Juan's World

An inside look into the world of an average girl who lives a not-so-average life after having met face-to face with the great "I am". Living a life of purpose. Leaving a mark. Balancing her life with the things He has called her to do with the responsibilities in life. With just one wish in her heart. That one day, when she meets face to face with her Maker. To have Him say, "Well done good and faithful servant. You have ran the race well!"

Monday, May 21, 2007

*Ouch!*

If you confess that Jesus is Lord and believe that God raised him from death, you will be saved (Romans 10:9). The scripture also reads, “Everyone who calls out to the Lord for help will be saved” (Romans 10:13).

Definition of Lord - One who has authority, control, or power over others; a master, chief, or ruler. Thus, by calling Jesus our Lord… it means that He is to have total and complete responsibility over our well-being.

Lucifer, the fallen angel… has seen God in His Glory and recognizes Him as God. However, Lucifer did not want to submit to His Lordship, having selfish ambitions to BE GOD.

Question:
If you have only acknowledged "Jesus as God", but not "Jesus as Lord"; what’s the difference between you and Satan?
*Ouch!*
.
.
.

Sometimes we equate our well-being as comfort. It’s about our ambition, our finances, what house we want to live in, what car we want to drive, how healthy our bodies are, how WE want to be comfortable in this life… It’s all about our comfort level even in how WE want to serve and worship Him *weeps*.

Of course, God WILL bless, because that’s in His nature. But never in the Bible, it mentions that God MUST bless. That’s entirely up to Him - His wisdom, His sovereignty, His grace, HIS DECISION.

We’re delusioned to think that because God loves us, being responsible for our well-being, he will take care of our comfort level. Well, get this - God loved Joseph. Joseph was betrayed by his brothers, selling him into slavery and thrown into prison. Who else does God love dearly? Jesus. Whatever happened to Him? He was ridiculed, condemned, slapped, whipped, crucified.
*Double Ooooouuucccchhhh!*
.
.
.

In John 19:30, when Jesus said “It is finished!” try reading it as him saying, “IT IS FINISHEDDDD!!!!!” - His life purpose fulfilled. As mentioned, by calling Jesus as our Lord… it’s about entrusting our total well-being to Him.

Our well being is not our comfort.
Our well-being = our life’s FULFILLMENT.
Do you dare call Jesus, My Lord???

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

The Darwin Awards

It's results time again! Am torn between laughing, shaking my head in disbelief, or just saddened by how the human race can just throw our lives away so easily. You can check out more about Darwin awards here.

And the nominees are:
Semi-finalist #1
A young Canadian man, searching for a way of getting drunk cheaply because he had no money with which to buy alcohol, mixed gasoline with milk. Not surprisingly, this concoction made him ill, and he vomited into the fireplace in his house. This resulting explosion and fire burned his house down killing both him and his sister.

Semi-finalist #2
Three Brazilian men were flying in a light aircraft at low altitude when another plane approached. It appears that they decided to moon the occupants of the other plane, but lost control of their own aircraft and crashed. They were all found dead in the wreckage with their pants around their ankles.

Semi-finalist #3
A 22-year-old Reston, VA, man was found dead after he tried to use octopus straps to bungee jump off a 70-foot rail road trestle. Fairfax County police said Eric Barcia, a fast food worker, taped a bunch of these straps together, wrapped an end around one foot and anchored the other end to the trestle at Lake Accotink Park, jumped and hit the ground at around 120 MPH. Warren Carmichael, a police spokesman, said investigators think Barcia was
alone because his car was found nearby. "The length of the cord that he had assembled was greater than the distance between the trestle and the ground," Carmichael said. Police say the apparent cause of death was "Major trauma." (With a touch of idiocy throw in)

Semi-finalist #4
A man in Alabama died from rattlesnake bites. It seems that he and a friend were playing a game of catch, using the rattlesnake as a ball. The friend, no doubt a future Darwin Awards candidate - was hospitalized.

Semi-finalist #5
Employees in a medium-sized warehouse in west Texas noticed the smell of a gas leak. Sensibly, management evacuated the building extinguishing all potential sources of ignition; lights, power, etc. After the building had been evacuated, two technicians from the gas company were dispatched. Upon entering the building, they found they had difficulty navigating in the dark. To their frustration, none of the lights worked. Witnesses later described the sight of one of the technicians reaching into his pocket and retrieving an object that resembled a cigarette lighter. Upon operation of the lighter-like object, the gas in the warehouse exploded, sending pieces of it up to three miles away. Nothing was found of the technicians, but the lighter was virtually untouched by the explosion. The technician suspected of causing the blast had never been thought of as ''bright'' by his peers.

The Winner
Now ladies and gentleman, the winner of this year's Darwin Award (awarded, as always, posthumously).

