31 March 2007

Recovering ......

I'm still recovering ... so much better compare to my condition during mid-week. I was having viral infection and now only cold and cough. Thank God for Twin, Som for cooking the porridge and the home-made lemon+honey drink! Thank God for other housemates who showed their concerns. Thank God for all brothers n sisters in Hatfield CG, who really were well-stocked with all sorts of medicine! I jst started taking their flu pills and cough syrup last night, I felt so much better for my cough already.

5 more days to Easter Camp ... 10 more days to fly! I'm getting so excited now!

When I was sick, these are the movies I watched:

I like Con Air so much, every time I watched until the scene when Nicholas Cage finally met his daughter Casey, I'll shed tears. Very original plot! Wish there are more movies like Con Air.

Finally able to watch The Pursuit of Happyness. Honestly, it was really an touching and inspiring movie, talking about Chris Gardner (click here for more biography of this guy) and his son.
When I decided to watch The Queen, I was merely being sceptical and just wanna see how good the performance of Dame Helen Mirren is. I was instantly hooked to the plot, about the Queen's reaction/responses towards Princess Diana's death. Highly recommended to watch!
Lastly, I watched the Adam Sandler's Click! The movie was really great! It was more than a comedy. Teach us about life ... treasure every single moment!

27 March 2007

Sick .....

I started to feel uncomfortable during Sunday service ..... so yesterday I stayed at home trying to recover. I tot I was fine this morning so went to college .. mana tau it get worse!

Nevertheless, went to sauna in sport centre to get some sweat out. And after that went to Oxford St to get a shirt and a pair of jeans, while looking for MU jersey for Ah Ching.

Me, terrible sore throat, headache, feel cold and body aching. Well .. weather change, n my body is heaty i guess .. so will drink plenty of water!

Pray for me i'll get well!

25 March 2007

worshipcentral seminar

Today me and a few church mates attended the worshipcentral seminar, hosted by Tim Hughes and Al Gordon of Holy Trinity Brompton (the church who pioneer the infamous Alpha Course). It was a bi-monthly event where worship leaders and musicians will gather on one Saturday to worship God. Tickets were sold out 1 month before the actual conference for this time event. The previous conferences, tickets will still be available during the day itself!

The other thing we notice, people here in UK is 'kiasu' as well ... coz registration starts at 10am and conference starts at 11am, by 9.50am, the queue is super long already! People excited about God! :D Thru out the day, I've been reminded of a few things, especially the sharing of Mike Pilavachi. One particularly lesson is: we worship (or lead worship) for the audience of ONE! No matter where i'm leading worship: in CG or convention, I only perform for the one and only audience - God! The other lesson I have learnt is: deal with myself NOW (characters, sins), before it's too late!

God is great! :D

Side note: BST change NOW! So the time difference with Malaysia is 7 hours!

23 March 2007

Movies I watched this week ......

After my transfer presentation, I watched The Curse of Golden Flower (I din know Jay Chou starred in it) and 300! Both are beautifully shot movies with amazing mass fighting scenes! You know the 'rain of arrows' scene in Hero (starring Jet Li, Maggie Cheung) .... it has been used in both of these movies ... *sigh* .. something like the Matrix's slow motion scene - can be seen in most action movie! So overuse!

I was particularly impressed by 300, because it reminds me of Gideon's 300 men who rescued their country. Although in this movie, the 300 spartans led by their king died, it unite the country together. Where as in The Curse of Golden Flower - the villain (Chow Yun Fatt) still alive at the end of the movie - it caused the kingdom to fall. Similiar story lines, one set in Greece and one set in China!

Hahaha - anyway i'm so looking forward to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (starting tomorrow), Spiderman 3, Shrek 3!

I've passed my transfer :D

Dear all, thank you for your prayer and encouragement! I've passed my transfer - from MPhil to PhD. Although it's just a milestone, I really thank God that He has guided me step by step up until now - constantly gives me strength and wisdom!

I'm looking forward for the following 1 1/2 years to the completion of my PhD! It will not happen if God is not with me!

All thanksgiving, glory and honour to my God! :D

22 March 2007

Day Trip to Bruge, Belgium

Thank God for student hall ... thank God for friend who works as sub-warden in student hall as well! Got the 'lobang' to go oversea (cross the channel to mainland Europe) for a mere £13, to Bruge, Belgium! It was a beautiful town, more beautiful than Cambrige! :D

Woke up at 4.30am, then walked to Picadilly Court (10 minutes walk) with Adeline and Sarah in the cold Saturday morning! There were about 60+ people and the most enjoyable trip would be trip with friends. So thank God for Jacey, Sly, Anita, Adeline, Sarah, Zia and others - who accompany me. We were 'treated' to the Simpson all the way of our journey until I got quite sick and tired of Homer! So I took my nap. I brought along transfer report, intended to prepare (transfer presentation on following Tues) ... but it never happen! :D All my life as student, always tot of bringing books/text/papers to revise while going on trips, and always failed miserably! Moral learnt: study hard, play hard! :D

Bruge, a town that is filled with medieval buildings ... by the way .. Bruge is added to the UNESCO's Heritage List on 2000, so it's a 'protected' town! For more introduction and history of the town, click here and here. Upon arrival, Zia brought us for a stroll ... but most of us were hungry. After 30 minutes, few of us left and sniffed our way to the town centre for F-O-O-D! And guess what we found - chips with mayo and hotdogs! Hahaha ... it was really nice! After our lunch, we went for a boat trip on the canal! Took lots of photo! After the boat trip, we went to buy the famous Belgium chocolate .... i did not buy though, although i really love chocolate!
After that, went for a quite expensive dinner - 20 euro for a main course of mussels. Come to think of it, a bit 'sim tia' now :D And that's about what we did in the short span of 4 hours.

