PC has returned home

5th July 2006 (Sat - around 7pm)

I got an sms that said PC has left us. I know that she is now in a better place, safe in the arms of the Lord Jesus.

PC’s condition

Annie & I have been visiting and praying for Peng Che in the last 2 weeks. She was in SGH until 2 days ago.

Sadly, each time we see her, her condition is worse. It was the most heart-wrenching last night. PC is back home resting because the hospital can do no more for her. She’s breathing off oxygen supplied through the mask. Apparently, she would use up a metre-tall cylinder every 2 hours! It’s hurting the family financially too - each cylinder costs $50 (or $80 if it’s delivered after midnight!). Her family is so strong and united for her. I can tell that they are drained, but the hope of seeing her pull through is keeping them going. PC’s sister, MC, is a young lady full of faith in our Lord. Last night, we led her to rededicate her life to Jesus too.

It was painful to see that PC’s feet were turning black; due to poor blood circulation - a sign of a weak heart. The left side of her body is immobile due to a stroke. She pants really hard to inhale. She is hardly conscious, except for her half-opened eyes gazing blankly into space. But, we all sense she is still “in there”. She would respond ever so slightly to certain words or movements in the room.

Annie and I will continue to pray and ask God for a miracle, purely because we know that our God is able to turn any situation around. As long as PC is fighting for her life, we shall fight along with her in prayers too.

As long as there’s life, there’s Hope.

LSBC Church Camp 2008

10th - 14th June 2008

Having just “descended” from Cameron Highlands, we found KL scotching HOT! We had a minor “shock” when we realised that there was a boo-boo in the room arrangements. Annie thought that I had made the payment, but I had assumed that she had done so. Hence, our names were not on the list for the Leaders Retreat which commenced a day earlier. The rest of the congregation arrived on the 11th Jun. Thankfully, it was quickly sorted out. Jon and family bunked in with us on the first night.

I must admit that I was not mentally prepared for Church Camp when I arrived at Berjaya Times Square. My mind was still on “holiday mode”. However, I thank God for His patience with me.

The Lord touched Annie and I in different ways I guess. I know she was touched, but I shan’t speak for her since this is very personal. Let me just share about my own experiences.

In the first evening, SP shared about “concerns”. He spoke about how we should reprioritise our concerns and realign them with God’s concerns. He shared how he went through a time of “giving up” everything to God in a symbolic way some 15 years ago. He surrendered his wife Cindy, his 3 children, the struggling church then, and his law firm. In retrospect, he recalls how our faithful God has blessed all those concerns in abundance. His family’s faith is stronger, the Church has grown and his law firm has survived through many crisis.

To be continued…

 

The day I “flew” a plane…

30th Jun 2008

Annie’s birthday treat for me… Thanks dear! Thoroughly enjoyed the session!

   My 2 very special crew for the day Preparing for takeoff from Macau Airport Safe arrival at HK’s old Kai Tak

Check out The Flight Experience website here

Cameron Highlands

Sunday 8th - 10th Jun 2008

I couldn’t believe we were actually up and driving off at 5am, even though that’s what we agreed with the Lows. I expected to have a tough time getting the kids ready. But I was happy to be wrong. Annie had a great idea too; we dressed the kids up the night before! One of the many clever parenting tricks for any readers out there.

With my new Garmin Nuvo 200 GPS, we were soon whizzing up the N-S Highway. The kids fell back to sweet slumber after a while, which made us head on north without stopping. By around 10am, we were in KL. Even then, it was a short loo break, breakfast and petrol refuel before we pressed on towards Cameron Highlands.

On the advice of some friends, we took the “easier” Simpang Pulai route. It was easily another 3 hours from KL, much further than I had expected. One thing I love about driving up the high altitudes is the way the temperature gradually cools down. Soon, the a/c was turned off and we had fresh cool air breezing in our hair (Joel didn’t like it at first!). We took another break at the first strawberry/vege farm we came across.

