Interesting News for Reflection

 Lately, 2 incidents set me thinking.

1st case. A man is demanded to be executed because he converted to another faith which is deemed an insult to the god of the accuser.

2nd case. A woman reported to the religious authority that she heard the husband in his sleep ushering 3 times his intention to divorce her. The religious authority ruled that the marriage is therefore void and the couple is deemed divorced. However, the couple insisted that they are still in love and has no intention to be separated. The religious authority ruled that if the wife wanted to be reunited with the husband again, she must first marry another man and stay with him for one night after which the 2nd man would divorce her. Only then, she can go back and be married to the 1st husband again.

This is truly a subject for reflection.

Another Couple is Considering Tying the Knot

We have been leading another couple in the premarital counselling, considered a very "matured" couple, Vincent Lee and Fung Yun Fon. Sam and Paul definitely know the lady - a History teacher in All Saints. I can visualize Sam's surprise in knowing this teacher of his getting married! Well, it's better late than never.

We have already covered 4 sessions namely Covenant of Marriage; Understanding Each Other; Roles of Husband and Wife and Communication. The remaining sessions will be on Anger and Conflict Resolution; Money Matter; Sexuality & Family Planning and finally In-Laws and Wedding Planning. The tough one which will be both interesting and challenging and not easy to conduct will be on the subject of sex.

Hot News about SMK St. Mary, Papar

Get the latest hot news from the Daily Express dated 15 March 2006! The highlight features none other than Steve Sulis, a brilliant student from SMK St. Mary, Limbahau, Papar - the very school where my wife serves as the school principal.

Steve made headlines for scoring an outstanding 10A’s in the SPM examination, a feat that brought pride not only to his family but also to the entire school community. When interviewed, Steve humbly attributed his success to the guidance and inspiration of his father, a C&S consulting engineer.

With such strong academic foundations and family support, Steve aspires to pursue a degree in civil engineering, aiming one day to follow his father's foot step.

Funny Road Names

How do you like to stay in a place with these funny road names :

Case 1 : There was this chap who went to see a doctor to treat his vomiting sickness. The doctor asked, "Where do you stay?". He answered, "Jalan Muntahan " - translated as Vomiting Road in English. The doctor looked at him in awe and speechless, "...............".

Case 2 : There was this couple who had been married for the last 10 years and had been trying hard to have a baby. Finally, they decided to consult a fertility doctor. At the clinic, the doctor asked, "What's your problem ?". The wife answered, "We like to have a baby but has not been successful for the last 10 years". The doctor asked, "Where do you stay ?". The husband answered, "Jalan Family Planning Centre". The doctor looked up speechless.

According to the Director of JKR, the funny road names were due to engineers giving funny names to some of the newly completed roads. Come on, engineers, not again !

"Sablish" on the Rise

Just now during our jogging in Tun Fuads Park. I overheard a little girl probably about 10 years old talking to her mother who is in her early 30's.

"Hot must be used what oh ?" Said the little girl. Amazing "English" or rather Sablish!

From the mother's response, I think this was what the girl meant: I am feeling hot. What do I use to wipe the sweat ?

The unique thing is that the mother understood her. Why? Because the mother also spoke Sablish.

It is really incredible how English has "progressed".

Shortage of Engineers of Calibre

After the resignation of my young engineer, we finally put up an ad for new engineers. This time, we identified ourselves by inserting our company's name in the ad. So far, only 2 applicants applied for the Design Engineer post while a number applied for the RE posts.

I called the 1st applicant for DE post who faxed his application to our office the same day the ad came out. He happened to be currently working with a similar consulting firm not far from our office. I asked him during the interview what made him decide to apply for a job in our company. To my amazement, he told me that a draftslady who once worked in our firm and now working in this other firm strongly encouraged him to apply. According to him, these are her words, "This is a once in a life time opportunity, don't miss it, grab the opportunity". The reason: This is a good firm to work with and the staff are pleasant. I could sense that the draftslady spoke highly of her ex-bosses! That's nice to hear :) Another reason: For the past two years, he has been doing the same drainage design over and over again. He hoped to be given opportunity to do a variety of design work.

He was recruited on the spot. But we have to wait for another 2 months before he can report for duty. He needs 2 months notice.

