Hello December..

Happy Advent friends...within few weeks we will celebrating Christmas. I love Christmas but until now, I still cannot feel the spirit of Christmas such shopping, present and decorating  Christmas tree. Might due to my exhausted life..sigh. But, what important is to know the real meaning of Christmas and enjoying the Advent season. 

I might do the shopping on the third week of December..and I will prepare to faced the crowds with positive attitude..lol. Thinking to decorate the Christmas tree this weekend as the Carolers from nearby church will do the caroling session at my residential area. I received a flyers yesterday about the caroling session. Since I forgot to invite the carolers from my parish of Stella Maris (due to my busyness) why not I invite them (St Thomas Church) right? Thinking to prepare Christmas candies or slices of cakes with drinks this weekend for the carolers. A simple one though..

Latest news from Air Asia make me disappointed!! I have to cancelled my planned to Philipines this coming February!!. I have make a planned with a group of friend to discovered cultures, scenery and foods in Philipines months ago...sigh..maybe this is not what God want us to do. Further that month is a Lent Season hehehee. Air Asia announced that starting 1st February next year, route to Clark from Kota Kinabalu will be cancelled due to commercial reasons. The affected guests could move their flight to the earlier month or get refund. I guess, we opt for the refund since January is the busy month for most of us. Everything happened for the reasons...

Happy Advent friends..let's us prepare for 'the coming' of our Saviour...

Weekend of Spiritual Month

Welcoming myself into November... :)

Spiritual retreats have been my essential part of my spiritual life.   I have this desired which; I need time away from other people and hectic daily routine and as circumstances would have it extended weekends provided me with experiences of solitude and spiritual refreshment. Some people need retreat to seek for spiritual renewal while others to heal physically and mentally. But, many desire a retreat specific to their religious faith. Some simply looking to escape for a few days into a life unfettered with the daily demands of work, home and family.. and that is one part of me. Through the retreats I have found these times to be of tremendous boon to my spiritual life and essential to my relationship with God at times. 

Next few days, I’ll be joining our CCR church ministry (my parish) to BTRC for CCR family retreat. The reason I need this year end retreat was my feeling of spiritual dryness, an inability to spark fire in my heart and lack of engagement with those closed with me. Further, I need some insight from God and some direction in order to restore my morale and keep me in the struggle. Lately, I was spiritually and emotionally weary and I needed a word from my Saviour. 

The day after the retreat, again I’ll involve in Life in the Spirit Seminar for 100++ of confirmation student in other parish. I believed this retreat would help me and my team in ministering this seminar. I thanked God for the good health and grace upon us. Thank you for the Public Holiday too… J

~ Happy Deepavali and Awal Muharram ~ 

Weekend Package

YES…tomorrow is public holiday for all Malaysian in celebrating of Hari Raya Haji. First of all I would like to wish ‘Happy Hari Raya Haji’ (Aidil Adha) to those who celebrate it. Means we have three days in weekend. Good news ahh..??. My weekend has planned and all in one package. 

This weekend I’ll be participate in Life in the Sprit Seminar for Sunday School Confirmation student. The seminar is an introduction to a life lived in the power of the Holy Spirit. The seminar will started tonight till 27th of October. There will be few series of talks, prayers, worships, scripture teaching, songs, personal testimonies, inner healing, deliverance and outpouring of the Holy Spirit sessions. The talks will cover the faith exploring including the basic message of salvation, a personal relationship with God as well the potential and the power of the Holy Spirit. 

I’ll be giving talk in Deliverance topic on the last day of the seminar right before the Deliverance and Outpouring of the Holy Spirit Session. I’ll do more slides in presentation plus with the lesson and life testimonies on how Holy Spirit acting in our daily lives. Through experiences, I knew teenagers are more to slides presentation rather than talking. 

Hope this seminar will help them to go through their life with more faith especially after their baptism and confirmation. Living life a s teenagers nowadays is not easy. So we are. All of us need the power of God’s Holy Spirit to live out our daily lives in the midst of the struggle and temptations in today’s world. It is impossible for us to walk a Christian life through our own efforts. So there goes my full two days of weekend. For the last day of weekend on Sunday right after the Children Liturgy and Mass, again I’ll be involved in Infant Baptism till evening. Wish me luck.

Sound so packed and exhausted feeling but no regret because I love doing it. As for my body, supplement and extra sleep needed…lol. Next week will be a busy days because it is end of the month which reports and costing of branch submission. Hope I can handle it with patience and BIG SMILE..

Wednesday at D'KL

Having a same lunch everyday make me want to puke. Luckily my friend suggests us to have a lunch at one of the famous bungalow-restaurant called D’KL. I heard and read about this restaurant but never thought to try it out. So there goes my Wednesday at D’KL. 

D’KL (stand for Di Kampung Likas) is a home base Indonesian cuisine restaurant and operates inside a bungalow house which located at Kampung Likas with dark brown colour on the exterior and design with Jawa feel and kampong style at the interior. They served Indonesian with a touched of Malay cuisine.

