One Year Passes by - It was like yesterday.
Time really flies. When Eric told me to help him take some photographs for his son's birthday, I thought that he was joking. It was like yesterday when his Alvin was born. So I jokingly tell him that it is time to have the next one...


Alvin's birthday cake.
Commercial cakes look "too perfect" on the surface. It even begins to look artificial. Perhaps, it is artificial. But fortunately it tasted quite good.

Does a one year old knows how to blow out a candle? I believe ...

it is the father who did it for him! haha

To celebrate his birthday, Eric throw a birthday party for him.

The most senior lady there. This should signify longevity.
May God bless this family.

Most wanted food
While searching for food ideas, I found Malaysian most wanted food site. So if you are no where near to any of the restaurant, perhaps you can get some great idea on how to cook yourself a great meal. I am sure anyone can do it if you are hungry enough!

Then our very own and energetic young man calling himself Dasolve has his food review site. I think it is now dedicated to food outlet around Miri. By the way, he has his little army of "food taster"! His pictures on food are great... if you are overweight, don't visit the above two sites. Otherwise, get ready a bundle of money ....

人生 - Life. Purpose or no Purpose?

The cycle of human life. This article can be summed up "Life has no purpose". Compare this to what is in the bible by King Solomon. So what is the purpose of life? Have you found out? If not, get a copy of "The Purpose Driven Life".

Ecclesiastes 1

Everything Is Meaningless

1 The words of the Teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem:

2 "Meaningless! Meaningless!"
says the Teacher.
"Utterly meaningless!
Everything is meaningless."

3 What does man gain from all his labor
at which he toils under the sun?

4 Generations come and generations go,
but the earth remains forever.

5 The sun rises and the sun sets,
and hurries back to where it rises.

6 The wind blows to the south
and turns to the north;
round and round it goes,
ever returning on its course.

7 All streams flow into the sea,
yet the sea is never full.
To the place the streams come from,
there they return again.

8 All things are wearisome,
more than one can say.
The eye never has enough of seeing,
nor the ear its fill of hearing.

9 What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun.

10 Is there anything of which one can say,
"Look! This is something new"?
It was here already, long ago;
it was here before our time.

11 There is no remembrance of men of old,
and even those who are yet to come
will not be remembered
by those who follow.

我们 一出世，就被教 导做个好孩子

拼命的 读书，好了读完书了。大学也毕业 了。
拼命的做工，赚 多多的钱。。。
拼命的存钱 ，买房子，车子，保 险

不小心找到了老婆，好了，结 婚了，钱也用完了

再 拼命的做工，好了30岁了，开 始瓶颈。。。
再拼 命的读PARTTIME，好了，学位高了。。。

拼 命的抚 育孩子，好了，孩子 读书了。。。

拼命的灌 输孩子要努力读书 。。。。

自己拼 命的做工。。。学位高了，压 力也高了。。。

回到家，妻子照顾孩子，不得空理 你。。
孩子忙着读书 ，不得空理你。。

月头，样样都是 钱。

孩子和你 拿钱 。
妻子和你拿钱
房子和你拿钱
保险和你拿钱
车子和你拿钱


过年了，更加多钱

除了以上，

母亲和你拿钱
红包和你拿钱
旅行和你拿钱
NIKE，LEVI，PRADA ，GUCCI，REEBOK ，PADINI。。。和你拿钱
海外天也可能和你拿钱

40 岁，男人危机。。。
拼命的工作，保住职位。。。
成了大家眼中的势利同事。。。
开始害怕失去工作，开始留意年 轻同事。。。
想读书，钱，没有了，想换工，薪金高，岁数大，难讨新工
想尽办法，还是不能爬上经理职位，还被一个年轻人上了位。。

孩子开始读中学了，和你拿更多的钱。
父亲节，拿你给的钱，买了你没有用的东西。。。。
房子! 还是和你要钱
车子旧了，开始不听话了。。。还是要给钱
! 妻子也是一样和你拿钱，旦绝对没有收条给你看。夫妻要信任

