My 29th Happy?? Birthday

Main Label: Birthday

Yesterday was my 29th Birthday, the last of 20s... Many stories to tell... But I haven't finished my previous story yet... Wanted so much to continue and on hold about my Birthday updates because I will be having another belated celebration with my Poly friends on the 1st March. But something... unpleasant happened yesterday that left me no mood to continue my CNY updates... sigh...

Don't think I will write these unhappy experience here. Thinking whether should I confront with that person or not... But then now my anger has already dropped and maybe just let the matter be gone with the time ba...

Anyways... just a little updates for my Birthday... I already received my first present from Phyllis (Feili) on 20th February, Friday. I think they wanna gimme a surprise celebration but somebody spoiled their whole plan... Who? Haha... the person is none other than the tiny little Dora! The daughter of Daddee & Mami (Meng Hua & Elyn). OK! More details after my last celebration on 1st March...

The point I want to make here is, Phyllis gimme 2 shirts as my present. When I gave it to my mum for wash, she complained that I had so many clothes already and she asked me to tell my friends to give angbao instead! Ahaha... I wanted so much to voice-record her dialogue! She was so cute lor... Very funny lor... Ask my friends to gimme angbao instead... Though, I think I really wanted it! Ahaha...

Then on 24th, I got another "surprise", but a "bloated out surprise" celebration with a special source of friends that is really something that I never had before. We even celebrated in a Hotel room! Ahaha... Of course, details on hold for now. Guess what? These friends had given me another 2 pieces of clothes! Ahaha... and now I don't dare to "haolian" in front of my mother liao...

Oops... Almost forgot to mention, my sis went to Bangkok recently... early of February... and guess what she bought for me? 2 shirts!!! well... one piece is a very-Finn green colour shirts and another one is a very-Tomy (one of my sis's close friend) red singlet! And you see... within a single month, I already received 6 shirts! And with some mother's complains and nagging! Ahaha... So... no more shirt-present please...... I am writing this here because I know that Minnie, who will be celebrating my Birthday on the 1st March, will most probably reading my blog! AHaha... so buy something else lah...

Anyway, Mini Minnie, and thank you so much to keep on coordinating all these gatherings. I know that it is very hard to get everyone together, and to contact each individual asking for their available time and only to get some last minute changes and have to go about doing the recycle of contacting each individual again and only to get someone complains about the food budget, location and stuff... Ahaha... thank you so much, let's get marry when we are free ya! Ahaha... you're the only girl... erm... lady in my life that I can propose to whenever and wherever I want without a ring or kneeling down! Ahaha... You're my "Freelance Laopo"!

Ok, will continue with my CNY story after I feel better... Maybe like tomorrow... And then will write about my this last 20-n Birthday with presents photo ba... For now, let me have peace and calm my grudges... And maybe will buy myself a Birthday present to make me, myself happy... Haha...

Part 2: Continuation of Previous Entry, But Contents Irrelevant to the Title

Main Label: Technology

~ The "Lost Contacts" in Time of "Technology Advancement" ~
What do I mean by that? Well, I believe that this is something that most people may experience as well in this era of "technology advancement"... If you scan through your contact list, you will realized that you have... erm... maybe about 200 over contacts? Wow... more than you have in your Facebook huh? But the question is, how many contact numbers will you call a day? How many will you need in a day? You get what I mean? Even though we had whole lot of friends' contact numbers in this era of "everyone has at least one cell phone", we could still "lost contact" with one another. There are a lot of "redundant" contacts in our contact list... but still we cannot delete them away. Simply because that would mean the total, really "lost contact" liao...

People will often be so busy / caught up with stuff surround their environment, such as family, work, colleagues, some friends, we tend to neglect some other friends, i.e. people who are not in your direct / close environments... I used to have my secondary school friends called me and asked me out. But because I got "other stuff" to take care of, I rejected them. And eventually, they stopped asking me out... I felt bad, I felt left out. But what can I do?? It is usually that the timing that does not match... People usually will organize event or outing during weekend. But people only got Friday night, Saturday and Sunday. And to me, I gotta work on Saturday too and most of my friends are in Singapore. This means that it made the meeting of friends even more difficult. That's why I will say, one Sunday per week is not enough for me... I want to meet many friends! Haha...

In the past, one thing that I tried to do to "maintain friendship" via sms was to send mass sms to everyone in my contact list occasionally. But having the kind of technology level that time, I had problem sending... It would be interrupted when someone replied to you immediately while you're still sending to the half of your contact list... This would mean that you have to resend again... Sometimes that message maybe corrupted and people may receive "Alien" language or like incomplete message. And when you resent it again... and again... it turned out to be annoying and the original purpose had defeated. Another point... when you tried to send seasonal well wishes "on time". For example, after countdown for Christmas, you might want to send "Merry Christmas" to all of your friends and that's the time you would realize all other people think the same as you. So everybody would send to everybody sms-es and eventually it congested the network... duh... sianz... So in order to avoid the busy hour, some people will send the message earlier.