  

  

 

We then checked in to our hotel, the lovely Century Pines Resort in Taneh Ratah. We picked the ground floor rooms which had access to a private garden. Once we settled into the room, it was time to have a good meal. On the advice of our of the hotel staff, we headed to the Tanah Ratah town centre. There, we dug into a variety of local fare. In fact, everything the coffee shop had to offer, we ordered! Haha.. First time I tasted strawberry tandoori chicken. This was followed by a stop at a streetside fruit stall.

On Day 2, the Low and Lee families met for breakfast at the veranda-styled cafe. Daryl then suggested we go on a nature trek. I am so impressed by the kids positive attitude. They really roughed in out as some of the slopes were very steep and slippery. I thought they’d start throwing their tantrums once their sandals got muddy, but instead, they were so determined to press on. It was a good thing that we engaged a guide who knew the way around. At the top of trail #4 is a wooden lookout post that rose above the treetops, which offered a fantastic view of Tanah Ratah and a nice cool breeze. The condition of the structure offered some excitement of its own too.

 

In the afternoon, we drove around to discover the rest of Cameron; the many farms - bees, honey, butterflies, etc… The best part was of course - dinner! The rainy cold evening was perfect for steamboat. Check out the pictures…

 

Day 3 - Time to check out, and head down to KL. But before we leave Cameron, we still had one thing to tick off the list of must-dos - the Tea Plantations.

     

Spin City!

All our kids love this. Joel’s too big for this now. Here is Baby Joseph having a go…

Where do I start?

23rd Jun 2008

Woah… busy busy. I’ve been away from Singapore for the last 2 weeks. Starting with a family holiday at the Cameron Highlands, then to Church Camp in KL, and off to a business trip in Shanghai and HK. I’m finally back in Singapore yesterday, feeling like I’ve not been with the family forever. I miss Baby Joseph the most. That’s because we didn’t bring him on the Malaysian roadtrip, which would mean, I have not seen him for the past 2 weeks, except for the few hours last Sunday before I flew off to Shanghai.

I’m feeling really really joyful right now. The church camp was really good. God touched me, and Annie, in a very special and personal way. On the area of work, I was quite upset over some petty matters in the earlier part of the week, but I’m so glad that I’ve resolved the feelings within me, and I am at peace with myself again. Being away didn’t help. Tough sometimes to be with only me, myself and I in an empty hotel room - with only the laptop as the main link to what’s going on back at home, and to developments in the office. Anyhow, I believe that God has everything under control, and He saw me through it all.

The new Shanghai set-up is now officially up and running. I have 2 new colleagues stationed in our new office in Datong Commercial Bldg at Fuxing Chong Road.

 

Business in HK is looking very promising! I am so excited by our various meetings and discussions. NH was in town to support SB and I. We had a fabulous student networking/graduation dinner at the Shangri-la Kowloon. The following night, we co-hosted a very successful HK HR Awards. 

SS will be gone by the time I step into the office tomorrow morning. His last day was 20th Jun (Friday). Sent him an email to express my sincere appreciation and thoughts about our 4.5 years of friendship and working relationship. I will miss that great fella!

I was really happy to step into Changi Airport on Sat morning. As always, the kids would run into my arms. Joel’s getting big enough to knock me over! I tend to feel a little embarrassed by the scene this creates, but with the immense joy I get out of this, I’m learning to get used to it. Hahaha…

This was the last week of the June school holidays. How time flew by! I only wished I had more off-days with the kids. We spent the weekend getting them ready for school again. Joel have been down with a bad tummy recently. He retired for the day really early (fell asleep by 6pm) and had a solid 12 hour rest on Monday. Mum stayed over to help out. After everyone turned in for the day, we chatted late into the night. She told me some really interesting childhood stories of hers, which I will write about very soon. Here is a woman whom I’ve spent the last 38 years of my life with, and yet, there were so many things I never knew about! Our nice heart-to-heart chat went on till almost 2am! We joined hands and prayed together, sealing our love with the love of Christ. It was so meaningful and touching. That night, I went to sleep with a smile on my face and a tear in my eye. It was by far the best sleep I’ve had for weeks - nothing beats home, I guess!