The Arizona Highway Patrol came upon a pile of smouldering metal embedded in the side of a cliff rising above the road at the apex of a curve. The wreckage resembled the site of an airplane crash, but it was in fact a car. The type of car was unidentifiable at the scene. Police investigators finally pieced together the mystery. An amateur rocket scientist had somehow gotten hold of a JATO unit (Jet Assisted Take Off).

That is actually a solid fuel rocket used to give heavy military transport planes an extra "push" for taking off from short airfields. He had driven his Chevy Impala out into the desert and found a long, straight stretch of road. He attached the JATO unit to the car, jumped in and got up some speed and fired off the JATO!

The facts as best as could be determined are that the driver of the 1967 Impala hit the JATO ignition at a distance of approximately 30 miles from the crash site. This was established by the scorched and melted asphalt at that location. The JATO, if operating properly, would have reached maximum thrust within 5 seconds, causing the Chevy to reach speeds well in excess of 350 mph and continuing at full power for an additional 20-25 seconds. The driver and soon to be pilot, would have experienced G-forces usually reserved for dog fighting F-14 jocks under full afterburners, causing him to become irrelevant for the remainder of the event. However, the automobile remained on the straight highway for about 2.5 miles (15-20 seconds) before the driver applied and completely melted the brakes, blowing the tires and leaving thick rubber marks on the road surface, He then becoming airborne for an additional 1.4 miles and impacting the cliff face at a height of 125 feet leaving a blackened crater 3 feet deep
in the rock.

Most of the driver's remains were not recoverable. However, small fragments of bone, teeth and hair were extracted from the crater, and fingernails and bone shards were removed from a piece of debris believed to be a portion of the steering wheel.

Epilogue: It has been calculated that this moron attained a ground speed of approximately 420-mph, though much of his voyage was not actually on the ground.

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

German classes...

Me: Guten tag! Ich bin Juan.
Friend: Guten tag! Mein Name ist Jamal. Wie geht es Ihnen?
Me: Es geht. Und ihnen?
Friend: Danke, gut!


Translated...

Me: Good Day! I am Juan.
Friend: Good Day! My name is Jamal. How are you?
Me: So-so. And you?
Friend: Good, thanks!

And so, I’ve started taking weekly German classes. Sigh… it’s so difficult! Some people breeze through learning a new language, but it’s clearly not my forte :P Get this, if this is the range of numbers from one to five…

1) eins
2) zwei
3) drei
4) vier
5) funf

To make the number 34, it’s vierunddreizig. Basically, we direct translate to four and thirty… so it’s kind of upside down. Ehheheheh… as tough as the language is, I have to admit that there are their fun moments.

Scenario:
We’ve decorated our cubicles with some Christmas stuff. On my desk, there’s soft toy in a form of a cow that we’ve name him, “Moo Moo”.

*German colleague walks past and starts playing with Moo Moo*
.
.
.
Chinese female colleague: Stop playing with my Moo Moo!!!
German male colleague: *stunned*
German female colleague: *laughs non-stop* You better explain what she said.
German male colleague: *laughs and looks a bit shy*
Chinese female colleague: It’s okay… I don't want to know.

Apparently, moo moo (apologies, cause I don’t really know how to spell it in German) is “female private part” in German.
*LOL*

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Hari Kanak-kanak Bistari

Gerald: Hey peeps. Seems like the haze is pretty badddddd…
Me: Uh huh… can have it at my condo’s hall. At least it’s indoors…
Chun Haw: Uh huh… contingency plan.
Sam: There’s only 2 things we can do. (1) Pray. (2) Pray some more.

*gurgle* spoken like a cell leader :P

But you know what? Sam was right! After a whole week of emails ding dong-ing around worrying about the haze, turned out on Saturday… we had GREAT weather!!! Slightly hazy… which was erm, kind of nice cause the day was cloudy and breezy :)

Our little friends really loved the name cards. There was actually a little boy who asked if he could keep his for memory sake *smiles*.

And the games began!!! Games one to five happened SIMULTANEOUSY! Game one… picking up sweets. Ahahhahahaha!!! Jonathan, one of our pre-schooler’s so cuteeeeee!!!! *pinch cheeks*

Game 2… Walking on bricks!!! Ain’t as easy as it looks. Look at Gerald having a go… uuuuffff! Uuuuuf!

Game 3… a game of coordination, balloon balancing! Cute little baby Abby…awww. Hai Bee and Joey having a ball!!! I mean… a balloon *nods*.

Game 4… the ping pong balancing act. Whoopsie…!!!!

Game 5… the ‘getting as much water into the bottle using this teensy-weensy sponge that Victor prepared’ game…. Hahahahhahaha…. So funny, the kids were trying soooo hard to get the water into the bottle but most of it ended OUTSIDE the bottle *giggle*.

Group game! The three-legged race!!! *trips* *falls* *laughs*

Hari ini ku rasa bahagia! Berkumpul bersama saudara semuaaaaaaa.... Our version of Bestari bridge is falling down (with tall bridges Yew Leong, Eddy, KayX and Mike).