Through this recent recruitment plus our previous similar exercises, the picture we gather is that there aren't many engineers of reasonable quality around. Sad for Malaysia. The lack of emphasis on English has destroyed a whole generation of people!

Trying Out My Nike

I managed to get my wife to go for a jog at Tun Fuads Park this afternoon. This was essential for her after a heavy lunch at Promenade. This also gave me the opportunity to try out my Nike that has been lying there for quite awhile.

Unfortunately, we went a bit too late. By the time we did a round, it was dark and Kampong Nelayan Restaurant was all lighted up for business. No mood to carry on the 2nd round.

Old People are Worth a Fortune !

Here is a humorous sms I received from my wife today. I believe this is also dedicated to Mamalim and SunnyPerth.

Don't be afraid to grow old. Old folks are worth a fortune. They have silver in their hair. Gold in their teeth. Stones in their kidneys. Gas in their stomach. Kencing pun manis. Darah pun ada kelas: Tinggi (high blood...).

Light at the End of Tunnel at Last

I was away today to Tawau to attend the progress meeting of a project that has been on-going for the last 40 months and is still only 95% completed. It was supposed to be 22 months but delayed and delayed and delayed for a further 18 months. From the look of it, we are likely going to be stuck with it for another 2 more months!

The annoying thing is that a RM36m project is run by 1 man only. He is trained as a QS but has to also assume the roles of project manager, site engineer, QS, purchasing man, foreman, liaison man, finance man all in one. He is a nice chap but the work load is just too much for him to handle. It is really ridiculous. The sad thing about some of Malaysian contractors is that they hope to make maximum profit with minimum overhead and management cost! So far, this is the kind of scenario we see in Sabah. Not very promising as far as construction industry is concerned.

We had a fairly hard drilling on him in the meeting and hoped that he could at last get his act together and mobilise whatever resources within his grasp and finish the project once and for all by the end of March.

All of us want to move on from this project which has been dragging on far too long. Wish me luck!

3 Wins in 4 Matches

I did well in my badminton game tonight. 3 wins in 4 matches. That means a net win of 2 tins of 100 plus. By the way, no frustration and no throwing of racket!

Thank God, I seem to be regaining my old self. But, I know I must be careful, no rigorous smashing lest I might injure my spine again.

The Airlines Have Gone Nut

Sam left for Melbourne this afternoon after a fairly dramatic change of flight plan. He was supposed to have left on a 3.30pm direct flight to KL. Then in the morning, I received a call from the travel agent informing me that the 3.30pm flight has been delayed and rescheduled to 7.00pm in the evening. As recommended by the travel agent, his fight was then changed to 1.40pm via Brunei.

We left home and sent him to the airport reaching there at 12.45pm. Just when I was about to park the car, I received a call in the hand phone from my wife telling me that Sam has left his passport and air ticket at home. Without a thought, I sped and rushed home as fast as I could to pick up the items. Half way of the trip, my hp rang again and my wife told me that the flight has been delayed to 2.10pm. That gave me a bit of breather. Still, I was back to the airport in 35 minutes!

After sending him off and upon reaching home, we received a call from Sam telling us that the flight would be further delayed to 3.00pm. He gave us another piece of "shocking "news. He left his digital camera in the car. By then, it was too late. We just have to think of a way to get the camera to him, somehow.

We expected him to reach KL by 7.00pm the latest. Finally, he sms'ed and told us that the flight was also delayed in Brunei. He finally arrived KL at 8.00pm. He told us that the flight to Melbourne would fly as scheduled. We really hope so. At this moment, we just pray that he is comfortably seated in the plane and on his way to the country down south.

By the way, this flight delay and mess-up was not only experienced by Sam. Paul did experience the same thing. In his case, he was supposed to have arrived Sydney by 7.20am on 17 Feb. Somehow, we discovered later that he actually arrived at 9am caused by flight delay in Brunei.

Our airlines have gone nut !

Chap Goh Mei 2006

Sunday 12 February 2006 was Chap Goh Mei. We had another family reunion dinner to end this year CNY celebration. This dinner was held at our home at our suggestion. As far as I could see and feel from the atmosphere of the gathering, all enjoyed it and the conversation was cordial and relaxed. My 2nd brother has grown more sober as year is catching up on him and there appeared more tolerance and understanding between him and the wife.

