.....times of refreshing.....

Let's reflect back 2010 as it's going to end soon. Oh, I'm not refering to world or political affairs but rather ourselves. Since the new year is around the corner, let's set  resolutions, and I mean, good decisions to take which will create a better year for us. And, I'm sure the below will helps -

1. Face your fear - Fear is always the no.1 hindrance to any endeavours we wanted to start. It can be  simple or complicated matters as meeting people, learning to drive, running a marathon, hiking, public speaking, job changed, starting a business and etc. Fear is a bully, and the more you fear it,  the more it bully you. Thus, face it and break the bond from your fear.


2. Stay calm and relaxed more - Stress is always a part of life and it can break us. Learn how to relax by engaging in physical activities like sports, brisk walk, hiking or regularly wind down with a massage, leisures, vacations (not those stressful ones..haha) and etc will definitely add quality to our life. Organise your life well and have good time management for your activities. Rise up early and do the things you are looking forward to and rest when you are tired. Overcome your fears and manage your worries. List down your fears and worries and work on it.Talk to someone that you trust and helpful if you have a problem.

3. Include new leisures to bring zest to your life - It's always welcoming to try out something new. This will add zest to your life. Think about that something new in the past which you have started and enjoyed. I'mn sure you do not regret trying out that new leisure.To me, I enjoyed my badminton training very much which I started two years ago as well as lunch time boardgaming with my colleagues. I hope to try out hiking this year, though no kakis yet. Other suggestion is, meet new folks like joining a club or gathering.



4. Do something for your family - Think of a few things that you can do for your family. It can be as simple as bringing them to church, vacation, buying them health supplements, enrol them for some enriching courses and so on. It will give you some blissfulness.

5. Financial Planning - No matter what, ensured you saved enough from your income and spend lesser than what you earned. It's easier for singles but tough for breadwinners. Learn to explore additional income and invest wisely. Learn more about financial planning and plan for your financial goals.

6. Look good and stay healthy - When you look good, you feel good. Thus, try to look the best as possible as you can. Dress well for the occasion instead of sloppily. When you're healthy, you will bring radiance to your look. Always take good care of your health. Work out in the gym to shed the extra fat away  and tone up your body. Avoid too much fatty food but eat moderately. Talk to any personal fitness instructors and you can feel the confidence in them cos they take care of themselves and looks good! Sleep early and rest well!



7. Be sociable and stay jolly - Yes, break the ice! Be sociable but don't talk like a 'machine gun'. Be easy going and relax. Enjoy the folks around you instead of playing with your phone. Get to know others better! Let others find you easy going and friendly.

Of late, I heard an engineer in my organisation was down with some critical diseases which needed kidney transplants. He was young at 30+,  just had a baby, bright, intelligent, dedicated in work and a nice chap! We were surprise by his sudden illness and really felt sorry for him and hope he will recovered soon. May God heals him and speed to him. This has jolted some of us where our lives are filled with chasing material gains.

An ex-varsity coursemate of mine which I recently contacted in facebook has taught me contentment. Though we didn't speak on the subject, I know this fella is a very religious and faithful Christian and humble. He seems working in his first job till now after graduated from the varsity since 1996. I I have changed a few jobs since...) And, his job neither pay him handsomely while of course, I'm sure he has decent salary. He picture his lives as very contented with his family and most importantly, he is a happy man.... (which he always is since the day I knew him in the college a decade ago).


I feels that contentment is about balance,  where we don't overwork for material gains while having time  for our family, leisures, friends, religion and health. In fact, contented folks seems a happy lot!  They need not fret about their friends or neighbours who are richer than them or drove a more expensive car than them and etc.



To be happy (and healthy) , stayed contented! I am still learning contentment. How about you?

“In everything give thanks” (1 Thess. 5:18)

I just placed an order for the above racket which is similar to the Yonex ArcSaber Z-Slash, but very much cheaper. haha..! Oh..if you have been following my blog, you must be wondering if I am badminton or racket crazy cos I just bought one racket 2-3 months ago. Well, this is my fourth racket that I bought this year. LOL And, I sold off two of the rackets while gave away one to my nephew.This gear cost me $S69. I almost go for the Yonex Voltric 70 which cost S$250 but after listening to some experts' advice, I decided against it as it may be too stiff for me.