Makan time!!! The kids were soooo happy. Bihun. Mee. Eggs. Sausages. Cake. Orange juice. Yummmmm… The kids liked the little gift prizes that were given out too *smiles*.

Cost for food : Approximately RM 300
.
.
.
Cost for gifts: Approximately RM 200
.
.
.
Cost of seeing Chun Haw looking like this?!?
.
.

PRICELESS.

Happy Birthday Chun Haw!!!!!!

Tuesday, August 01, 2006

HR kiosk go LIVE

Hr kiosk. The cause of my sleepless nights due to stress for the past week. The cause of working 14-16 hours a day daily. The cause of being deprived from mummy’s love cause no time to go home for dinner. Finally!!! The day has come for my baby to go live!!!! And so, on 1st August 2006, Thailand, Philippines, Korea, and Japan BASF employees will be using HR kiosk – Employee and Manager Self Service.

08:30am Issue Log (AHD) no issues.
.
.
.
10:30am Checked AHD system again… no issues.
.
.
.
12:30pm Checked AHD system for the third time… no issues, soooo happy. Went for lunch to celebrate successful go LIVE.
.
.
.
02:30pm Checked AHD system again…. STILL no issues. Eh… this smelling a tad bit fishy dee…
.
.
.
03:30pm Found out that Issue Log personnel was newly hired and didn’t know how to log issues and stuff was just PILING up in her mailbox

*gasp*

*scream*

*faints*

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

I Remember the Time…

Inspired by David’s blog.
  1. When he saved me from a sicko-man during SS2 Christmas Carnival *gallant knight in shining armour :P*.
  2. When he bought me lunch after knighting episode, as a belated birthday pressie.
  3. When we had so much fun being with God’s people and enjoying His creation on our group hiking and caving trips.
  4. When we would share our hearts on YM using cute little emoticons to express how we felt *blink blink*.
  5. When we had our first phone conversation and chatted from 11pm till 6am.
  6. When he openly shares his vision, past, shortcomings, and insecurities.
  7. When he pops over unexpectedly, he engages me in conversation before surprising me that he’s actually waiting downstairs.
  8. On our first date he said, “I’m giving my heart to you, handle it with care…”.
  9. When he stuck an apology note on a huge piece of paper to his car’s window below my apartment block, standing there waiting with a bouquet of roses in his hands *imagine my embarassment*.
  10. When he asked me to join him for a walk at the streets of Damansara Perdana and it lasted till 5am cause I was uncomfortable having him up in my home.
  11. When we worshiped, prayed, just chatted about everything and anything whilst on our walks.
  12. When I was holidaying with family in Genting and he popped up suddenly with a friend.
  13. When he prayed over my family during Chinese New Year visitation.
  14. When we exercised together in gym.
  15. When we hiked up Gasing and Kiara hill with friends.
  16. When he would accompany me after working late at night to exercise at Kiara, cause work was stressing me out so much.
  17. When he ‘unshamingly’ in front of snickering individuals passed me a filled-up-with-water new water bottle when he knew I’d be thirsty after psalming.
  18. When he presented me with a bottle of Ridsect when I had trouble sleeping caused by mozzies buzzing around.
  19. When he would pick up the guitar and we would worship together.
  20. When we went for a midnight swim and we sang Disney cartoon songs in harmony *thank God there were no complaints from neighbours*.
  21. When he would SMS prayers and greetings early in the morning...
  22. When he would SMS or call me to wish me good night.
  23. When he left a bouquet of sunflowers, my favourite MAGNUM, and a little gift at my doorstep when I wasn’t ready to spend Valentines with him.
  24. When I was stressed and having trouble with sleeping in China and he surprised me with phone calls.
  25. When we teleconferenced, he would speak into the mic whilst not receiving any vocal response, cause mine was broken.
  26. When he picked me up from the airport all dressed up in the cuffed shirt and cuffs that I gave him.
  27. When he hid a Braun wallet in the bottom of my car seat, after my Braun wallet was pick-pocketed in China.
  28. When I was wondering why his shower was taking so long, and I found out that he was washing the toilet for me.
  29. When he cleaned and tidied my house as I was going to have some people over for dinner.
  30. When he planned a romantic trip to Port Dickson for us.
  31. When he brought me to a place in Port Dickson and revealed he would like to have the wedding reception there with me.
  32. When we did Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren together.
  33. When he showed up at my home and surprised me with spaghetti for dinner.
  34. On a day when I felt fat and he said, “I cannot believe God would give me someone who’s beautiful on the outside and on the inside…” *blush*
  35. When he turned up at my office suddenly, presenting me with lunch when he knew I was too busy to eat anything.
  36. When he sings me sweet, love songs.
  37. When we trespassed into Avillion during church camp, and started worshipping lying on the white sands of the beach.
  38. When he loved and played with the children during our Orang Asli trip.
  39. When I was afraid something bad would happen when he heroically flung safety rope over a raging river when a hiking trip didn’t go as expected.
  40. When he would naturally break into a prayer whenever we were happy, angry or sad.
  41. When he would pray for the needs of those whom didn’t like him.
  42. When he will never let me go off when I was upset.
  43. When he drove all the way to my home at 12am+ fearing for my safety, cause he couldn’t get me on my mobile.
  44. When he is ‘man’ enough to say, “I’m sorry, I was wrong” in front of the presence of many.
  45. When he worshipped God with all his might, playing bass on stage, just trusting in Him when my ex returned to church.
  46. When he trusted and left me be during the times when I needed to care for my ex.
  47. When he said he would wait until I was ready to love again.
  48. … when he DID wait and helped me sort things through even though I pushed him away again and again.
  49. When he proved to me that shopping with another person (him) is a lot of fun. I like to shop alone.
  50. When he picked my first tube dress for me to wear.
  51. When he planned, flew himself over, whilst lugging a whole lot of snorkeling gear for us to Pulau Sibu.
  52. When he slipped his ring on my finger and made me promise to bring it home to him when I had to be away.
  53. When he took care of my car whenever I was away at work, returning it fully fueled and manually washed.
  54. Ensuring my home was tidy and clean whenever I returned from my trips.
  55. When he spends time with my friends, colleagues and family.
  56. When he had a tear in his left eye when I said “Yes”.
  57. When he planned for chocolate fondue and said, “I intend to continue to pursue you even though you’re now my girlfriend”.
  58. When we took his dogs out for a run.
  59. When we bathed his dogs together.
  60. When we did menial chores together, like washing the car, just being with God and with each other.
  61. When he happily join in my current and ex LF activities, getting to know the other members.
  62. When he offered to help move house for his ex, putting aside any personal discomfort cause he knew it was important for me.
  63. When he would lovingly stroke and comb my tangled-up hair.
  64. When he bought me a new comb when he noticed mine was getting old.
  65. Ahahhaha… the same goes for tooth paste, biscuits at work and other everyday grocery items. He takes note of everyday products that I need.
  66. When he takes note and imitates my little grunts or expressions.
  67. When I would return to my home, and find that he had popped by after work and tidied my mess left in the morning.
  68. When he set up my fish tank and picked out the little mollies with me.
  69. When he insisted me joining his family up to Genting to test-drive his car.
  70. When he would support me physically and in prayer regards to my ministry with children, the same that I would support him with his band.