We also took the opportunity to celebrate my Mom's 78th birthday. That was the first time the children and grandchildren sang the Happy Birthday Song to her after she blew out the candles. In the past, as far as I could remember, there was no singing after the cake cutting which was held in her house. I also couldn't really explain why. Probably, the setting and atmosphere was not so conducive!

When they finally left for homes, we extended a wedding photo of MH and Serene to each family which was long long overdue. To be exact, more than 13 months overdue.

I was glad that our house turned out to be a good venue to further enhance the bond between the siblings. I hope this gathering can turn into some kind of annual tradition wherein the brothers, sister and the next generation can get together for bonding and sharing. I was glad my children get along well with their cousins as I believe this is also important for the family to survive as a unit in the years to come.

The Book of Ruth

The last three nights, I attended a teaching session by Pastor Benny Ho on the Book of Ruth. He opened a totally new approach in looking at this book in the Old Testament.

It would be too long to record all the teaching in this blog. I would just highlight an interesting part of it : How he ended the teaching at the final night.

The Book of Ruth ends with the following in Chapter 3:18-22.

This then is the family line of Perez:

Perez was the father of Hezron,

Hezron the father of Ram,

Ram the father of Amminadab,

Amminadab the father of Nahshon,

Nahshon the father of Salmon,

Salmon the father of Boaz,

Boaz the father of Obed,

Obed the father of Jesse,

and Jesse the father of David.

Benny just could not believe that such a profound book should just end with a series of funny names. It would be an anti-climax of sort if it is the case. He analysed the meanings of these names and found these :

Perez : breach

Hezron: enclosed

Ram: high or exalted

Amminadab: my noble kinsman

Mahshon: enchantment

Salmon: garment

Boaz: in him is strength

Obed: servant

Jesse: one who is

David: beloved.

The hidden message based on the meanings of these names Benny told us is this :

"The breach is enclosed by my high and exalted Noble Kinsman with enchantment in His garment. In Him is strength to serve the one who is His Beloved"

Amazing, don't you think ?

I Lose a Staff Member

The other day when office resumed work after the Chinese New Year break, one of my engineers whom I consider to be most promising tendered his resignation. I was significantly shocked by his decision since we just had a performance review with him and offered him a very substantial salary increment.

He explained that when he was back home in Penang for the CNY holidays, he was bombarded with strong words by parents and relatives who pressurized him to return to West Malaysia to work so as to be closed to home. They even said something like..."If you continue to remain away from home leaving your aging parents alone back home, this is considered not filial". He told me that his other older brothers are working in various parts of West Malaysia and that leave him to take care of his parents.

Secondly, he told me that his teacher-girl friend is now posted to Johor and he wanted to be closer to her. On whether he was afraid his gf might be "won" over by another man, he said that anything could happen and it is better that he stays closed-by to pre-empt any such change of heart. I was thinking - If there is true love, distance doesn't matter. But then, everyone views relationship differently. Statement of this nature would not necessarily help.

One thing I was very pleased to hear. He told me his gf is a strong Christian and he has also decided to be a Christian. I assured him that that was a very important and wise decision and such decision would ensure them an enduring husband-wife relationship if ever they ever decide to become husband and wife.

Already, he told me that he has started facing unfriendly gestures from family members because of his decision to become Christian though he has not officially announced his conversion. As usual, his parents were worried that their son would not be there to hold the joss-stick at their funeral.

I assured him that the best way to convince the parents of his filial piety and love for parents is by his continuous respect and love to his parents and other members of his family. God would work in a special way to open up minds and change attitude.

I have heard many beautiful stories of how from one member of a family becoming a Christian and ultimately all become Christians because of what they saw in the person's total changed life.

I was very sad that he is leaving the company. But life goes on and it is normal that people move on and begin another phase of lives elsewhere.

I pray that his new found faith will be a blessing to people whom he comes into contact with just as he has been a blessing to our company.

Yee Sang for Farewell Lunch

Eating Yee Sang is always fun because it requires team effort to get the disc well done. We had one in Serene/Meng How farewell lunch. Guess whose hands are these. Yammy!

CNY 2006 Reunion

A moment captured in time that is not easy to come by !

You Raise Me Up : To More Than I Can Be

A song that came to my mind when the reality sank into me that my father was no longer on this earth with me..................