All and all, mass sms turns out to be a very much troublesome thing to do... It may takes like 30 minutes or more to finish sending the message to everyone in your contact list... And of course, this would really cost a lot... 200 contacts will mean 200 sms like that leh... So... I gave up this habit. But the most disappointed reason for sending mass sms-es is when you receive a simple, 3-letter, rude-felt reply of "wru?" Grr... I really think that this is so rude lor...

You should have written politely like, "I'm sorry, I do not have this number of yours. May I know who is this? This is Wei Lieh / Adrian, the Creative Mind / JB Shaoyeah" something like that mah... or: "I lost my phone recently, so I don't have your number. May I know who is this?" "wru?" is way to "friendly" ya! Lost of cell phones are a common thing now. However, some replies were actually from absolute strangers! That makes you wonder... "How come my friend didn't update with me his/her new contact?" "Maybe he/she lost his/her phone and applied a new line?" "So all the while I have been keeping this stranger's mobile phone number?" "Damn! I should have deleted it away!" “早知道就把它洗掉！” "How long does this redundant number has been staying in my phone for nothing?"

And that leads to the ultimate doubts... "Do I have more such numbers in my phone?" "Wait a minute, is the Steven (just an illustrated name) in my contacts the Steven I know?" "If I call this number, looking for Minnie (another illustrated name), will I get a rude response of "WRONG NUMBER!" *Hanged off!* ?" "Do the numbers that I have really the phone numbers of people I know?" "This number didn't reply to me after I had sent a few sms-es, call also no answer, like didn't switch on like that... so should I delete it away?" And also, you don't know whether the other party has your latest phone number or not.

~ My Experiences with the "Constant Change of Phone Number" ~
In my case, my personal experiences, I also happened to change phone numbers quite often. And I realize that this is quite annoyed. There was this time I got a new Singapore prepaid line but not long after, I found out another way of saving $$$. So I gotta change another phone line. The story goes like this... Not long after I got my prepaid line. A friend of mine was subscribing a new line in order to get the phone he wanted. Because it was cheaper by purchasing the phone he wanted via a new line. At the same time, he would still wanna keep his existing contact number because it was still in contracts. So he was paying an additional phone bill monthly without actually using the new line. Since in such a condition, I "volunteered" / "proposed" to help to use his line instead. Of which, he agreed. To further assure him, I told him that if I used / spent more than he usually pays, I would pay him back the "over-use" amount. I only need the Singapore line when I am in Singapore, so the usage could hardly cross over the basic amount. And that's how I got my existing Singapore phone line number... However, after his contracts with this line is over, I think I gotta change phone number again... haha...

I was aware that it would be such a nuisance to give another update to people not long after I had just updated them my new line. So I thought that I would kind of "delay" this process later... Then there was this one friend I knew from church, erm... to make story easy to tell, and not to say anything bad about this person -- he had a little attitude problem or insecure in certain manner. He MSN-ed me about his new contacts and asked for mine. I told me I was about to change a new line, so I would give him my latest contact number after I got it. In my mind, this was not a top priority task to do now, because I was intending to delay this process too... So I went about doing other tasks and leaving this behind.

Like few weeks later, I still hadn't told everyone about my change of phone number except to a few who I usually or most-frequently would contact to. At that time, we "met" in MSN again, and this friend was asking me for my number again. I wasn't in good mood that time because of many stuff to deal with, I guessed my tone wasn't good too... I replied to him, "I still haven't got the time to do the update yet." In my mind, I was planning the update to be a mass one, of which is time-consuming. However I believed that he perceived the other way round... He was very much pissed off and got upset / angry with me. He said he would deleted my MSN account and we shall never talked again. And the last words he said was, "I deleted you in my MSN liao, bye!" I was shocked and there's nothing much I could do with an angry person. All I could reply to him was, "no matter what, I would not delete you from my MSN account." But everything was too late...

Although I expected that people could not understand the way I handled stuff or tasks at hand, especially in this case, I would still fail to anticipate the reaction of this friend. Well, I thought I could carry on with my story telling him the reasons behind all this, but before I could do that, he was already pissed off and thinking that I do not treasure this friendship with him. "How much time will it take just to give me your number?" He must be thinking in this way... But I was thinking of doing something like "once and for all" thing like that, i.e. to mass sms everybody...