Sigh… I could go on and on… 70 points does not do justice to the blessings I have received. Last night, I was hit with 2 surprises. Surprise No 1… I went to get my car after work and found it in this condition:

After a temporary fix to the car, I went home to surprise number 2:

Stuck on my shoe cabinet was a note saying, “There’s something in the freezer”. And in the freezer was a MAGNUM *smiles widely*. He popped over after a busy day at work, just so that I could get a nice little MAGNUM surprise when I got back from work. Sighhh… yupz, yesterday night marks our one-month anniversary. Another “I remember the time…” point to add to the list :D

Tuesday, July 04, 2006

The Stock Market illustrated ...

Just a little forwarded mail from my ex-boss... is there a lesson to be learnt here?
.
.
.

Once upon a time in a village, a man appeared and announced to the villagers that he would buy monkeys for RM10. The villagers seeing that there were many monkeys around, went out to the forest and started catching them.

The man bought thousands at RM10 and as supply started to diminish, the villagers stopped their effort. He further announced that he would now buy at RM20. This renewed the efforts of the villagers and they started catching monkeys again. Soon the supply diminished even further and people started going back to their farms.

The offer rate increased to RM25 and the supply of monkeys became so little that it was an effort to even see a monkey let alone catch it.

The man now announced that he would buy monkeys at RM50! However, since he had to go to the city on some business, his assistant would now buy on behalf of him.

In the absence of the man, the assistant told the villagers. "Look at all these monkeys in the big cage that the man has collected. I will sell them to you at RM35 and when the man returns from the city , you can sell it to him for RM50."

The villagers squeezed up with all their savings to buy the monkeys.

Then they never saw the man nor his assistant, only monkeys everywhere!!!!

*************************************************************************************************************

Hahahaha!!! Was just thinking about my moo-lah stuck with some JSPC shares. Much talk about it going up, but it never does >:( Sigh... just gonna give it another half a year, cut my losses and pay off some of my housing loan with whatever $$$ that's able to be recovered :P

Thursday, June 08, 2006

My three weeks training at Titan, Johore

The training assignment at Titan has been more like a paid vacation rather than a work assignment. Work starts at 8:30am and I get to go back to the luxurious, laden with duty-free chocolates Eden hotel by 5pm. Ahhh...