好不容易熬过50 了，要退休了，无风无浪。。。虽 然压力大，新上司意见多多，不要紧。我顶！

就要拿公积金咯！但是孩子要出国读书-- <>

好了，公 积 精拿完出来了，一大半给了孩子，剩下的给了妻子

还是回到零。。。退休了，不用做？？？不能
几十年没有呆在家，忽然和妻子相处。。。
妻子看不顺眼丈夫无所事事，命令丈夫开始学做家事，！

扫地，抹地，剪草，洗车，样样都要做。。。

好了，房子供完了。。。车子也没有什么架了。。。

开始 觉得人生很无奈，自己从一个提款机，最后变成了一个佣人。

孩子出国回来了，拍了一些照片。。。开始找工了。。。

毕业=失业 ， 工难找! ，最后找到一份只可以养活自己的工作。还是要住在家里。。。吃，交通。去的薪金的一大半。。所以只是意思意思的给 RM100给父母做伙食费。。

3年过 去了，孩子好不容易累计的工作经验，薪金高了。。。但是却开始要买辆汽车代步。。。母亲帮助 + 自己储蓄，给了头期。。。有了汽车，费用也多了。。还是意思意思给 RM200作伙食费

好不容易的工作开始稳定了，但是却认识了一个女朋友。。。开始了人生计划。。。要 买房子了。。。

由于车子+ 女朋友费用太大，还是不能给伙食费太多，而且女朋友说 3? ?计划，全部钱要储蓄。。。

2 年后，终于买了房子，买了房子，开始要结婚了。。。

我终于有用途了，被叫去提亲。。什么都不可以多说，全部老婆讲。自己讲些客套话就行了。。。

摆酒，婚礼，旅行。。。用了一大笔+ 母亲储蓄+ 我剩下的公积精

我还是回归零，。。。继续的剪草，扫地，做家务。。。

结婚了后，孩子很少会来了，忙着自己的家庭。。。偶尔假日才回来看看父母。。。每个月意思意思的给 RM200 。孩子自己也困难了。要维持自己的家庭

好了，30 年前的计划希望能够开始，旅行！！

大事不妙，媳妇怀孕了，生了个孩子。。。母亲代抚养，因 为媳妇孩子都做工

本来平静的退休生活又再次起了涟漪。。。每天就要照顾孙子，晚上他哭我就跟着醒，开始学习新的技术，喂奶，包尿片，唱歌，拍手掌。。。

孩子每个月意思意思的给多RM300 ，当着是孙子的伙食费 。。。


照顾了5 年后，孙子大了，孩子抱回去了，一切回归平静。忽然想起 30 年前的约定，决定和妻子去旅行。。。。

还是去不成了，妻子年级大了，病痛也多了。。。自己的腰骨也常闹别扭。。。医生说要多休息。。。孩子已经抱回孙子，每个月意思意思的给回 RM300 伙食费


惟有呆在家里看电视。。。。一天早上，妻子看见为什么老头没有起来扫地。。。想去房里骂我，但我已经回到天国去了。。。

孩子为我做了后事。。。

最后我成了一张照片。


人生就是如此讽刺。。。呵呵

What is your comment on the above. Please leave you thought here.

How to cook chicken porridge

While talking to colleagues and friends, I realised that not many people actually cook porridge the way I do it. Since all my family members love my porridge, I must assumed that it must be quite reasonable. So, here it goes.... I will share with you how to cook porridge ... WT's ways.

1. Choice of rice
In fact, I am not very particular about this because I don't want to pressure myself unnecessarily. So, I use whatever it is available in the kitchen. This time, I use 1 cup brown rice + 1 cup white rice. The cup size is 200cc, ie, small cup. Total water is 4 litres.
Naturally, I have to wash the rice, drain and put in 4 litres of water. This should be able to serve 6-8 peoples, depending on how much each can eat.

Bring the rice to boil and then lower the fire so that it just simmer. Start timing from now and cook the rice for 20 more minutes.

While waiting for the rice, prepare 2 chicken (whole) legs, de-bone, and chop the meat. I also break the bones and put them in... but be careful to pick out small bone fragment, if you do this.

Add in 2 tablespoons of corn flour + 1 tablespoon of light soysauce

Mix well. The cornflour is to make the meat more tender - that is my theory! Without corn flour, the meat doesn't taste as good.