On our way back, they stopover at Carrefour, so called hypermarket. For me who inhabited in JB for 4 years, hypermarket is nothing new to me already (Giant, Carrefour, Macro). But one things that amazed me, is the varieties of alcohol and spirit! Need few aisles to display all! So it's great for those who like to drink. I only bought so french bun and 3 packs of Fisherman (can't find in UK).

While on the ferry, strong wind blew and the huge ferry was really shaky! Result: many of them threw out! The vessel was really up and down, just reminded me that when I was young, I always had to travel in speed boat along Rajang river from Kapit to Sibu - same feeling, boat move up and down violently! So poor thing when I saw them one by one going to toilet to throw out! The effect did hit me, cause when I arrived home and slept, i could feel the bed swaying left and right! :P

Just a lil testimony to share on behalf of Anita: While on the ferry, she was out on the open deck alone. Some how, she just felt that she needed to get into the boat, and she did. Few seconds after she came in, the super wave struck the vessel! Thank God she got in, if not, we believed she'll be washed overboard!

Enough of the story - enjoy the photos! :D

From left: Adeline, Jacey, Anita, Sly and Sarah

While on the way, Jacey already sea-sick. Me in the town centre! This building reminds me of Prague ... going there again in Aug!
Carl, Stella and me - and that's Anita's fingers!
The 20 euro a pot mussel in white wine!

15 March 2007

Arsenal 1 - 0 Man Utd (FA Youth Cup)

Great night! Brought 17 people to watch Gunners jr defeating the Red Devils jr. It was £3 well-spent! Yes, one adult ticket price is only £3!! Even though there's only ONE goal (which was score at the other end of the pitch, so i can't really see clearly), but the atmosphere was great! The stadium was about 65% full (38,187 in attendance) ..... even just for a FA youth cup semi-final! You can read the full match report by clicking here.

I bought myself an Arsenal scarf, which was really pretty, not to mention very warm as well. It was fully utilized thru out the night when everyone wanted to take photo with it :D

Kim promoting the Arsenal program booklet Miao Sin, me and Kian Ping - my IC colleagues
London Student CG - bonding thru football
Soo and me - Emirates logo (really pretty ... the logo!)
Jacey (the Blues supporter - why is she doing in Emirates stadium?) took photo in front of Emirates Stadium :D

09 March 2007

Farewell Gemmy ... for 6 mths

This petite girl will be leaving for Sydney later for 6 months, as exchange student in University Technology Sydney. It was really a blessing to me, knowing her. It was during last year FIFA World Cup, the Korea vs France match that we first met. After that match, I did not see her until September, when she came to join one of mooncake festival dinner! Since then, she has been a regular in our CG n Sunday!

In so many years of leading CG, I hardly come across someone like her, very curious about church and God! Although many times I forgot to pass the bilingual bible to her, she'll remind me! One time, we asked her to come church because there was many delicious food, she replied that she din come to church for food but to fellowship with us and to meet God!

I sincerely pray that for her short stay in Australia, she'll be able to grow even more in Christ! Until she comes back in September, we're going to have another co-worker in outreaching to the new students!

We'll miss you ... Gemmy! Keep in touch ... MSN!!

Gemmy with the CG

Gemmy with the 'hunky guys' Gemmy with the ladies

06 March 2007

Two weeks has gone .....

Since the last post, it has been 2 weeks I did not update anything. Am I busy? It's as usual ... with church and PhD. Nothing to write? Chinese New Year, Chap Goh Mei ... some gatherings with friends ...

Time really flies, in about a month time i'll be flying back home. It's even more frightening when you just realised 3 months had gone. It scared me to death now thinking I'm in my 18th month of my PhD (scare because I don't think I have achieved alot).

There are a few PhD students now in CGs, and everyone of us are just hoping that it will be over soon! I feel the same, not saying that our God can't help us, but the feeling of helplessness, directionless always linger around our research. If you are reading this now, please pray for us! My transfer presentation is coming soon (not sure when), and I'm preparing it now. Desktop in college decided to 'strike' and showed me 'blue screen' since Saturday. Thank God I still have laptop to work on.

Attended IC's Malaysia Night last Sat. It was a spectacular performance by the Malaysians in IC, although it's really too long (3 hours). The dances, the actings, the scripts, the effects .... there are so many talents! I heard they'd spent so much time and efforts in making this the best M-Night in UK (coz most university's Malaysian Societies will organize M-Night). A comment from one friend was particularly interesting: if all these talents (science, art, business, etc.) all go back to serve in Malaysia ... Malaysia will be so much different. Get the cue? Well ... you can view the video clips on YouTube i heard. And these are the photos we took with 'Rosie' .. opps.. Anita! :P

Next Wednesday, will go to Emirates Stadium to watch FA Youth Cup, Arsenal vs Man Utd! :D So looking forward to it! Finger-cross Arsenal will beat PSV this Wed by 2 goals to advance to the next level of CL! I've become Red Members of Arsenal, so have better chance in getting EPL, FA Cup and Carling Cup tickets next season! Football .... why people is crazy about a sport when 22 people chasing after a ball :D