First weekend back at Klang Valley, a few of us decided to go for a hike up to Sungai Chilling, Kuala Kubu Baru *thanks to Mr Organizer Mr David Oh*. Tis a picture taken of Heidi and myself chilling out at the waterfall. So peaceful *giggle*… little did we know the “adventure” ahead of us. Out first time, hopefully the last… for the fire brigade to come save us from anything :P

We spent a night at Frasers - that’s David taking photographs of KayX’s leg scratches. And look… look at what Chun Haw is doing *LOL*.

That’s me pinching off everybody’s plate *slurp*. My goodness, The Tavern serves the most superb-tasting homemade strawberry jam…yum! From left: David, Chun Haw, KayX, *me*, Becky and Kevin.

Cute picture of Gerald, *me*, and KayX enjoying the breath-taking view of the lake.

At Johore, we treated ourselves to good meals every end of the week. First week, we went to Halo café for some Western food. Second week, we saw a Modesto’s banner saying, “50% off all pasta and FREE cocktails for ladies night!” Wow! I thought it was a really good deal UNTIL Poh Kiew started to get sleepy after a couple-a-drinks. Ekkekeke… luckily the next morning, she managed to wake up on time to get to work *whew!*. From left: *me*; salmon fettuccini and beef carbonara with long island cocktails; Poh Kiew ermmm… ‘down’.

Third week, we decided… definitely no drinking. FULL STOP. Went for seafood instead. Yumyum… Baby lobsters and crabs!!!

My last assignment with JSPC – From left: users at Titan with Poh Kiew and myself; *me* in a stolen uniform; a picture of the Titan petrochemical plant.

The weekend at Sibu Island. The seawater was soooooo green. The marine fishes were soooooo pretty. How I wish I knew how to properly use the flippers for snorkelling. Ankles were very sore cause I didn’t quite manage to get it right :P From left: *me* and some local doggies; on the hammock; Sibu Island from afar.

Yupz… it was a great working holiday indeed *grin widely from ear to ear*.

Friday, May 26, 2006

H-O-L-I-D-A-Y!!!

A couple weeks back while I was in the midst of my interviewing process, I didn’t know I was going to be posted to Titan, Johore for my last assignment. A small plan cooked up in my head for my in-between-job vacation.

  • 1st stop: Drive down Malacca to visit Heidi and Lavender spend 2 nights there
  • 2nd stop: Park my car in Seremban, at an auntie’s house.
  • 3rd stop: Take the train down to Singapore. Spend 2 nights with Yoke Keng and Chew Har. Spend a night with relatives there.
  • 4th stop: Spend a night in Seremban before returning to KL.

Now since JSPC is paying for my return from Johore after my assignment, there’s a little change in plan:

  1. Two weekends ago, had a rushed weekend hiking at Sungai Chiling, Kuala Kubu Baru; then spent a night at Frasers.
  2. Last weekend, I stayed back in Johore and went snorkeling at Pulau Sibu. Took a cab to Tanjung Leman before taking a speedboat over to the island :D Amazingly green, clear waters…
  3. This weekend, I will:
  • Take a bus from Johore to Singapore on Friday. That’s THIS evening after work, TODAY!!!
  • Spend two nights at Yoke Keng’s. She’s got the weekend all nailed; midnight shopping tonight (It’s Singapore’s mid year sales nowwwww!); birthday party and a all-girl’s night out tomorrow; zoo on Sunday…
  • Go visit my relatives at Compassvale Walk on Monday and spend a night there. Should be nice to able to see Eddie’s (my cousin) new baby girl.
  • Return to Wilby Residences, Bukit Timah for the last night in Singapore.
  • Take a bus to Johore’s Senai Airport and return to KL.

I promise lots of pictures when I return :) Now… leave me be in my deliriously happy state…

Holidayyyyyyy!!!
.
.
Wheeeeee!!!
.
.
Lalalalala….

Friday, May 19, 2006

Goodbye, JSPC

From Juan to Regional Manager
Dear Kum Seng,

As we're both currently stationed on-project outside Klang Valley, I apologize that I could not meet you in person for this matter. I would like to resign from JSPC and after being with the company for more than 5 years; this was not an easy decision which took a lot of consideration.

Attached is the formal resignation letter…




From Regional Manager
Hi Juan,

So my last "daughter" is finally "married out"!

I am sad that you are leaving us but am happy that you are going to do something that you believe it will be more fulfilling and rewarding. I enjoy your working company and am sure I will miss you.

It is not an easy email to reply as I really don't know what to say…




From direct-reporting Manager
Hi Juan and Kum Seng,

Sob sob, Noriza is too distraught to say anything. Should be mixed feelings, I guess. General rule of thumb is that one will join new company if there is a better career prospect, be it in RM and etc. I have no doubt that the same rule applies to my last little sister here :-). I wish her all the best…



And so, the deed is done. Hahahhahahha…. So funny that Papa Seng sees the correlation of me being ‘his daughter marrying out’ with me ‘leaving’ *giggle*. I am indeed very blessed by all my managers and colleagues who really are like family. Sighhh… to find bosses like Papa Seng and Abang Noriza is like searching for a needle in a haystack, and yet I found TWO of such needles!!! *starry eyed…*

Thought it would be nice to pay a small tribute to some very prized people that I’ve met along the way… the Alam Flora bunch doing the ‘Wendy’ pose… muahahahhahah. From left: Tim, Jong Jim, Jefery, *me*, Rachel, Jason, Wendy, Ramon, Mei Yee.