But anyway... something about friendship... I am not standing here saying that I'm a prideful person who don't need friends! Anyone who would have known me inside out, deep-deeply understand me about my character and personality, would know that a friend like me, has no criteria in accepting friends... "All are welcome!" that's what I would say. And sometimes that's how... I got to know some weird people... Haha... Because of distance, time and situations, I may not be ready for you as a friend, I'm sorry about that. But when I am available, I will be my best to be there for you... Frankly speaking, about that friend of mine, I would say that he needs a friend like me more than I need a friend like him. He suffered "more lost" than I did. Well, my words could be cruel and sound prideful and ignorant. But of course it is not. If you still think in that way. All I can say is that, I'm sorry that my word can mislead you in that way...

So in the end... I didn't initiate to MSN him even when I saw him online... And in my impression, I think I e-mailed to everyone about my change of phone number instead of sms-es. Because, e-mailing is free of charge! Haha...

Come back to my story about me keep changing phone numbers. I do have people failed to contact me with my new line... And I got sms-ed friend via a number that was no longer valid as well... All of such leads to many misunderstanding and miscommunication... Felt bad... I do have a few stories regarding these misunderstanding and miscommunication. For example, there was once that my friend, Mini Minnie canceled a gathering and informed me via sms, and sms-ed to my old number. In the end, I met up with PeiO and only to realize that the rest of them not coming... So we ended up having our very private "dating" together. And later my sis also joined in! Haha...

Now really, my contact list must be in an absolute mess and confusion. And at the same time, people who had my contact number may not be the exact number that could reach me. :( And "no choice", gotta still keep every number inside my contact list...

Other than phone numbers, another similar case goes to the e-mail addresses too... Some people keep changing e-mail addresses without telling you. And some people after being told about change of e-mail address, forgot or lazy to update it. All and all, we do have some redundant e-mail contact list too... Last time I sent e-mailsss to people and if the addresses bounced back few times, then I would delete those contacts already...

Well... all and all, this is what I meant by "Lost Contacts in the Lost World of Technology Advancement". Was supposed to carry on with my CNY stories about the reunion with a close friend of mine, but ended up talking about this story of mobile phones and e-mails. Nevertheless, this phenomena played a part in the reunion story I am telling. But really nowadays, cell phones, e-mails and MSN play an interesting part in communication and people's network that seemed minimal and unimportant but still, it is the key to everybody's interesting stories... Many movies has already involved all this in their story plots and eventually became a common thing now in movies.

Dear all friends, I love you all. I'm sorry if you still keeping my redundant or outdated numbers. Please do not let this as a hindrance for our friendship. Even if my real numbers do not stay in your mobile phone memories, but please be told that you will still be part of my heart, spirit and memory. If you don't have my number, you can still reach me here in my blog, or MSN, or Facebook, or Friendster, or twitter... Ahaha...

My Chinese “牛” Year 2009 & More Life Flashbacks! Part 1

Main Label: Life Updates, Life Flashbacks

I thought I was going to have another usual, boring Chinese New Year (CNY)... But somehow something spiced it up and I eventually realized that I enjoy this season of celebration very much!

~ Spice #1. Very Committed into Spring Cleaning ~
I realized that this year I was very committed into the boring, tiresome, hard-work Spring Cleaning. The usual me is like that, the more I do and focus, the more I enjoy doing it. So the idea is to "keep the ball rolling". I have been cleaning a lot of stuff, both office and my big big house, but however, there are still a lot of stuff that I missed doing... Really got no choice, it will take a whole lot of time, maybe more than 1 month to clean everything thoroughly... To rate my own's hardwork, I am pretty satisfied with what I had done. XD And... Oops! I didn't do a list of all the tasks to do! Haha... Am so lazy...

~ Spice #2. My Cow-Bull-Ox Greetings / Well-Wishes ~

Before the New Year come, I already received and read many well wishes... Because it is a “牛” year, I found out that different people translate the animal differently, all I could remember in the past was, people always used "cow" as the translation. But this time round I saw people used "Bull" and some "Ox". That made me wonder... which is the correct translation. But of course, I know that they are all acceptable. Then somehow my mind started to play with the Chinese & English translation and stuff. Eventually, my "poem" was out! I think I am so "creative"! Haha... I especially like the part of "Oxpicious" (Auspicious) and "PrOxperOx" (Prosperous)! I feel so happy whenever I read the whole passage too! So happy~~! A sense of fulfillment in my heart. And it will usually made my day~! Ahaha...

~ Spice #3. “守岁” until 7am!
I think this is the first time that I could stay awake overnight for so long! 7am! Well... I was surfing the Internet... And this is really a good time-killer! Ahaha...

~ Spice #4. My "Long Lost" Friend Contacted Me! ~
Well... This is one very major spice... or rather, it was really a big surprise for me! So this part is going to be a very long story!

On the 3rd day of New Year， 年初三，I slept at about 11pm++, before I switched off my handphone, somehow I had an sudden idea that "maybe someone will call me". But still, I turned off my handphone and went to sleep... Indeed the next morning, after I switched on my mobile phone, I received message that telling me there's missed call from an unknown number. And there's another message from that unknown number saying:

"Hi, weilieh, happy Chinese New Year to u and ur family. This is my Malaysia line. Keep in contact! Samuel. God Bless."