You can choose whether you want to dine outside or inside. If you prefer to dine inside, you will able to experience Indonesian (Jawa) dining custom which is to sit on the floor with cross-legged while having your meal. They provide long tables to accommodate more people and it’s suitable for large family. Good for family, office and friends gathering. More relax with air-conditioned, sweet ambience, quiet atmosphere and with a Javanese song playing mixed with Malay in keroncong genre (I’m just guessing..lol) Those prefer windy and flora view can sit at the patio (good news for the smoker). Aha!! they do have a free wi-fi which means you can direct blog about it..lol!! 

Drinks you must try out Air Serai and Soda Gembira. Soda Gembira made of rose extract (air bandung) mixed with soda and evaporated milk. It’s taste so delicious with mint taste and definitely you’ll feel happy after drink it hahaha. Air Serai or lemongrass juice is most recommended to try. Feel like went out from massage room after drink it..lol

Ayam Penyet D’KL is one of the chefs recommended. It is an Indonesian cuisine where the chicken is fried until it is golden brown and coated with rice flour and served with sambal. As for the veggies, they served you with acar and cabbage rolled individually. You need an effort to do this. A set of this meal cost you RM12.90 which I considered cheap with the unique presentation plus Indon-ambience. 

Fried Tauhu cost RM5.00

Both of us having set of meal (Ayam Penyet) with Soda Gembira, Air Serai and fried tauhu with total cost of RM37.30. That’s considered cheap with the great ambience, great food, helpful and friendly staff and free wi-fi too. We could not get anything cheaper than that. 

D’KL Restaurant:

No.1 Lorong Likas, Jalan Pasir

Kampung Likas, Kota Kinabalu

Tel: 088-430075

Operating time: Mon-Fri 7.00am-2.30pm, 5.30pm-11.00pm

                                 Sat-Sun 7.00am-11.00pm 

Too Nice Could Hurt You

Being too nice could hurt you. I agree with this phrase. Through my own experience and observation of people lives, I saw this happened in workplace, relationship and lots more. You could be treated and labelled as a doormat to serve their purposes or bullied for their own pleasures. 

Being nice amongst friends or family will definitely earn a title of ‘good friend or buddy’ or sometimes labelled as a friend who will accept anything and everything thrown at. To serve the title of ‘good friend or good buddy’ you will run around to help your friends in needs. Sometimes this could lead to bullying. Have you ever experience that your opinion are not matter to them? Or you become practical jokes because they expect you will never retaliate? Or being put in front of fighting or argument because you are too nice to be ‘punch’? 

In workplace, I encountered some colleagues took advantage by trying to offload their share of work, bosses gives more work and you’ll received tons of compliments like ‘nice job! You are the man! I count on you!’ Through years of observation, being nice could cause you lost your opportunity of promotion. Why? Because you are too nice to be a Leader/Manager! Nice person usually don’t make a great managers. 

Everyone dreamed to have a romantic and nice partner because it is compliment to each other. But sometimes this habit may backfire you because you have to be ‘nice’ in every situations!. Sound not good? Have you ever feel that you are the one who always to bow down or taking the blame out of arguments? Or your partner takes off any of the plans ahead without asking you? Or find yourself doing all the works by thinking it is your responsibilities because you must be nice to your partner?. You may not see the signs that your partner is taking advantage on you. He/she will not respect your opinion or not even discuss any matters to you because your partner may take you for granted thinking like “He/she is too nice, He/she won’t say anything, He/she will accept no matter what I say,”. 

I know being nice to people around you is a right thing to do because life is about spreading love and sharing joy. But life is not a fairytales and hardly to see ‘happily ever after’ moments. In this century everyone are opt to coloured their own life. Climb our own ‘ladder’ of life. Our niceness could harm our way. The obvious ‘harm’ is people may take emotional, moral or financial advantage on you simply because you are being nice and don’t have the heart to say no. It’s happened to me before. Not just that, my voice or complain for the lack of service or faulty product are not being ‘heard’. 

Wonder why I wrote this post? Above situations happened in front of my nose this morning. Blessed to those nice persons and screwed to those bullies!!

What a Life

I remembered 10 years ago when someone asked me if I have free time to come over to their party. Having a good food and movies with them, and my answers always 'YES'. Now I bet everyone (especially those in my range of age..lol) will gives this unanimous answer 'BUSY'. The response is almost programmed and without thinking. I must admit that 'busy' has been my response for years now..sighs. Come to think again, how did we all of sudden find ourselves in a society where busy was the most acceptable way to be spending time?

Few days ago while having a quick coffee with friend (but it turned to long conversation hehe), we've talked about being busy. This happened when she thanked me for meeting on such short notice by saying "I can't believed you could make time for me with how busy you must be". Am I that busy? Well everyone assumes everyone is so busy. Through the conversation, we realized that we forgot being busy was never a goal. We are not live to be busy. God has created such a wonderful place for us to stay, build a relationship, experience life, go places and create moments, help others or anything our heart desired. 