After 20 minutes of simmering the porridge, it should look like this. Otherwise, cook a little bit longer, just in case the fire is too small.

Put in the meat, stir well. Add salt and 1 chicken stock cube (or msg) to enhance taste.

Stir gently with max fire till the meat is cooked. I think about 8 minutes. The most important thing here is to ensure that the meat is not overcook. Otherwise, it is not nice.

Serve with whatever you fancy or as it is.
Important: Make sure that you stir the rice every now and then or the bottom may burn.
You may add in pandan leave to cook with the rice.
Many people put the meat and rice and boil together right from the beginning. This will cause the meat to be very rough.
To use other minced meat, you do exactly the same as above. However, you have to wait for the rice to be cooked, ie, simmer for 25 minutes. Then you "scrap" the mince meat into your porridge quickly. Bring the fire to maximum, stirring gently and continuously and bring the mixture to boil. Once it is boil, the meat is also cooked. Serve immediately. Don't overcook the meat.

Organic Food, Enzyme, etc

Eric has a large farm in Sibu planting organic food. This is just some of the produce. ... coconut...

miniature cucumber... very easy to plant.

Organic fruit enzyme made from fruits...

... more fruit enzyme...

... and more ... will give you good health, has all kind of health promoting properties.

By far, this is most interesting! We normally throw out kitchen waste, fruit peel, vege, etc. But he collected them, let them ferment and after a couple of months, he filtered the mixture and collected the juice. Believe it or not, they make excellent washing agent, chase away pest, etc. I put it into the washing liquid (dilute 100 times) and the washing liquid suddenly become super strong. Can use it for washing floor, as fertilizer, etc.

Mummy had her blood taken
Mummy visited the clinic on 22nd July 2008 to have her blood taken to test for blood sugar, LDL, etc... a very long list for routine checkup.

The technician check her right arm and found some "technical problem" because the vein was punctured a day earlier!

Then check on the left side... again no vein visible enough - or big enough.

Ok, back to the right side. Mummy looked brave!

Position and insert the needle...

Blood was drawn...

opp... small vein problem. Obviously it was painful. But mummy was still very brave.

Then separated into three sampling tubes.
Finally, so much blood was successfully taken. Then mummy said that it was painful! I have to thank the technician. She is one of the most skillful I knew. There are others who have to pop 2-3 times before finding the vein and left a big blue patch. This time, it may be a little more pain but no blue.

Banana from my garden
I didn't really take good care of the banana tree at the beginning. So the bunch was a small one. But then, I cleared the grass and put on urea. So the fruit wasn't many but large.

So I think we have the nicest little bunch this time!

Mummy has problematic throat
Mummy complained of problem in her throat. So the doctor did a complete examination of her throat and found inflamation which causes the irritation.

A scope is put through her nose after the doc sprayed some local anesthetic on her.

This is what I saw.... just part of it!

Slowest SMS ever and random stuff

1st random stuff - slow SMS
This morning I received a SMS from Stephanie in UK sent on 25th July 2008 at 2:06:13 AM. Today is 31st July! Wah... that is 6 days. So it must have broken all records. Fortunately there is nothing important about the message.

2nd random stuff - Pork price increase, etc
Prices of pork is going up by another RM2.00 per kg starting tomorrow. Just about a year ago, I paid RM10-12 for a kg of belly pork. Last Saturday, it was sold at RM16.00. Tomorrow it will be RM18.00. I think this price is the same for most cut.

I was told last week that animal feeds have more than double in price over the last one year.
Fertiliser price has gone up from RM40/bag of 50Kg to about RM200 now.
Weed killer (herbicide) price has gone up from RM50/4 litres to some RM400 now.

But prices of vegetable has not increase by 4 times yet. So how can farmer survive?

So, I was told, there is now shortage of veggie and also pork. Anyway, I planted my own veggie (50% sufficiency) and eat "China sweet" cabbage. How long can this last?

Perhaps, being a hi-tech farmer is the way to go!