For awhile, I was thinking who is this "Samuel"? Could this be a "wrong number". But no... this person could spell my name correctly and perfectly! I will think that it is "rare" for people to spell my name correctly, especially my "Lieh" has the extra and essential "H" at the end. So he is definitely someone I know and he is definitely someone who is very close to me. And really, I don't know many guys with the name Samuel, other than two... One is really an acquaintance who confirm don't have my contact number. And the other one is none other than my friend I knew since secondary school time... And indeed, it was him...

~ Secondary School Life Flashback ~
Ahaha... it brings back some memories now... Samuel (Sam) and his whole family are very special to me...

When I was in secondary school, during the 'O' Level year, I felt that my time was wasted in traveling to and fro Singapore and Malaysia, and also the jam and crowded Custom during peak hour. So I thought that I could stay in a Singapore friend's house, so that I will have more time for revision and homework. Sam, was also one of my band member-cum-friend. I forgot the reason why or how I had asked him whether I could stay in his house... I guess he was a very open guy ba... Indeed, one thing I realized about him was, and really amazed about him was, he never say "NO" to people... So I think that's how I gotta stayed in his house ba...

That time we were very close then. Because we stayed together, we do whole lot of things together... Go to school together, late together (grrr...), go back home together, play together, eat together, do homework together, torn overnight for rushing technical portfolio together, and even sleep together! Haha... Because he stayed in a small flat, with one of the rooms rented out. So he, his sister and I squeezed in one room together... We were really "that buddy" lor...

Back then, I was also very close to his family. I especially liked his mother and his Popo... I respected them a lot. They always took care of me and treated me as their own son / grandson. They cooked food for me and even gimme to drink chicken essence whenever we had to torn overnight for technical portfolio. Popo played mahjong with us and we loved playing mahjong!!! My parents passed me an amount of money and asked me to pass to Sam's family as a mean of "rental fees". But his mother refused to accept it when I offered to her. I was so touched and don't know what to do... I always think that I am indebted to this family with gratitude and appreciation. I remembered one time that my parents brought durians for this family! But after eating a lot, some of them fall sick... :( Felt so paiseh you know...

Oh! One of the most important things that we did together, was to go to church together. His elder sister, Mabel and himself were devoted Christians since then already. During Sunday, if I didn't go back to JB, I would go to their local church together. In a way, you could say that "he brought me to church". But actually the fact was that... That time I already "interested" or found curious about this religion called, Christian. So I was using this opportunity to go to church and get to know more, a little more about Christianity...

~ Hearing His Voice for the First Time ~
Oh... God... It really brought back some memories back then... It was the first time ever that I heard Your voice... You spoke to me with Your gentle, whispered voice, yet of which, still could resound / echo in my head now... I was lying on my bed that night, regretting to you, I said: "Oh God, I'm sorry that I cannot become a Christian now..." Then Your voice, not that inner voice... I really heard a gentle, whispered voice at that moment, right next to my ear... Though I spoke to You in English... You replied me with Chinese... You said... “不能就不能吧。。。” (meaning: cannot then cannot lor...) With that gentle, soothing voice, I was able to sleep at peace...

Maybe people could not really understand why would a God that response in this manner? Such answer can be perceived as being negative, and not so "biblical" way... Well... that's why God would never speak to you! Ahaha... throughout the years of experiences of being a Christian, one of the things that I realized about God is... Sometimes as He speaks, to you, He will not finish a long sentence, but instead, He will say something like... half of it?? And the rest of the sentence, or conversation is "said", or rather "transmitted" directly, immediately and without delays, into your heart... What God would trying to say to me at that moment, of course, which was understood to me perfectly or near-perfectly was something like this:

"I understand the reasons / barriers for you not being able to become a believer. It is okay. I know your heart and I know that now is not the time for your conversion yet. And that doesn't mean that you will not become a Christian in the future / for the rest of your life. Everything is under control... And for now... sleep..." You know? That's my God. :)

~ Life After 'O' Level ~
Ok. To summarize the rest of the flashback stories: After 'O' Level, I left Sam house and came back to my JB big house... And after that... we kind of "lost contact" to each other... But of course, not really lost contact lah... I found out that we happened to be at the same school again! And that was Nanyang Polytechnic... Though we took different courses and we could hardly met. And since then, I always wanted to afford some time to go back to his house and visit his family... But... too much things... that eventually until now I haven't got a time to go back to see them! So "no heart" right...