Ahhh… trips with Abang Noriza are always fun. This is us at FRIM. Mmmhhhh… was supposed to go for ATV mudtrekking, but had a little mishap during a little hiking trip with some other friends. We had the fire brigade come rescue us, which reminds me is another story altogether :P From left: Hui Jih, Normala, Carrie, Noriza, *me*, Celena, Jong Sim.

Some RHB staff during our training last year. Sigh… I received news about Kak Fiza (lady second from the left) that she had passed away after delivering her first child, while I was in China - I miss her bubbly character terribly.

Kak Mini with her tokens taken while she went for her trips to Korea. Imagine… these 40-something makciks goes gaga over these Korean and Japanese men. Once, Kak Fizah stuck a human size poster to ‘motivate’ her staff at work *LOL*.

Karaoke sessions… This was taken during our company’s annual trip to Avillion :)

Victor jai… my ‘partner in crime’… downloading mangas and animes. Oh oh oh… where am I going to get my Naruto and Bleach fix in future?!?! Ahhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!

Jefery’s wedding. Ahhh… the youngest now-already-married friend. With Sand Dee getting married in July, Siew Fun in August, Ju Lian in September, Noriza and Hui Min in December, apart from Shing Onn and myself, everyone in the previous RHB team is tying the knot! Gosh… though I’m happy for all of them, there’s going to be this really big hole in my wallet giving out red packets by the end of the year :P From left: Shiao Peng, Ramon, Siew Bun, Jason, Mei Yee, Lillian, Ethan, *me*, Eugene, Jong Sim, Celena, Michelle.

Barbeque sessions…

Surprise birthday celebration sessions…

Indeed, great memories. Tis the picture taken with the China team at Wanglaoji.

I wouldn’t trade the experiences and all I’ve gone through with JSPC with any $$$$ offered to me. Yes, even with the experience of (1) having to get scolded at cause did not know how to read Chinese menu (2) having to line up like prison inmates to get food (3) being even lower than prison inmates cause I actually need to WASH MY OWN UTENSILS… kekeee.

Indeed, the years have been great:

  • Penerbit Fajar Bakti – as a starry-eyed fresh-grad started my SAP career as a Basis and ABAP programmer.
  • RHB Bank – Meeting great friends whom I repeat are ALL getting married by the end of the year *grin*.
  • Dow Chemicals – Wonderful international exposure where I got to make good friends with lots of great people whom were Indians, Hongkies, Japanese, Indonesians, Canadians..
  • Alam Flora – A place where suddenly I realize that I’m a ‘senior’ to many.
    Wanglaoji Pharmeceutical – Working in another country certainly was challenging. Imagine, I was speaking to my Chinese team mates in Chinese, and they were replying me in English via MSN. *faints*
  • Miscellaneous other short assignments or support with companies like Petronas, Sharp Roxy, Titan, Genting Sanyen. Gosh... penning this down, I should really be thankful I was exposed to such big-brand firms through my stay with JSPC.

Wow… what a long post. But then again, any less would not justify my appreciation to how God has carried me through the years in my career by giving me great people to work with *thanks, Papa*. I know He’s called me into my new workplace though I love my present, and I’m excited to the things that He has in store for me…

Thursday, May 11, 2006

Greetings from Johore, Malaysia

20:30hrs
Juan: *Tucked in bed at Eden Hotel* Mmm … :)
.
.
.
02:30 hrs

Neighbor: Hahahahahaah!
*insert LOUD laughter*
*insert LOUD giggles*
*insert LOUD mindless chatter*
*insert LOUD door banging*
Erm… did I mention that they were LOUD?!??
.
.
.
04:30 hrs, Juan – Sob sob..... *still awake with splitting headache*

This depicted my sleeping environment for the past two nights. Eden put me up in a room with adjoining doors and it was ‘just-my-luck’ to end up with noisy neighbors. Called up a friend for ‘Oh-I’m –so-tired-I-wanna-dieeeee’ self-pity talk.

And he said, “Juan, I am very serious… you should:
1) Ring up the lobby and call for security. *which I already did :P*
2) Ring on their doorbell and hide quickly!
3) Call their room phone and hang up.”