3rd Random stuff - flying car
This morning on the way to work, I saw a long slow traffic thinking that there must be quite an accident in front. To my amazement, I saw a mini car, landed in the opposite direction on the other side of a 6 feet monsoon drain! The car seems to be in good condition and still on four wheel.

So the car must have been driving very fast, skipped, and flew over the drain and flipped around.

4th random stuff - 7% inflation
Do you know that the basket for computing the country's inflation rate is an "official secret"?
That means that you have no idea what is in the shopping list. But the government came out with just 7% inflation for this year. So to come out with just 7% means that a lot of things in the list are actually not the "normal stuff" that we use everyday. Or perhaps, 7% is just taken from the air. Everyone knew that we are now a lot poorer. haih.... the poor will suffer most.

Cheap milk = lots of Yogurt
During the weekend, one of the hypermarkets in town had a big offer for fresh milk, normal price was RM6+. But on that Saturday, it was RM3+. Why? Because the expiry date was the day after. So mummy pestered me to make yogurt! After much convincing, I agreed and she bought 3 cartons (altogether 3 litres)


On Sunday night, I made 2 litres of yogurt. Ah Jon observed how I boiled the milk, etc. He commented that I should not cook the milk until 100 deg C. Perhaps he is right. But then I was just cautious as the milk will expire the next day.
The above is 1 litre of yogurt I made.

I tried to convinced all the boys to eat the yogurt on Monday morning. But was not successful as they were unsure whether it is nice. However, on Monday evening when I returned from work, one whole pot had been consumed! They all think that the fresh yogurt I made was fantastic! So they pestered me to make the last litre of fresh milk! They were all very keen to see how I made them. Well, it is so easy that you won't believe it!

First, I bought a box of natural yogurt from the supermarket - 900gm for RM23!! Very pricy! Anyway, I can used it many times.

Pour the fresh milk into a pot and heat it to 80 deg C (or you see the milk started to bubble at the side of the pot), stirring continuously.
Then cool it down quickly by putting the pot under running water to 40 degC or just warm.
Scoop 4 tablespoons of fresh natural yogurt into every litre of milk. Stir and mix well.
Transfer the milk to a glass jar (or whatever you have or leave it in the pot if you are lazy to wash), and cover it with a cloth or something. (I use aluminum foil).
Leave the milk in a warm place for 4 hours or overnight. Or wait until it is firm.

I actually transfer the jar to the oven and set the temperature to the lowest (just warm) and the yogurt was ready in less than 4 hours!

Seven wonders of the World are:
To See
To Hear
To Touch
To Feel
To Laugh
To Love
And the greatest of all is:
God's amazing love for mankind in sending His only son Jesus to set us free and give us everlasting life.

Remember that the most precious thing in this world is not man made but those made by God!

Fun Sunday - Ministry Fair

On Sunday, we have our ministry fair, which is part of the 40DOP event. All the major ministries set up something to promote the ministry. One of the booths did "face painting" and it was such a success. Children simply love them!

Children learn to share at a young age...

This is the "face painting" booth.

Aaron, Abel and Rosaline (mum) hahaha...

One of the artists doing self painting!

See...

... how cute they are!

One of the stars of the event...

Of course nothing is complete without food... for fellowship. As the bible said... "we have meals together"

A little oily, but everyone simply loves this!

Three Girls in Edinburgh


I have hijacked the photos from Stephanie's Facebook and tweaked them in Photoshop.



After tweaking, the sea is now visible and the hill in the background is more green.
To do this in photoshop, here is my technique:
1. Trace out Stephanie using Magnetic Lasso
2. Select Invert (CTRL-SHIFT-I)
3. Copy selected area to a new layer (CTRL-J). Click on the new layer
4. Image-Adjustments-Level. Adjust the right bar to the left. May also experiment with "Curve"