At that time, cell phones haven't be much popular yet for teenagers. But not long after, like after Poly life, I managed to get a cell phone and that's the "High peak of SMS-es time of my life"... Whatever stuff, I usually sms-ed friends... It was like an "in" thing to do. It was like a game that is "soooo fun" to play like that... haha... I remembered that was once I sms-cum-chat with 3 different friends and they were also sms-ed to one another like that! But now, I guess I am so "old" that I lazy to sms... Would rather call the person if he or she is available to talk... It is time wasting to wait for the reply and lazy to type lor...

So anyway, come back to the story... Through other band members, I managed to get his contact. So in this manner, we "found each other" again... I meant that, we were not in "lost contact" mode... Haha... Right after we got each other's phone number, we called and had a short conversation, or catching up... And after that... we "lost contact" again... aiyo... haha...

Oops... Still got a long way to go... Shall continue in a new entry...

That's right, to be continued...

Flashbacks of Christmas 2008

Main Label: Life Flashback

Woohoo~~! Now is middle of February already! Time really flies! ... No... I think time "dashes"! Ahaha... Finally, after being busy for many stuffs, and still going to be busy with many stuffs, I am now able to gimme some times to do some blog updates...

Time is like a rocket shoot up to the heaven, no U-turning, no slowing and stuff. It just keep dashing towards the sky and you can't grab a hold or make it stop for you. So many days pass with so many interesting events happened and eventually I forgot them and now not able to recall and blog them down... Sigh... But one thing that I remembered that I must blog down, which is also like last year thing, is the Christmas time... So I will start writing them down now before I eventually forget about it...

~ Confession of Not Gifting ~
One thing that I finally realized about my Christmas every year was that I didn't manage to get presents for my friends! One reason, or excuse that I came out myself was "I'm in the midst of Building Fund." What I could recall was, before the Building Fund started some years ago, I managed to buy small, cheap presents for my CG during the Christmas season. But when I committed to the Building Fund my very first time, I stopped this gifting habits. And ever since, Building Fund became my valid reason, or excuse for not gifting...

And this Christmas... erm... I mean the last Christmas, it was like a light bulb lighted up in my head, that I realized that I should have reserve some money for gifting. This happened after a friend of mine, a non-Christian, who is also happened to be an "Anti-CHC", bought us (my friends and I), each of us a Christmas present when we were actually celebrating her belated, very belated Birthday... I kind of felt paiseh / disgrace about myself... So that's how I gotta confess about this mindset that I have.

This is what my friend had given to us... It was not something expensive, and she wrapped those presents with magazine which was costing-saving and at the same time, creative. I was touched by her action and disgrace about myself... It was like: "Shame on you... You called yourself a Christian? A non-Christian gave you a Christmas present!"

This is our group photo for the Birthday gathering. Notice the magazine-paper-wrapped-presents. Oh my sis, Finn happened to join us as well. PeiO, the one who had prepared the presents, was sitting on the very left of this photo. She also got prepared a present for my sis! That's very nice and thoughtful of her! PeiO, you're always my 女神~! Always...

~ Side Story: Building Fund; CPF ~
This time's Building Fund is rather really stressed to me. I realized that I kind of "out-give", or "over-give". And I thought I was in the edge of not able to fulfill it because what I planned in my mind did not happen in reality. Someone who owed me money delayed the payment and I finally realized that I could not rely on the source of income already. And that's the time I am thinking of new source, of which, it could be late already...

I was listening to the FM95.8 where someone talked about money matter, or some monetary policy that was using in Singapore (the exact details I could not remember). And suddenly I was reminded I have certain savings in my Central Provident Fund (CPF) that I can withdraw! It was like God reminding me that "I am not that broke lah..." I gave up my Singapore Permanent Residence (SPR) like about one year ago from now, but my CPF account is still valid for me. Since I am no longer a SPR, the amount in my account can be withdrawn according to my likes. The only bad thing about it was, if I ever want to get back my SPR, i.e. which means to work in Singapore, I gotta returned back the amount withdrawn and together with the interest.

It is very interesting when I looked at the timing that "God" would reveal / remind those "hidden treasures" that I had but which I was not aware of or forgotten. Somehow, I would thank God that He reveals it after I had pledged the amount. If I were to be reminded about the hidden sum before the Building Fund, I would have considered those amount... Haha... But nevertheless, the CPF account should serve as my "reserved fund", 储备金 in this time of Economic Tsunami, which means I shall not use it unless it is very urgent...

Right now I have fuifilled 75% of my Building Fund. And I don't want to convert my Ringgit Malaysia to fuifill the 25%. I think I will fulfill the 25% using my money in CPF account and later in the time, I will put back the amount that I have withdrawn... Man! I thought my CPF account ain't got much leh... until recently CPF mailed to me the latest update. Wow~! Ahaha... And to think that the yearly interest is 2.5%, I think I would rather save my money in this account le...

