates ever and we are expecting even more next year. We had 5 streams this year - Live Sound, Photography, Video Production, Visual FX - Animation and a Pastors track.

It has been so encouraging to hear from different people about how much they have gained and grown since they were inspired at previous ChargeUp! conferences. If you are interested to attend, please mark the dates for next year's conference 17th - 20th February 2011. It will be held at Dream Centre again. :)

Called to Love

The news came early today on twitter and international headlines about the attack on a church here. Then another and another. The latest was 3 confirmed cases with some churches receiving threats. Then there was the planned protest – which had surprisingly (thank God) fewer that expected participants.

Muslim protests over a High Court ruling allowing the weekly Herald (a main publication by the country's Roman Catholic Church) to publish the word “Allah” to refer to God in the Christian context.

If it doesn't sound like a big deal just because of a word, think again, the right to use a word! Or maybe you should read this article by Erna Mahyuni (originally posted here).

God's people have been responding with love. Many have gathered to pray. Many Muslims have come forward up to condemn such acts and to clarify that there is nothing wrong with the usage of the word "Allah". The people behind these nonsense should regret. The events have lead the people to unite.

Read what Muslims bloggers are saying

Anas

Marina

Razaleigh

God is with us.

Do join us in prayer for this nation.

Luke 6:27-28

"But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.

Two Dogs

I have managed to walk both dogs together yesterday. The recuperating dog (named Dewy for now) still growls at Casper and I need to pull them away from each other during the walks. Walking 2 strong dogs can be pretty challenging – whether they try to go separate ways or pull me towards the same direction. Don’t think my parents are able to do this.

So far no one has come searching for Dewy. Wonder if he has been on the streets for a while. Looks like I might need to find him a new home. Anyone interested? He's trained to do his "business" during his walks, rarely barks and he has not attempt to bite anyone despite being wounded. Maybe just don't quite like my attention seeking Casper.

Casper is fine with him. Maybe too friendly. But when someone comes to the house, he barks at Dewy. Maybe trying to complain to that person that there is a stranger in the house and he dislike sharing the attention.

Brown Dog Found

I am currently looking for the owner of a male dark brown dog. He has a choker collar on him. Someone saw him hit by a car on LDP yesterday night before he ran to the Damansara Utama housing area nearby. Picked him out from a drain. He looks fine and is under the care of a vet.

Please drop me a message if you are or if you know the owner of this dog.

Retreat at Gopeng

The last time I went on a cell retreat was... I can’t even remember! Retreats can bring a group of people closer together because you are stuck with each other for numerous hours. Of course the location and activities are fun but it is the people that make every retreat special.

This recent retreat with my new cell was pretty short - just a little more than 24 hours. Many of the cell members couldn’t make it but we did have 2 friends join us. We went in 2 cars and each has its own Question of the day. Ours was “Do the raft have seat belts?”

When we went white-water rafting, we figured we should bring camera in a water proof bag. But during our break, we discovered the bag split opened! A digital camera and an iphone was soaking wet. :(

Other than white-water rafting, we also did a hike/walk through an Orang Asli village to an almost unknown and unnamed waterfall. It was an interesting walk as our guide - G told us about the village, the black gibbon, durian and petai trees. He got us to try some wild berries and also shared a few hilarious true story jokes. It was a pretty nice waterfall but we were only there for a short while as it was raining heavily by then. Some of us walk in the rain back to our cars while someone was clever enough to bring an umbrella into the jungle! Oh and we brought back some souvenirs – leech bites!

Earth Camp is very cool and simple. The accommodation was a simple canopy like dorms with canvas beds. We brought our own sleeping bags. We opt for the dorm instead of the tree house so that it is easier for all of us to hangout together. They had pretty interesting toilets as well. ;-)

They must think that the 10 of us were really hungry because I seriously believe that the amount of food they prepared for dinner can feed up to 30 people. We had barbeque by the river! We even cooked our own recipe – Milo Banana. It came up with multiple suggestions from everyone.
This is one memorable trip.



*update 3rd Dec 2009 - after leaving it off for more than 3 days, both camera and iphone came back to life! :)

Kampar River, White Water Rafting

I knew I wanted to do this again. Thought I won’t be able to make it this year since I didn’t manage to gather people or plan it out with few months remaining in 2009.

When Grace asked who was interested to go white water rafting for our cell retreat, my hands were all up. :)

Yesterday was a public holiday. We reached Gopeng before 9.30am to meet our river guide, Apek from Nomad Adventure. We were then transport by a lorry from Earth Camp to the starting point where we were given the equipment and final briefing (weird but fun experience - had to dodge lots of tree branches). I thought it was interesting that we had to do “water confidence” before we started because it definitely scares you if you have not done it before or just can’t swim. Basically, it is just putting you in the river and allowing the current to carry you through one small rapid.

Apek did warn us that the water level was very low as it hasn’t rain in days. This is a grade I-III river. Our journey covered 12km and 9 rapids. It did seem rather short compared to Padas.

George, Jamie, Marilyn & I were on one raft with our guide Fahimi. Grace, Chen, Shirley and Nicole on another. Alex & Ben decided to take the challenge on individual kayak. They were given inflatable ones which were not great because it kinda got flooded throughout the journey :-p My raft proved to be the noisiest as we scream at every rapid!