When I am down and, oh my soul, so weary;

When troubles come and my heart burdened be;

Then, I am still and wait here in the silence,

Until you come and sit awhile with me.

You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains;

You raise me up, to walk on stormy seas;

I am strong, when I am on your shoulders;

You raise me up: To more than I can be.

You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains;

You raise me up, to walk on stormy seas;

I am strong, when I am on your shoulders;

You raise me up: To more than I can be.

There is no life – no life without its hunger;

Each restless heart beats so imperfectly;

But when you come and I am filled with wonder,

Sometimes, I think I glimpse eternity.

You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains;

You raise me up, to walk on stormy seas;

I am strong, when I am on your shoulders;

You raise me up: To more than I can be.

You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains;

You raise me up, to walk on stormy seas;

I am strong, when I am on your shoulders;

You raise me up: To more than I can be.

My Dad was Called to Eternal Rest

The day that I had been apprehensive about finally came on 25 January 2006. My father was finally called to eternal rest. I was apprehensive because I wasn't sure how I would have responded to it and how other people would have responded to it. But it turned out all right.

My Dad had no major illness but had been frail for the final two years of his life. He had movement difficulty and therefore required practically 24-hour nursing care.

I love the way Christians describe the closing of a chapter of a person's life on earth. Physical death is a transition from the toil and suffering in this world to eternal rest in the loving arm of God. I am very glad to know that my father is now resting in the arm of God, free from all struggles, disappointments, unfulfilled wishes......

As I reflect on his life, I want to think of all the good and pleasant moments that was spent with him. My dad was a simple man. His greatest strength: Unwavering commitment to the raising of his family (he spent practically every cent he earned for the care and the well-being of his immediate family); no bad habits like drinking and gambling; faithfulness to his wife. You can almost say that he was a perfect father and husband.

Though he was not a very expressive man as far as showing love to his loved ones is concerned, you could feel that he loved his children all the same.

I remember when we were kids, he would always buy a little pack of goody when he finished works and gave them to his children to share. Every evening at around 7pm, the kids looked forward to this moment of receiving the goody and sharing it. He did this faithfully without fail. This simple gesture would be always treasured in my heart.

Thank God

I was looking at the annual year end card given to me at the closing of 2005 by a school mate who is also a church friend for more than 37 years.

He has been faithfully serving as the our church's Boys Brigade's captain for the last 31 years. This in itself is an achievement that I have not found an equal, at least in Sabah. What he wrote in the card though may seem plain and rhetorical to many, but to people who know him, it is statements that come from the bottom of his heart.

"......I asked that you think about what you are thankful for. Sometimes in life, it seems that we are always looking for something; hoping to gain or profit in some way. Rarely, however do we think about how we can give to other".

Saying "thank you" to those who have blessed us in some large or small ways is a beautiful gift from the heart, which does not cost us anything, and yet is tremendously precious.

Most importantly, let us not forget to thank God for creating the world and allowing us to live upon it.

Let us thank Him for the gift of being a father, mother, grandpa, grandma, siblings, friends and loving spouse.

Thank Him for the food on the table, the roof over our heads. Let us give thanks that we have clothes to wear and are reasonably healthy. Thank Him for our jobs and our modern conveniences, because in some places of the world, there are people who have none of these."

THANK GOD.

Trip to See Proboscis Monkey

In the past, we used to go to Sukau at Kinabatangan River to see the proboscis monkey. This time (15 Jan 2006), we had a change. We tried this new place at Klias River near Beaufort to see this monkey and the fire flies.

We did see some of the monkey but not as near and as many compared to the trips we had to Sukau. Probably it's because of the noisy boat engine used by the operator of this Lodge. They all went into hiding each time the boat tried to get near.

Fire flies were nice. They hid among the trees along the river bank and when they blinked, the effect is like the blinking mini light bulbs of the Christmas tree.

Accommodation wise, the standard was in no way comparable to that in Sukau. Mattresses were just laid out on the elevated bamboo floor. The operator's intention probably is to let the visitors have a feel of staying in a long house like the one at the photo's background. Still, the price they charge does not match the kind of service offered. It is very unlikely that we would recommend anyone to go back to this particular one!

With regards to the lovely girl next to my wife, she came all the way from Singapore to see Sam. In return, we offered her a chance to see our rare monkey which was one of the the visit's highlights! Hope she has enjoyed the visit..