~ Back to Confession of Not Gifting ~
I figured that it was "lame" to use "Because I am in the midst of Building Fund" as a rejection of buying and giving Christmas presents. And to think that I was still able to buy quite a lot of stuff for myself because of the "Christmas Sale"! This should not be it man! So that's why, even Christmas had over for more than 1 month, I knew that I must blog this confession down to remind myself about this mistake / negligence that I had made. Next time's Building Fund, I will have to plan, and to keep some money for the Christmas Sale, because it really saves a lot; and also to reserve certain $$$ for gifting and really gotta give presents and "return favors" to friends... What is "return favors"? When someone give you a Christmas present but you didn't, so you buy one and give the person back one gift, this is what I call return favors. It is really another real shame when someone got you present and you didn't do the same to that person...

Oh one thing that I did to "cover", to "reconcile", to 挽回 my negligence, is to buy a log cake and had a tiny, simple Christmas celebration in my house with all my cute, funny and lovely nieces and nephews. The log cake was delicious and I regretted a little for not buying the bigger one. Didn't manage to take a photo of that delicious log cake. Also, failed to answer this question: "Why do you eat log cake during Christmas season?" Erm... I really don't know... Who can tell me? Please...?

~ My Top 3 Christmas Presents ~
I wanted to show all my "Christmas Presents Harvest 2008", but since it is over for more than a month, I will only show my top 3 harvested presents... Haha...

#1: Light of the City Audio CD by Carol Chin
Carol said she wanted to "lend" me this CD because I always wanted to listen it first before I would decide whether to buy it or not. At the time of meeting, which was during Christmas Service, she passed me this brand new CD and said it was a present for me instead. I was shocked. Thank you, Huili!

#2: Addidas Workout Shorts by Jiahui Goh This was actually "Gift Exchange" by my CG. We had a "wish list" with 3 options that tells every member what we want for our Christmas presents. Jiahui had drawn my name and she gave me this out the 3 wishes. In fact, I was a little worried that whoever bought this may not suit my need perfectly. But to my surprise, this is exactly what I want for my workout short, -- not too long nor too short. Too long if it reaches my knees actually hinders my performance when I workout. Too short will be too "sexy" that I won't wear! Haha... So that length is exactly what I wanted. And there're pockets! I got "many stuff" to carry one during workout. So I really need pockets! Thank you, Jiahui!

#3: Manchu Singlet by Peter Tan
Ever since I started to lose weight, I also started to shop for nice clothes! Haha... Yah, I know, so vain. I came across this shirt while shopping with my friend, Peter. After trying out the shirt, he offered to pay the price for me! Thank you, Peter!

This is another singlet that I got! Ahaha... I love the "simplicity" of this shirt's design. The brand is Everlast. But too bad, I still haven't got much "confident" to wear this 2 singlet out in street... :(

This Tiger beer was an award in my CG's very own "N333 Fun Awards". It was presented on 31 December 2008, before we had our 2009 Countdown. Every member got their very own awards, some got more than one award of course. I was so surprised that I also got one, because I seldom, hardly join my CG for event and CG meeting one... I am more of a "guest" than a "member" you see. But anyway, this was what Wendy had said about this Tiger Award:

Tiger: "Give these guys a Tiger!" No, I meant these guys are like tigers and tigress. Their courage and might in times of adversity and challenges is a mark of their strength. No matter how tough things may be, they do not give up but continues to fight. What remarkable fighting power! Roar!
Winners -- MK & Wei Lieh

Wendy Goh (31/12/2008)

Yup, Ming Kai (MK) was another winner of this award as well. :)

I got some other Christmas presents as well, but think not putting all of their pictures here... But again, I am thankful to people for your heart-warming presents~! See? I received more than I gave... I really gotta self-reflect in this "Season of Giving". :D

黑皮“牛”意儿~！ Happy “牛” Year~!

Main Label: Seasons Greeting

Hey... it's year of Cow... er, Bull...? ... or Ox??? ... Aiya... Why so many names one? Which is the right word to use?? Very funny de neh... Haha...

But anyway, here's your Lieh-not-enough to wish you a very very great Cow-Bull-Ox year ahead~!
恭喜发财~！Gong Xi Fa Cai~!

~ It's a year of the COW~! ~
年年有余~！May you have lots and lots and abundant $ $ $ to COW (count). Always got more than enough in every aspect of your life (except problems...).

天天COW（高）兴~! 幸福美满~！May happiness always be with you. Wish you can meet your ideal COW-boy / COW-girl this year too~! Heh heh...

~ It's a year of the BULL~! ~
心想事成~！May God answers the desires of your heart and your dreams come true~! May you hit the "BULL's eyes" of your goals~!

BULL BULL COW Sheng~! (步步高升~！) Wish you success in whatever you're doing in your business or career~! May God brings you up to the next level~!