These are the specs for the racket (got it from Apacs UK website) :-

Frame	Hi Modulus Graphite + Whip-Slim Frame
Shaft	Hi Modulus Graphite + CNTs Carbon Nanotube
Flex	Medium
Weight	85g +/- 1 (4U)
Grip	G2
Balance	285 +/- 5mm

I understand this racket weighted 4U and slightly head heavy but not so stiff and fast in attack. I searches the Internet and it seems lots of folks gave good review for this gear. WIll hope to try it out next Tuesday and see if it's really good. haha... Let me know if you want my personal report on this racket. Btw, I'm not a good player but just someone who enjoys playing badminton. LOL

A young man in his late twenties was listening to some sweet Christmas melodies where all of a sudden, he felt lonely and yearned for a warm X'mas with friends and family back home. He was away far from home and had no friends in his adopted alien country. He watched with envy on folks who were jolly and busy buying X'mas presents and wrapping gifts, dressing up for X'mas eve , X'mas party, X'mas dinner and attending church's services with their friends and families. As 'silent night, holy night' played, he felt even sadder  on a Christmas eve.
Then, an insight came to him in the form of a thought that God is with him all alone and he's not lonely.


The above story is to illustrate that there's always a door open for us in our darkest times as God is always with us, if you let your door opens to Him. Thus, let's spread some Christmas cheers and love to our friends, families and the needy ones. Shower your gift of love to them on this special occasion as how our Lord Jesus Christ  did to us. Afterall, the biggest Gift we receive daily is Him. Thus, let's give ! Do some charities to the needy ones and let them know that God is with them and it's Christmas! Let the melody of Jingle Bells play in their lives!

It was great to be in Pavillion at this time of the year! I was there last Saturday night and the mall was really beautiful, enchanting, glittering, joyous and so on. You can really felt the festive mood there! There were lots  of crowds over there busy snapping pictures over these beautiful settings and I'm glad I brought my camera.

Family portrait.... !

 The entrance of the mall was even nicer and you have to give way to the passing crowds! Cannot stand still there.

Whenever I travel back to JB with my family, we always stopped by Yong Peng for dinner. Most of time, we patronised the famous ones along the main street of Yong Peng which I have blogged before, either in my old blog or here. This time round, with words of mouths, there are some better eateries along the road just after you came out from Yong Peng (U) Toll.
Check out Old Street Town restaurant in Yong Peng. It was just a humble kopitiam but it was slightly crowded when we are there around 6pm.More and more crowds came by later.

Pork Ribs 'King' in marmite sauce - RM14. I love this and so was my kid. It's always appetising to marinate any meat in marmite sauce. It was sweet too and  I guess they put honey which I'm not too sure as I just gobbled up the meat. LOL It's good!!

Petai and prawns in sambal - RM12. Somehow, this is not to my liking but my wife and sis-in-law love it. Probably not my type of dish as it's too 'wet' for me. However, I still love the petai and enjoyed it.

Kankung - RM5. An healthy vegetable to go by and it's a refreshing dish indeed. I like it when it's hot! yummy....!
Foochow soup - RM7. This is my favourite and I guess the best I tried so far in Yong Peng now. I mentioned 'now' cos some other shops seems to have lost their standard. Put some vinegar and you'll enjoy a nice bowl of foochow soup. Taste like shark fins w.o the fins.. :P I helped myself  to three bowls!!

Old Street Town restaurant was located at - 10, Jalan Jaya, Taman Jaya 1, 83700 Yong Peng, Johor.

While driving back to JB, I stopped by the Pagoh rest centre for a break as well as fill up the petrol. While I was there, I witness a scenery which suddenly gave me peace. I immediately snap a picture of a sunset over a range of mountains on a misty day. It will great if I brought my camera along so that I can zoom in further and remove the distractions of the highway.



It was indeed a time of refreshing for me....

When it comes to food, one who is familiar with KL's Jalan Petaling or popularly known as Chinatown or 'Chi chong kai', will mentioned this wanton noodle. The store has really been around for as long as I know cos I remember I patronised this place before 15 years back. It still stood there, with some price increased. haha..