Stay tuned for write-ups and pictures on Cameron Highlands and Church Camp…

 

Saturday: MIS Exam, Graduation, Baby Janell, etc…

This was a very busy Saturday (31st May)…

Last Sat, as my MBA programme labours on, I sat for my exams on Management of Information Systems (MIS). Did my studying on the plane ride, late nights and in between kids grapping daddy’s attention, I was surprised I could write up a storm… 15 pages in 60 minutes! 

This is my 5th subject… and that means I’m almost halfway through now!

I had a couple of hours in between the exams and the next programme on my agenda. So I spent it at the gym in SRC. The proper changing rooms there also allowed me to change up into my formal business attire. We were holding U21G’s 2nd Graduation Ceremony at the Pan Pacific Hotel in Singapore. It was a nice and simple affair, and very well attended by the granduands and their families. Alan was there to shoot scenes of the ceremony for our upcoming corporate video clips. We had hoped to get this done and still make it for touch rugby at 4:30pm. Turned out it did end quite early, but the skies opened and rained cats & dogs. So, I happily headed home instead and spent time with the family instead.

We had a early dinner at Boon Tong Kee (Chicken Rice) Restaurant (Balestier Road) - the place has gone very upmarket, but sadly, the standard has gone down. 

We dropped in to Thomson Medical Centre and visited Meng Chee & Jon. Baby Janell had arrived the day before (30th May 0 - 2.99kg. We’re so happy for them… Kimberly is now promoted to chey-chey! Congrats Jon! 

After that, we drove over to May’s place. She had helped us to pick Joel up from the Barnabas Encounter camp for the youths at church. On the way there, I swung by Serangoon Gardens and tah-pow a variety of cheng-tng, ice jelly, ice kachang, chengdol and tau-suan to bring over to their place - something to satisfy the sweet tooth before wrapping up a very long and tiring Saturday!

A short break

I have been to Beijing many times, but never made it to the Great Wall. It finally happened. On my last trip to Beijing, we got in a day earlier (Sunday) so that we could enjoy some of the touristy offerings of this amazing city.

Of course, we’re very grateful to our parents for letting Annie and I go away for a few days. We had wanted to bring the kids along. But after some serious considerations, we made the difficult decision not to. Beijing isn’t exactly a kiddy wonderland. It’s not as ‘kid-friendly’ as, say, Hong Kong or Perth. The historic sites such as Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, the Great Wall or the Temple of Heaven, would be educational and informative (probably more so for Joel), but potentially boring for them too. Given the scale of these sites, there would be lots of walking and long drives - which would be a challenge for the little people (it’s a challenge even for the bigger people…).

The other reason was that Joel had signed up for his first-ever overnight camp with the Boys Brigade. He had been looking forward to this camp for a long time, and didn’t want to miss it. Mum helped us by sending him to the camp (in school) and picking him up at the end of it.  

On hindsight, I think we made the right decision. It was also a well-deserved break (away from the kids) espacially for Annie. We tried to make it up by buying them some toys and clothes from Silk Street, Hong Qiao and Tian Yi markets. Anyway, I think Joel and Gracie didn’t miss us that much - they had a great time staying over at Mum’s, who would bring them over to play with Gabriel and Claudia in the day. Only Josh sounded a wee bit sad on the phone when we called back to say ‘hi’. 

 

 

 

Mitsubishi i Car Wedding

This was fun! Once in a while, I guess it’s good to do some crazy things… A whole bunch of other crazy folks from the iClubSG Forums came together to support Jordan and Michelle on their very special day. Everyone was so sporting and gathered punctually at 6am at Jor’s place. They’ve got a big house. We actually parked 10 i-cars inside… no kidding. Ok…ok… the cars are really tiny, but still…

Then we convoyed from Jor’s place to Mich’s place at Lor Ah Soo, and back. We then headed for breakfast at the Hong Kong Cafe at Kovan, before going back to ferry Mich to IHM church. Really fun-loving bunch of nice people. Check out some pics…