身体健康~！May you stay healthy and as fit & strong as the BULL~!

~ It's a “牛” year~! ~
“牛”转乾坤~！牛年行大运~！May you be an overcomer of your challenges and turn the challenges into good opportunities~!

~ It's a Moo Moo Year~! ~
万事如意~！May everything will go sMooMoothly to you~!

It's a year of the OX~!
OX(傲视)群雄~! May you stand out against all OXs (odds) and be a winner / leader, overseeing all others~! XD

Last but not least, may you have an OXpicious (Auspicious) and PrOXperOX (Prosperous) year ahead~! XD

I Love you all~! Let's us gambatte together~!

Before Chinese New Year Updates

Main Label: Life Update

Well... Just wanna give another long entry of updates about this month, January 2009...

~ New Year "Common" Thoughts ~

Whenever new years draw in, people always commented this "time flies~~~", “一年就将过去了。。。” really, this year is also the same. Everyone seems to agree that time flies... It was like few months ago that we had our countdown party like that, but we had it another one for 2009 already... sigh...

Usually, I don't like to go countdown one... What is the purpose for counting down? It is like... "5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0... Happy New Year", and you go about wishing people "Happy New Year~!", but my heart, my mind always say this "Happy New Year, One Year Older~!" so, what's the big fuzz huh? Anyway, I only join people for counting down event merely for the gathering, the fellowship purpose one...

~ New Year Old Problems ~
Indeed, a brand new year has come. But old problems and challenges does not fade off, nor resolved nor overcome. And new challenges are knocking in your heart of door! It is always like that... Sometimes, I really don't like "new years", every time when new year come, I am really refreshed because I can start things anew. It is always like that, people have the mentality that when new year come, you will have new resolution and stuff. This is the same to me. But when I have the mind of "the start of something new", then I am reminded again for the failure that I had encountered in the past, year after year, when I tried to do something to improve myself, to clear off my long To-Do-List (TDL), problems are coming excitingly to make things complicated to me. Sometimes I resolved certain problems, but most of the time, major problems are like big stumbling block, or road block that get in my way... This always got me thinking... "why am I doing this? I should have spent my time doing the things that I love to do, instead of wasting my time here" A simple task can exhaust most of my time and effort just because unnecessary problems join in. I do consider myself a positive person, I tried to solve those problems that I can, but there are times, problems I alone cannot solve by myself and the fact is, there is only me doing this. :( I am positive, but again, I am not a very determined, long stamina person. In fighting problems over a long period of time, I guess, I will eventually be defeated... This is what I wanted to change again in this new year. Though I may not very determined, but still, I am a very stubborn person~! (not the way you can see it usually, my stubbornness is not easily spotted on) I don't want to give up~! I will try my best to "retry", "Try again"~! This is the game-playing spirit~! Wahahaha~~~

~ New Year New Problems ~
While old problems piled up, new problems also like to join into the fun. This year I got new things to do... Cholesterol to minimize, fats to burn, new company works, and Eliz (one of my "favourite" CG friend) has asking me to commit into the CG's very own blog. The usual-don't-know-how-to-say-no-me wouldn't bear to reject her, so... Ai... more things for me lor... Regardless, I am thinking that this is the least I can do for the CG ba...

While I guess everyone has their goal setting done, I still the same, couldn't get myself the time to do it... Well... busyness. I will think that this year's Chinese New Year come in rather early, it is at end of January. However, the work itself also got many stuff to do, like prepare documents for audit, calculating bonuses etc etc... And to add, I got a brand new company to take care of. In fact, before the new year started, I had done the design of payment and receiving vouchers, official receipts, and sent it for printing. My father wanted this new company to start operation in this new year, so I was rather busy again. And all this busyness had left me and my family not much time for the spring clean for the Chinese New Year~! And that's why... I am very occupied by this January... and now is the 20th day of the new year already! 6 more days toward Chinese New Year some more~! Lieh-not-enough~!

~ My Sundays Usage ~
I used 2 Sundays for the spring cleaning also not enough~! on 4th Jan, I was asked by father to replace the old, colour-faded, electric lanterns in front of the living room's main door, my "Chinese garden, the 中国亭", and the side area... I thought of doing some cleaning on the wire part also, well... this whole process used up that Sunday of mine. And it was only like half done. It was only fully completed like on the Tuesday. I wanted to take the photo of these new lanterns... But... erm... lazy lor...

The next Sunday I managed to go to Singapore for Service, because I had met friends for a belated Birthday celebration on the Saturday evening. Minnie and I managed to watch the "Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea" movie before meeting the others. That Saturday evening had a "little story" in my family... My mum also came into Singapore with me actually. She went to attend the company dinner by my 二姐's husband's family business. It was a major event for them, my 二姐 thought that I will be going, but instead, I went to meet my friends. She was disappointed. In the end, my 四姐, aka Finn aka Ah Bee went to the dinner with my mum instead.