What was different compared to Padas/Riverbug was:
1. We had to do body rafting in Kampar. Didn’t have to do it in Padas.
2. Kampar is a much narrower river so we kept running into leaves and branches AND hitting the rocks on the river sides.
3. Maybe because the water level was low, many raft got stuck in between the rocks. There was one time, I could stand up in the river and the water level was below my knee! There just seems to be a lot of rocks everywhere.
4. We didn’t have guides on kayak. I thought it was better to have since it is harder for the guides to help if none of them are mobile.
5. We had one guide on each raft. In Padas, we had 2 guides. Guess it was necessary there since the Padas is pretty wide.
6. I had quite a bit of bruises after rafting in Kampar. Hit some rocks during body rafting and when I feel off the raft. :-p

Be an organ donor

Lately, the radio has been running the organ donor ad pretty often. I wanted to do this quite sometime ago but just never did.

I finally did it today. We'll never know when we need to go home :)
This shell won't be of any use when I'm gone.

Why let it rot when it can help someone...you might save a some lives.

Have you pledge yours? Just download the form and fax it in. Oh, and let your family know.

Read more about Malaysia's National Transplant Resource Centre.

MJ's This is it

It may seem that many things are done to gain from MJ’s death. But after watching “This is it” today, I think the movie was the least it can do to for MJ and all the people involved in the making of the tour.

On Michael
It is undeniable that he has inspired so many talented individual who can only dream of being part of his team. It is great to see someone so passionate about his work. He seems like a perfectionist - it is amazing to see how involved he was in this concert production. In this movie, we can see how he gives his input on dance, music, lights, videos and the flow of how things will be. He does most of the cueing himself. Guess that’s why his every move is so impactful with sound, light and video combined. What I admired about him only from watching this is also how gentle he can be while being very firm on his stand, getting his team to follow his direction, how he tries to adapt to the in-ear, how he said “this is why we do rehearsals” when things weren’t right, how he allowed his backup singers to duet with him and musician to “shine”. I suspect Orianthi Panagaris is going to be pretty famous from this week onwards. :)

On his “family”
That was what he called his team of dancers, singers and crew. For each of them, they have been inspired by this 1 man since young. It was an opportunity of a lifetime to share a stage with him. They gave their all at all those rehearsals. Everyone gave their best ideas, move and effort to make this great. So much have been done - so many rehearsals to perfect every sequence and flow, massive productions sets built and all the many hours of video shot (animations/special effects/makeups) specifically for this tour usage. All the hours, sweat and tears only to find out their idol has left and they will never use any of everything they gave – never to be recognised. Really, this movie/documentary was the least that can be done for them as well. They are his fans, the only fans that have seen what the tour could have been.

Kenny Ortega, thanks for putting this together for everyone.

Another free concert

Attended the All American Reject concert last night at Car Park A of Bukit Jalil National Outdoor Stadium. I'm not a fan but I'm all for free concerts. OK, I think everyone else there got free tickets. Haha. Thanks to Andrea again. How did I find the concert?

Cool

1. The band
2. Location was probably better/larger than central park BU

Not cool

1. The long delay - final opening act only ended at 8.45pm, an hour of soundcheck - yup, AAR came out only at 9.45pm.
2. Sound wasn't as good for the opening acts - either hear the band/barely hear the singer or hear the lead & drums/can't hear the electric guitar.

Grace & nothing

Not too long ago I listened to a sermon that really spoke to me. I said so because I don't have a great memory. I tend to forget the sermon points the moment the preaching is over. :-p

It was a simple message yet very real.

The pastor mentioned that sometimes the meaning of grace has been altered/diluted

It has become something that always comes with "but you must/should do this this this and this..." It's almost like there is a condition to receive grace. It was never about what we can do but what he can do through us (Phil 2:13).

God's grace is unconditional. Whatever you have done, when you come to Him and repent sincerely, He will forgive you. It is not because of what you have or can do but because he has done all the work. But this does not mean we can continue to do things that are against Him. Instead, because of God's love, we would have this desire in us that will want to please Him and not go against Him.

Human has also created a lot of laws upon ourselves. You can't wear jeans, you MUST wear tie to church, you MUST serve, we must maintain our posture for fearing that others might look down upon you (sounds like david)... c'mon, chill. Whatever we do, whether it is praying for a specific item, reading the bible or serving, we should never do it out of guilt but because we sincerely want to.

Health

I am not sure if it was my near death experience or was it the doctor's report early this year that states I have excessive body fat and overweight. Maybe it is because I am aging! But gradually health has become something that I kind of put more priority in these days.

I have been a little more careful on food than I used to. When I was younger, I used to eat anything and everything and any amount. Haha.

I exercise more these days as well. I have always wanted to join a gym to push myself to work out. Couldn't afford it during my college years and still could not afford when I started working. But almost 2.5 years ago, I had a great offer to join a gym. Told myself that it was now or never. Was pretty afraid that I couldn't keep to it and have to quit. But I reminded myself that it is for this body that God has given me and it is my responsibility to take care of it well. So, it was not because of trend nor pressure of any kind that I signed up.

I am a member of Fitness First ever since. I didn't push myself much and was not very consistent initially. But slowly, I have began to arrange my schedule to ensure that I do work out a min number of time a week. It is challenging as I somehow have pretty much of my week day nights occupied by cell, rehearsal and meetings.

After I realized that I haven't been pushing myself enough, I started attending group classes. Well, those have pretty good so far. I haven't lost tens of kgs but I do feel stronger and healthier than before. Hopefully I can keep this up long term. I am sure that God has always planned for us to be healthy and fit. We human just aren't very good at taking care of it. :-p