I have a feeling that none of us feel we are here to be busy. I do not believe being busy is worth of time because sometimes we might get caught up being busy doing worthless things. Life in this business world sadly has trained us this way as employee which expected to put in 8-12 hours of work a day. But since I 'must' seem busy, I fill the time with Facebook, chatting, web surfing or any other online life. This is not helping me to connect with others...not in a healthy way. I come to realized that busy is simply state of mind which causes more stress, unhappiness and wasted energy. Luckily, I convert it all by being socially active in church. Helping the parish and parishioners in all way I can. The gifts that I received from Almighty are meant to be shared with this community even though I received much of negatives comments (or should I say 'gossip') from some peoples. I have to accept in this crooked world, there is no perfect word/things can satisfied people especially in the unhealthy state of minds.

I think to enjoyed the weight that gets lifted our back is by changing our focus and not to be too busy to serve our purpose. I have full schedule this past few months and I mapped out my calendar to be sure it all fit without realized I'm putting myself in that 'caught up situation' again..sigh. Life can never be too busy for the things that matter most to you. If you don't have time for those, the busywork or life won't matter anyway. I am done being busy. Someone have to remind me.. everytime. I need to be alarmed about this..lol. How I wished to have a button that can trigger level of busyness to the normal and easy life. Hope someone can invent this so that 'busy' is no longer my response to life..just saying..hahahaa.   

Have a blessed week..

Have a blessed day ahead friends...

Why aren't we?

A wise old owl sat on an oak

The more he saw the less he spoke

The less he spoke the more he heard

Why aren't we like that wise old bird"

~Unknown~

Happy Merdeka Raya

Time flies so fast. For this past few months I'm living my life with full of gratitude. Happy for whatever I have and trying my best to achieved for whatever I dreams for. Here we are again...in a corner of celebration of Hari Raya and soon for Merdeka Day for our country.

Despite of many rumors and problems facing by our country, together we unite in celebration of Merdeka. 

Long weekend is coming..yeah..I'm happy to realized it. Its means we can have days to rest and time spend with family. 

By the way, have a safe journey... and God bless you all. 

Morning Rocked!!

Labuan pot was rocked by a three explosion from MT Bunga Alpina this morning. It's believe that its happened when the crews loading methanol. Full report yet to received. 

Rumors at Facebook saying that 30 people died (hope is not true) and 5 crews still missing. Whatever it is, let's pray for their safety. Better wait for the official reports from authorities. God bless them all.

Wordless Wednesday (Week 2, July)

Let's have a peaceful Wednesday...

My June..

Welcome to July...

Being busy for over a month. Work commitment, moving house, social activities and other things that need my attention causing me whining more. Lacked of sleep and rest make me look like pandas..lol.

But thanks God.. I still managed to go for short vacation to Manila. I almost cancelled the planned due to the poor time management but God help me through it. Managed to took some pictures.. 

St. Pancratius Chapel (Paco Park)

Statue of Jose Rizal (The Mason). RIP in December 1896

The monument of Jose Rizal. He believed freedom is belong to everybody. Blood is not the answered. He wrote a poem to express his feeling and view. Those happened in Revolution period. 

International Museum.

What a blessed day!!.. a visit to St Augustine Church and managed to crowd with the wedding mass hehehe.. 

Lechon everywhere..lol..

High class Chinese Cemetery!! even the dead people still 'living' in the house. This is not due to any eerie or horror factor but the ultimate luxury. Their house are even can be considered as a bungalow and mansion furnished with toilet, kitchen, bedroom, balcony like a normal residential neighborhood. I don't dare to took a pictures. I amazed by their 'wealthiness'. You all can google it out.

The Quiapo Church was declared as the Minor Basilica of Black Nazerene where the dark statue of Jesus Christ placed in. No camera allowed in the church...sad.. :(

Religious items on sale...

The street of Minor Basilica of Black Nazarene which is famous for enshrining the dark statue of Jesus Christ. Many faithful claimed the statue have a miraculous power. As I says, believe it with faith.

Rizal Park located at the heart of the city of Manila. Favorite spot for socializing, leisure and family picnics. 

Historical park of Jose Rizal

The story of Jose Rizal. He was shot to dead. The bronze and granite Rizal monument is a famous sculptural landmark in the city.

Horse riding in the park cost about 200++ peso.

Sunset view from Rizal Park

One of the favorite pilgrimage site and famous among the Catholics for healing and prayers

50 feet statue of Blessed Virgin Mary

Beautiful landscape

Located less than two hours from Manila City. Known as a popular pilgrimage site among the Catholics.

About an hour to reach the island using boat and more than hours to ride horse to the Taal lake.

Invigorating and serene atmosphere. 

Restaurant at Tagaytay. One of the finest and famous restaurant. It's always full house. You have to wait to be seated within 45minutes to 1 hour!!..

The good temptation at Manila... Genting World... lol. No camera allowed at this premises. CCTV are all around. 

Wet Market.

Lining up to mall. In Manila, they checked everybody before allowed them to enter the premises. Each bag are scanned.

My last stop... spa and full body massage with buffet dinner cost about 800peso (RM56).