Everyone in my family automatically put me into the dinner, as if I am sure to go, I am always free to go. But my friends and I already settled that Saturday for the gathering, because our time are also very, extremely difficult to coordinate, everyone seems to be busy with other things during the weekends. So it is also very rare for us to have a gathering, and I am not willing to give up this meeting for anything, that includes the company dinner. Then, I felt very "strange"... It seems like it is a very big thing to my family that I am not able to go for the company dinner... Everyone was assuming that I can go, and when they realized that I cannot go, they will keep asking me and one another, why I cannot go. Well... this is so strange to me... It is a big thing to them that I cannot make it for the company dinner~!

Actually, this is what I want to "break the pattern" in the mind of my family... I am using this opportunity to do it. I really don't like their assumptions... I felt disrespected by their assumptions. No one had asked me to go, they expected / presumed me to go! I am not invited, but I am an automatically-added guest. Well, good and no good. But I just don't like it. I have my own time to do my own things too! There are many words and thoughts and feelings about this. But I don't want to go about that here. I am now grateful that I used this opportunity to break the mindset of my family...

Coming back to the Sunday bah... I stayed overnight in my 二姐's newly renovated house. It was all nicely done. And I went to the Expo's Service the next moring (i.e. 11th January). It was John Bevere~! Actually he was rather "familiar" to me, I think I didn't hear his preaching before, but his name just so familiar that I can remember easily... Only like about 75% time of his preaching, when he talks about his experience in writing books or translating his books, that's the time I realized that I get to know his name in Christian books... He wrote a lot of Christian books. And the name "John Bevere" is always seen in the Christian bookstores and in the midst of Christian bookshelves!

About his sermon that day... Man, it was like another surprise from God. The day before, I was thinking about "Honour your father and mother" (Exodus 20:12, Deuteronomy 5:16). And I always have this desire, that to honour my father and mother. And once in a while, I will imagine, think about how can I honour them. That Saturday, I thought a lot about it again. I was so inspired and stuff... And on the Sunday morning, his topic was "Honour's Reward". And one of the note was definitely "Honour your father and mother". I was so wanted to buy the "Honour's Reward"'s book and CDs... But in the end, I didn't... Because it was too expensive~~! Haha... Nevertheless, I am once again be thankful to God that he is like telling me, "I am not forgotten"...

Last Sunday... i.e. 18th January. The day before, I was thinking whether should I go to Singapore until my father had asked me not to go and stay at home to do spring cleaning. Then, no choice, no need to go Singapore liao lor. I spent that Sunday vacuum-cleaning the ceilings, until afternoon, I only managed to complete the downstairs' rooms. And I went to exercise after I had my nap. XP

About spring cleaning... I have that mixed feelings... Sometimes I really don't like to do it, but there are times I really want to do it. One of my goal, erm, life time goal, is to take initiative to do this spring cleaning before my father asked me to do. This year, I managed to notice that he bought new lanterns, but failed to initiated the replacement. I asked my father how much he bought for those lantern, but he didn't really answer my question, instead, he asked me to replace them! I was like... “炸到”. So next time, I must do it before he even asked. Then last week, he had asked me to vacuum clean the ceilings... Hmmm... next time I wanted to do this before he even asked too!

On the other hand, it is a really tiring, boring, time-wasting job to do spring clean. My progress is always slow, and until now, I haven't found a time for myself to do some goal setting yet, and January 2009 is soon going to finish~! That's why I will feel unwilling and reluctant to do it sometimes, I will prefer some personal time before I want to commit all these... Man, all and all, it all goes back to the title of this blog "Lieh-Not-Enough"~! And there is only me... :(

But anyway, I think I should put this "Chinese New Year Spring Cleaning" in to my TDL... To jot down what to do, all the list of tasks, and proposed time-frame of doing those tasks, etc, etc. And there are certain cleaning that can be done by external professional service, such leather car seats I guess... Such stuff can be done much earlier before Chinese New Year... Yah, something like that.

Hmmm... So many more things to tell... I even wanted to say something about my "Christmas Gifts Harvest" last year and thoughts... But... Nevertheless, I should stop blogging and get going with my work and spring clean now!

Me and My Disney Kingdom !!!

Main Label: Disney

Oh~~~! Look at what "Disney" has blessed me with~! Haha~!

Well this is really creative and interesting and really surprising and shocking and really filled with joy and happiness to look at~!

I received this from one of my good friend in Church, Fabian. Was really happy and surprised when I watched it. And I immediately give "my Disney Kingdom" to some of my good friends... Sorry, if I didn't "email" you one of such "news", please do tell me if you want one. Haha~~~!

Oh, actually, just go here: www.sun7news.com :)