*giggle*

Sighhh… after I hung up, I decided to shift my mind off the noise to much happier thoughts… Church camp 2006!!! :D

Never in my life I’ve enjoyed bowling soooooo much. Oh wait, I wasn’t bowling. I was on the pom-pom team cheering for my winning team, TIGERS! Roarrrrrrr!!!! Bruised hands from beating the kompang, lost my voice from the screaming, didn’t really matter if we didn’t win… I had a baaaalllll!!!!

Ahhhh… finally the awaited day has arrived!!! Sob sob… waited for so many years to witness this, Lily’s baptism. *bawlsssss…..*

Yeah yeah… I know, this has absolutely NOTHING to do with church camp. Was just taking a stroll on the beach at night and saw my favorite manga character… Naruto! Thought it was cute enough for me put this up ;)

I think there’s this little mamak stall in Port Dickson that suddenly saw the gates of Heaven open as 30-some of us turned up at the oh-so-empty stall during midnight *giggle*.

Pajama night, when I changed out of my pajamas already. Heheheh…. Doesn’t Emily and myself have the same smile? People can mistaken us as sisters :D

My entourage to camp. From left around the table: Lily, Wai Hun, Terence, Tony, Mike, Danette, Auntie, Uncle David, Ee Puay, Ian, Gerald and myself *holding the camera ma*. After praying for so many years with the LF, Uncle David accepted Christ this year! *rub hands together in glee* We managed to witness Eng in his best evangelistic form…ekekkeke. Uncle David went for altar call to receive healing…

Eng: Arr… uncle, why are you up here huh?
Uncle: I want to receive healing.
Eng: Emm… receive healing from who?
Uncle: From Jesus lor…
Eng: So, you believe there is a Jesus who can heals?
Uncle: *nods*
Eng: So, you want to accept Christ into your life now?


*Wah Lauuuuuu!!!*

Tuesday, April 18, 2006

Gua Tempurung on Prophet Muhhamad’s Birthday

For those who’s thinking of going for a caving adventure, just a couple of pointers:
  • Wear sports shoes; Else you’ll be a caving litter-bug when your slippers float away as you’re wading through the waters >:(
  • Bring plastic bags; To keep your stuff dry even if your bag gets wet. Kevin brought an air-tight sandwich bag just to keep his car keys dry *how ingenious*
  • Bring waterproof torchlight or strap them to your neck; So you’ll be able to see where you’re going in the pitch-black caves, though most of the time you’re shining at someone’s butt as you’re crawling around ;)
  • Wear dark colored clothing; You’d be getting pretty wet, lights colored clothing would mean giving a ‘free show’ as your underwear peaks through *Phew-phweettt!* :P

Last but not least…

  • WATCH YOUR HEAD!!! The little bruise on my head still hurts *sob sob…*

Gua Tempurung is rather commercialized – most of the trails had stairs to ease the hike, which made the explorations a tad bit less exciting. Didn’t bring a tripod stand, so the night vision pictures are rather blurry. If we captured the pictures using normal scenery mode, the pictures were too dark to see the textures of the caves :( This is our best shot…

We went for the Top of the World and Short River Adventure tour, which costs RM11 per person. The Top of the World trip allows us to reach the ceilings of the marbled cave. The visitors will go through the Wind Tunnel where the hot air from the highway meets the cold air from the cave and we can feel a nice, cool breeze through the tunnel.

There was a 45 degrees natural slide which was about 1 story high. Hearsay is that the Full-Monty trail has a 2 story high natural slide *gasp*. We got down to our hands and knees and crawled through the cave’s waters. We slipped through a small hole in the ground, which made me feel like a rabbit going into its burrow *kekekeke…* I loved this shot the most; the night-vision effects almost made me look as if I’m stepping into Heaven :D

Ahhh… the ‘before/after pictures’…hehehehhe. No guessing which is the ‘before’ and which is the ‘after’ *giggle*. From left of first picture: Irene, Su Lin, Becky, Terence, Erica,*me*, Kevin, KayX, Michael, Andrew, Gerald.

The caving adventure fell a little short of expectation; mainly cause it was too short with a ‘too mild’ fear factor. Thoroughly enjoyed the company though; if you’re thinking of going to Gua Tempurung, go for the RM22 Gua Tempurung Grand Tour. Remember to ask me along, k? *blink blink*

Uh ohhhh… drop by Ipoh for lunch like we did :D Thanks to our guides KayX and Erica, we had yummy Ipoh Sar Hor Fun, beef noodles, ‘tried to have’ soya bean and tauhu fha, rojak which was amazingly huge for only RM7 *thank you Becky*, Ipoh white coffee, AND we tar-paued the famous wrapped salted herbal chicken for dinner/families. *pats stomach in satisfaction*

Sighhh… and sometimes I wonder why I haven’t lost the weight that has been gained from my China business trip *LOL*.

Wednesday, April 12, 2006

S.R.K. Sri Damai

Was in a rather pensive mood and feeling a tad bit nostalgic today. So during my lunch break from work, I tar-paued a yummy chicken drumstick and roast pork rice from my favorite chicken rice stall at Section 17; wanted to have lunch under a shady tree outside my very-loved old terrace house.