It was a friday afternoon and there are quite lot of folks patronising this little shop by the side, probably they want a light snack after a tiring walk around the area. The place ...errr... well, not that clean and a bit run down la. However, we are there to try out the famous wantan noodle.


Frankly and also bluntly, the wanton noodle is good, the texture of the noodles are bouncy but not that 'super' impressive as folks mentioned. I mean, it's really nice but there are better ones around. Anyway, no complains about it and if you want a snack, go for it!
Moving further up, I must said this soya bean is great! Refreshing enough for a hot day especially a warm and stuffy area like Jalan Petaling! I recommended this stall! I especially like the ginger syrup in the soya bean.
It's been really awhile since I stepped onto Jalan Petaling and I must say there are a lot of changes and beautifications! However, I also find that the place is a bit messy especially when stalls are opening up in the early evening. There are also too many foreign workers mending the stalls, which makes it doesn't sound  much as Chinatown!

It;s been really a long time since I took a bus to KL. And, it's also the first time I booked a ticket online. Boarded the bus at Golden Mile Complex in Singapore as early as 9.15am and I'm on my way to KL. FYI, my family was in KL since last week and I took two days leaves to join them. It  was a nice pleasant journey in a super VIP coach with a massage chair. However, don't get excited over it as this is definitely not an OSIM or even nearer to Ogawa. The chair just vibrate lightly and it's even more uncomfy. LOL

I reach KL at about 2pm+ on a sunny Friday afternoon and alighted at Times Square. It was a welcoming sight indeed as the mall was nicely decorated for Christmas. Not forgetting there's a mini car show and PSP corner, and a pretty model walking around. :P

 I like this time of the year in KL.....!!

I was testing out some of my company's blogs which was powered by Wordpress where we just upgraded it to the latest version, 3.0.1, in our hosting server. While accessing  the blogs on my iphone, I discovered that there's a Wordpress app for the iOS (or rather for iPad/iPhone).

I downloaded it and was impressed! Imagine you can blogged while on the road especially if you are taking public transport like train or buses to work. Of course, we can still access the non-mobile friendly sites but it will be very cumbersome to blog. This app can be handy for folks like me who travel for 1 hour plus on the bus to work daily. Anyway, I guess this app is more meant for the iPad rather than iPhone. In addition, Wordpress for iOS also have geo-tagging features, where folks will know where you were when posting your blog.I feel like reactivate back my wordpress blog. :)


It will be great if blogspot also supports mobile blogging. Currently, it's already difficult to read blogspot posting on the small screen where I needed to zoom in all the time, like reading any non mobile-friendly sites. However, good thing that blogspot allowed adverts.

I'm looking forward to blog on the run!

I was driving back from Kluang to JB on a dark evening at around 7pm+. It was slightly rainy and I decided to pull away from the traffic at one of the rest stops for a bio break. I could feel the breezy wind and light scatter rain while walking to the gents.

After I am done with my job, I slowly walked back to my car. While walking, I was curious with what I saw, a big white cloth standing alone by one of the pondoks (huts) around. I kept looking at the 'thing' and the white figure doesn't seems to move. It just stayed there .... motionless. It was quiet on a Saturday evening at the stop and I thought let's not bother about it, whether it's really those things or not.

I drove back and reached home safely. While taking my shower, I noticed a big bruise on my arm. I was wondering how this blue-black came along as I don't feel anything before and no pain too. I don't think it was caused by resting my arm on the side of whatever in my car. Then, chills sent down to my spines! I heard of what my parents or elders said about those things which pinch you until blue-black when you are alseep. Could it be that white thing which pinched me ??

hahaha..... relaxs folks! This is a case of I scared my ownself! I later realised the bruise was caused by my badminton racket where I accidentally hit my arm while smashing few days ago, though I didn't realise I was blue-black already. LOL ... And  the white thingy, well, later it did move, where it kneel down and up. It's actually someone performing prayers at one of those designated huts at the stop. :P

Have a good week, folks!

I was not feeling so good few days ago and it's been raining non-stop in JB. In fact, I felt asthmatic and cold. Find it difficult to breath and my runny nose still keeps going. I thought I;m gonna take a day MC the next day till I had dinner.