Timothy's school craft/project

When I was in primary school, I don't remember doing this type of project or in fact, hardly any craft work, especially in Primary 5. We make them at home ourselves, eg, kites, etc.
Then, last Thursday evening at about 8:00PM, Timothy asked me to read two Chinese characters in his book. Then he said ... "Daddy, I need it tomorrow morning". You know what, he wanted me to get for him two bamboo sticks for making kites. It was one of his projects in school. Ok, we live in housing area and bamboo is nowhere to be found. So how? I told him to go to school without the bamboo stick and keep his fingers crossed that someone will bring extra.
True enough, when school finished, he proudly showed me two fresh bamboo sticks. Now, he is pestering me to buy the paper and to assemble the sticks to make the kite.
But why am I so confident that someone will bring extra? I don't know whether Esther still remember when she asked me to catch cockroach for her biology class so many years ago. I know where cockroach hide themselves and in great number. So I armed myself with Shelltox (insecticide) and the girls followed behind me. When I open the lid of "something", I saw multitude of cockroaches and immediately spray Shelltox on them. Many died and the bigger one "fainted". So, I caught a couple of them and asked Esther to bring to school because I know that some others might need them.
I also remember that when I was in F5, I went into the field at night armed with a light chasing after frog. Again, I was so skillful and fast at that time that I caught extras. One for myself and one for a girl in the class who is now my wife! Haha.

10 More Hours to go

This is the first time we see canopy being set up in front of our church. It is not for open air concert or food sales. But it is in preparation for the Ministry Fair tomorrow. I will be in charge of the cell group ministry and we hope to attract more people to join the cell ministry.
Note: This photo has been photoshopped. To see the original, go to brother James' blog. I just find it amazing what Photoshop could do to enhance the picture and remove thing that "should not be there".

Long fingers
This is a story related to me by my colleague.
Warning: Do not click on the black box below until you read the full story.

My colleague went to Bintulu and stayed in one of the rather new Company's panel hotels. Thinking that he must have a good break from the office, I asked him how was the trip. He told all of us that other than work, his trip was good. The problem was his first night stay. Somehow he had problem sleeping and woke up almost every hour! At one point, he "dreamt" that there was a beautiful lady with long hair sleeping next to him! We all said wow!!! Then he said, the "girl" showed him her long fingers! Oh.... that is not something ordinary.

So, do not click on the black box above if you don't want your imagination go wild and can't sleep tonight! You have been warned!

Footnote: I used to travel a lot and I also heard and know that many hotel rooms are "unclean". There are "spirits" floating around; spirit of lust, violent, etc. Sometimes, my goosehair will stand on end! What I would do on first arrival is to command in the name of Jesus for all spirits to leave the room! At night, I would never switch off all the light!

Creative procrastination is one of the most effective of all personal performance techniques. It can change your life.

The fact is that you can't do everything that you have to do. You have to procrastinate on something. Therefore, procrastinate on small tasks. Put off eating smaller or less ugly frogs. Eat the biggest and ugliest frogs before anything else. Do the worst first!

Everyone procrastinates. The difference between high performers and low performers is largely determined by what they choose to procrastinate on.

Since you must procrastinate anyway, decide today to procrastinate on low-value activities. Decide to procrastinate on, outsource, delegate, and eliminate those activities that don't make much of a contribution to your life in any case. Get rid of the tadpoles and focus on the frogs.

Learn To Say...No!

One of the most powerful of all words in time management is the word no! Say it politely. Say it clearly so that there are no misunderstandings. Say it regularly as a normal part of your time management vocabulary.

Say no to anything that is not a high-value use of your time and your life. Say no graciously but firmly to avoid agreeing to something against your will. Say it early and say it often. Remember that you have no spare time. As we say, "Your dance card is full."

For you to do something new, you must complete or stop doing something old. Getting in requires getting out. Picking up means putting down.

Creative procrastination is the act of thoughtfully and deliberately deciding upon the exact things you are not going to do right now, if ever.

The above is an excerpt from Eat That Frog by Brian Tracy. A gift book can be purchased from Mac Anderson of the Simple Truths.

Be on the watch out

Watch your thoughts; they become words.
Watch your words; they become actions.
Watch your actions; they become habits.
Watch your habits; they become character.
Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.

Happy Birthday Esther

How time flies.... Happy Birthday to you Esther... From everyone at home. There is a special chocolate cake from a friend but unfortunately you are not at home to enjoy it...

So we decided to eat the lot on your behalf.
Love from your brothers, mummy and daddy.