On the way towards the terrace house, I nearly knocked into this little school girl who ran across the road to get to her transport. Ahhhhh… my old primary school. Hehhehehe… changed my mind about the lunch location and decided to dig in at the school canteen instead :D

Everything seemed different… yet there was this air of familiarity.

First thing that struck my mind was, ‘Wow… look at all these tiny table and chairs… Ooo… and all the tiny people… hehehehhe’. Can’t believe I was once as tiny as that ;) Staring into the mirror, the reflection that stared back was of a grown woman in work attire clutching a leather hand-bag – ‘Gosh, I’m really a grown up now, aren’t I?’ *sighhh…*

Saw a familiar ‘abang’ manning the canteen. He was once a teenager helping his dad out, now he’s taken over the family business. Had some kids playing catching the exact same way my friends and I did; using the steps of the line-up food area as our ‘safe house’ while running out to be possible victims of the ‘catcher’. Eeeeeeee…. Getah-players! Looking at all the laughing jumpy kids really made me want to join in their hopping!

Took a walk around the grounds. Wow… there was a new block of classrooms. Peered into where the school hall was and had a flashback some of my performances. *giggle* I remember I did a dance once with some friends. Will try to pen down as many lines from the lyrics:

Six little ducks that I once knew,
Fat ones, skinny ones fair ones too,
But the one little duck with a feather at the his back,
He ruled the others with a “Quack! Quack Quack!”

Up to the river they would sing,
“Widdle waddle, widdle waddle, Ho Hum Ho”…
But the one little duck with a feather at the his back,
He ruled the others with a “Quack! Quack Quack!”


Awww… that must’ve been one cute performance. We were waddling back and forth in our duck costumes and did our little actions as we sang along. For line 3 and 4 of the verses, I remember turning and showing our little behind to the audience *LOL*. Tinkering with the old piano in the adjoining music room brought back memories of when I used to show off to the other kids with my piano playing skills *was such an exhibitionist… kekeke*.

There was an area in the school field where we’d imagine there were dead bodies buried there when the Japanese attacked… hehehehhe. And there was this instance during Sports Day when some bird decided to drop its chocolate treasures on my head just as I was about to take off in one of 100 metres dash :P

The highlight of the short trip? Met Pn. Tay, my primary 5 form teacher… having quite a lot of white hair strands in her ‘in-my-memory-was-black-in-color-hair’.

Thank you Lord, for you have given me a wonderful childhood, thus now having beautiful memories. Amen. *hugs self*

Hey… why don’t some of you share some of your kiddy memories? *wink!*

Monday, April 10, 2006

Vroom vroooommmm…

*Insert screeching sound*
.
.
.
*BHAM!* Car from right crashed into mine…
.
.
.
*Uuuuuufff!!!* I crashed into car of my left…
.
.
.
Eh – go cart racing, or bumper car ride ar? :P

8 years ago when I came with my uni mates, this place in Shah Alam didn’t have a proper circuit. The route was molded using red-and-white road cones. I remember getting completely confused whilst driving then, cause the red-and-white caused my vision to blur up :P Now’s it has been done pretty nicely, nice curves … with sufficient straight routes to let the 60cc engines go at max speed.

Breakfast – RM10
Go-cart – RM70 for 20 minutes
Overtaking another go-cart on the track - Priceless

Sunday, March 12, 2006

Greetings from Guangzhou – Day 27

*on MSN*
Shing Onn: telnet to 172.16.0.52. password : ****, login: ****.
Me: Uh-huh…
Shing Onn: “su - orawl1”. Then “c- tablespace admin”. After that, “a – tablespace”.
Me: Okay… !!!
Shing Onn: PSAPROLL. What’s the new size?
Me: New size 1298544k.
Shing Onn: Start the database altering…

Fuhhhhh… really felt like a scene from Mission impossible detonating some bomb. Shaky hands, heartbeat faster than normal, imaginary Mission Impossible background music, well… it didn’t help that I had 10 pairs of eyes looking over my shoulder *faints*. Resubmitted the job; it failed AGAIN at around 12:30am, changed the tablespace size again, slept that night with fingers crossed.

Got up at 6:30am, checked the job - it was cancelled!!!
.
.
.
*freak out*
.
.
.
Performed some database checks. Eihhhh???? Everything seems normal. How come the job still cancelled? Re-checked the job logs.
.
.
.
Huh? The job was completed successfully… I read the logs incorrectly previously? Didn’t want to get too happy yet, check through some Financial documents… they seemed to be restored properly back into the system. THEN, I rejoiced – Woo Hoo!!!!

Went out had had another great day moving around Guangzhou. Tell you all about it when I have more time to edit the photos and all. Till then… see you all, cause I AM GOING HOME SOONNNNNN!!!!!!

*does a silly dance*