For the rest of the day, I didn't really have any 'hot' food. I had bread for breakfast, chicken rice for lunch and bread again for tea. Seeing that we don't have any preferences for dinner on a cold , windy night ... we opted for a Fish Head Soup Steamboat. Together with some dishes like beancurd tofu and slice ginger chicken, I almost 'recover' instantly after consuming. The breathing difficulties cools away and I never felt so good again!

This led me to think that it's probably the cold weather and it's mind over matters on my 'illness'. And, having freshly boiled soup and fresh cooked food are definitely good for a body which is recovering from flu. Eat nutritious  but healthy food and drink lots of soup will do good for the body, and of course the soul. Now, I know why chicken soup is good for the soul...haha.

Have a good mid-week!

My leaves starting from tuesday night till today have finally finished and I gotta go back to work tomorrow... *sian* Anyway, didn't really go anywhere except staying at home to rest, blog, shop and eat.


I read a lot of blogs on mountain climbing and hiking and really feel tempted to try it out. However, I didn't manage to locate a club for beginners. Will keep on trying and preferably, try out easier paths first. Well, I was surprised the tallest mountain in South East Asia which is Mount Kinabalu is one of the easiest to hike. No experiences required...!


 I was glued to the TV for Asian Games which was shown live both on RTM and Channel 5 especially badminton. It was so exciting watching the semi-finals between Chong Wei and Chen Jin as well as the doubles final yesterday which Malaysia lost by a narrow margin.



I'm also recovering from my flu and cough which I got it last week and still got a little phlegm in my lungs. Sometimes it's quite difficult to breathe and I needed to take an expectorant to help get the phlegm out. *sigh* I need to take more Vit C!
 That's for the updates folks! Have a good week.


 

I was driving out yesterday on a clear sunny skies, less traffic and good road conditions. I was surprise to see a lorry fell on its side and occupied one of the two opposite lanes which slowed down the traffic on the other direction. While I pity the driver and the passengers and hope nobody got hurt, I was puzzle on how the lorry can get into that situation, under bright clear skies and almost no traffic. Small wonder this is likely due to human error.


Sometimes I wonder why folks likes to be aggressive while on the road. Cutting lanes on a non-designated road which creates a two lanes into four lanes of traffic, tailgating, speeding for no reasons, overtaking aggressively, double parking, talking on the handphone while driving, no signalling while turning and etc are what we saw on the roads everyday. Are they stressed out, didn't study or forgot the highway codes, inculcate the bad habits over the years, arrogance, tired and etc ?


Some accidents on the road are really unnecessary and if the drivers practise good etiquette and habits on the road, stayed out of stress, patience and humble, I'm sure besides savings their lives and limbs, it also create a pleasant driving experience for other road users. And like any other tasks, we always need a cool head when we attempt it. So, what's more with driving?

I decided to take two days leaves from work since Wednesday is a holiday and I don't feel like going back to JB on a Tuesday night and returned back to Singapore the next night. Thus, I take this opportunity to rest and spend more time with family.

Since I was so free, I thought I better start on my financial planning. I have been reading books on this subject and the first basic thing to do is to work out your budget for expenses and income monthly for the whole year. After working it out, deduct the income and expenses and the balance is ideally 0 or positive surplus. Of course, there may be more expenditure for a particular month but these extra can be offset in the other months. For the entire budget for the year, see if the balance is 0 or more. If it's in the minus sign, then perhaps adjustment should be done to the expenses. Do include a monthly savings to the plan. Once the plan is done, compare your actual expenditure and income with this budget plan and stay discipline in keeping close to your plan.

After working  out a draft, I was shock with my expenses and I almost got an anxiety attack, especially my wifey spelling out all the expenses. No wonder I didn't really save a lot! Well, staying in two places - JB and Singapore has incurred lots of expenses on me. Well, since I'm a bit stressed out, I needed a cool head to further work on it to see how to reduce the deficit, find ways to increase my income. I decided to relax to stay cool(see my previous two posting..hahaha.., it works). I still needed time to further improve the plan. Thus, no need to press the panic button yet. And, as in my previous post, the Lord will provides!


Well, I got a good eye-opener on my financial situation today as well as reinforced that blogging is therapeutic. My two previous posts reminded me to relax and the Lord will take care of everything. It helps me a bit just now. LOL

Have a good weekend!