Thursday, September 30, 2010

Sad News

I received a terrible bad news yesterday, one of my ex-colleagues from my first company was diagnosed with thyroid cancer (advance stage), in addition he was in coma due to a tubing procedure that went wrong.

The news broke my heart, we have had the opportunity to work for 3 years before he resigned and start up his own business. Though majority of the time spent with him was on job assignments and in a professional work setting, such news really gave me a big blow. My heart goes to his wife and children.

I went to the hospital to visit him last evening after work, have the opportunity to spend time with his wife and to understand his situation. I could not possibly understand the emotional turmoil that is in her but thank God externally she looks strong. We held hands and prayed together, that’s what I thought we could do for the family at this point of time.

As far as I’ve known this colleague of mine, he is a fighter, we prayed that he will remain one at this difficult situation. Though his condition looks pessimistic, his wife shared that he is determined to fight this battle and somehow deep inside me I know he will.

I’m not going to judge and question the doctors’ capability in addressing my colleague’s condition, for they are human themselves but some words of thought:

1) Always get a second opinion if the first doctor’s advice is to go for a surgery
2) Reputable doctors are busy doctors, they may not have the time for you, select with wisdom
3) Understand all possible complications, educate yourself about your illness/condition and communicate all symptoms promptly to the medical team, it could save lives
4) Pray for discernment and wisdom from God, He is our great physician

My blood test is due soon and I’m going to order for a cancer marker to be performed, please do so yourself, early detection could save lives. EFV – Exercise and take more Fruits and Vegetables.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Chu Chu Train, Here We Come

This is a long overdue post but better late than never, right? Since hubby can’t take an extra day off prior to the Raya holidays, I decided that for a change we (the kids and I) took the train instead for our trip to Kampar. So I went to KTM website and checked it out but unfortunately the online ticketing was down but thank God the website leads me to a call center for booking. I called and verified on the availability and booked straight away. Two days later, went to the KTM office in Butterworth to get our tickets. The kids and I(the kid in me) was equally excited about the trip as it was our first time traveling on the rail tracks.

The trip from Butterworth to Kampar on 2nd class, one way costs RM23 for adult and RM16 for children below 12 and we booked the earliest train of the day departing from Butterworth at 8.00am. We woke up at about 6.20am, left the house at about 6.45am, hubby dropped us at the ferry terminal at 7.10am and we took the ferry to Butterworth. We managed to witness the beautiful sun rise on the ferry. The train terminal is about 5 minutes walk from the ferry terminal. We were just in time to board the train.

Surprisingly the train condition was quite good, clean and air-conditioned, so much space compared to buses, best of all the kids can walked up and down, draw and play, there were toilets for every compartment and also a TV for every 20 seats or so. So no complain/fuss from the kids except it was extremely cold that morning, the kids wore three layers of T-shirts as I did not bring along their jacket (suppose to travel light, imagine alone with two kids and a luggage bag).

We stopped at a few stations to pick and drop passengers at the same time… let me recall Bukit Mertajam, Nibong Tebal…..., Taiping, Ipoh and finally Kampar. The whole journey took us approximately 4 hours, quite slow but if you are not in a hurry I personally recommend this. Of course the kids made a mess in their seats as they were happily and clumsily helping themselves with snacks, drinks (they really made themselves at home), so sorry for the cleaner! They kept asking me why it took so long to reach Kampar, why it was so cold, where we were, made multiple trips to the toilet and…. (the list goes on…). Any mother can imagine my situation for that 4 long hours.

Finally at approximately 12 noon, the officer made the announcement that we will be reaching Kampar in a few minutes time, we packed our stuff. As we get ready to alight, to our delight “kung kung” was just in front of us to greet us. How nice to be back home again! Back home, my brother and his family were there to welcome us… it was a well planned journey and for the next 4 days we had great family time together and for my husband, a 4 days 3 nights bachelor life again.

Stay tune for some pictures. Here you go...

Sun rise shot from the ferry..


The girls sitting comfortably and obviously delighted with the condition..

The train condition - 2nd class cabin


Padi field scenery

Finally reached our destination, Kampar station

Kampar train station - renovated, this the train that we boarded

For those who don't know what's this... it's the railway tracks k?
Hmm.. what's next, maybe a ride in a luxury high class coach?

Friday, September 3, 2010

My man's birthday


Today is my man's birthday, I baked a special peach and almond cake for him and we are going for a day out with the family and the whole church as today is also our church family day. I also had a surprise gift for him and the kids are coming up with their own special gifts for the man of our life.

To the man of our life:
"We love you and thank you for the sacrifices you made for the family, thank you for the evening pecks that you gave us at dinner table, the many family trips that you brought us to, patience for the whole group of girls/female at home, spiritual food for the entire family and for always being there for us. We thank God for you, we rejoice for this is a day that the Lord has made and also not forgetting my MIL/ah mah and FIL/ah kung for such a fine man"

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Class of '89

Before - 1978 - Then, when we were 6 years old

After - 2010 - Now, when we were 3X years old


Last Saturday my family and I made a trip down to KL, mainly for my high school (Class of ’89) gathering. We made a stop at Kampar, picked up my dad and off we drove to my sister’s place for a 3 days 2 nights trip.

When one of my friend (Gek Soon, wonderful guy, thumbs up to him and the rest who chipped in to arrange things for this gathering) posted on FB that the gathering is on, I was a few early birds that actually clicked “Accept” to the event invitation. Soon after many who were aware of the event also clicked “Accept” and in 2-3 months time we have over 20 who confirmed their presence and on that day itself almost 50 turned up (some with spouse and kids).

As hubby dropped me at the hotel lobby and I took the lift up to the venue, I’ve mixed feeling, it’s like every step I took leads me down to memory lane.. 38, 37, 36 and when the lift finally opened and I stepped into the private hall I was 17 again. Truly it was like 17 again. I began to see familiar faces and as I walk further into the room it was like back in the good old high school times. We hugged, shoke hands and exchanged those familiar nostalgic smile with one another, it was awesome and amazing.

It’s really nice to know that those who turned up are doing well and in best of health, of course after some 21 long donkey years, appearance wise some have gone bald, some double the size, some never change with their ever famous hairstyle but deep inside everyone I could see, feel and smell the 17 year old in us that night.

I would say we all made it, maybe not exactly what we inspired to be in our younger days, we all turned out to be fine individuals contributing to the society in one way or another and most of us are raising kids of our own.

Well, I don’t actually get to catch up with each of them but seeing them that night was truly magical. When we got back, posted our photos over FB, from the comments posted, it seems that we could not get enough of each other, 4 hours that night was really too short for us.

So we are planning for the next big one, some suggested that we have it on the 31.08.2014 (that will be our 25th Anniversary) and the venue will be in Kampar, our dear hometown, that would be wonderful. I’m imagining us walking through our school compound, lying on the big field, taking “loh shue fun, chee cheong fun, loh mai fan etc…” and with a wide grin on our faces.

Class of ’89 is surely a great gang. Long live all of us so that we may be able to gather years after years. God bless all of you.

To catch some of our photos (now and then), please click here… and try to spot me :D

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