Tuesday, October 30, 2012

God's Way... Never Ours...

Right now, I have two batches of sugee cake baking in the oven. With 60 minute that I have, I'm not sure what I want to do with it. It's hubby's favourite cake but it's one with tedious preparations. I loathe separating the egg yolks from the whites. I have 20 more minutes until the oven 'ting' then I can proceed to slumber land. The whole house smells really good.

I have something to share with all of you. I hope everyone will spend at least 5 minutes to read about it. Just take it as a good read or maybe it is a major turning point in your life. But not everyone could enter the narrow gate...

 

Dr Richard Teo Keng Siang

Recorded at the Dental Christian Fellowship , on 24 Nov 2011, 8 months after his diagnosis.

Richard would have liked to share this with you. We are doing this to continue his work.

Please have a read and leave it behind for someone else to benefit from his sharing.

If you would like a copy, please let any of his family or close friends know and we will be able to provide both the audio recording as well as the transcript.

Thank you, and may God bless you richly.

Below is the transcript of the talk of Dr. Richard Teo, who was a 40-year-old millionaire and cosmetic surgeon with a stage-4 lung cancer, sharing at a Dental Christian Fellowship Meeting. He would have liked to share this with you too.

HIS BACKGROUND

Hi good morning to all of you. My voice is a bit hoarse from the chemotherapy, so please bear with me. I thought I'll just introduce myself. My name is Richard, I’m a friend of Danny’s, who invited me here.

I’d just begin to say that I’m a typical product of today’s society. Before this, I was talking about how the media influences us etc. So I’m a typical product of what the media portrays. From young, I’ve always been under the influence and impression that to be happy, is to be successful. And to be successful, is to be wealthy. So I led my life according to this motto.

Coming from a poor average family, back in those days, I was highly competitive, whether in sports, studies, leadership. I wanted it all. I’ve been there, done that. But at the end of the day, it’s still about money.

So in my recent last years, I was a trainee in ophthalmology, but I was getting impatient, cos I had friends of mine who were going out into private practise, making tonnes of money. And there I was, stuck in a traineeship. So I said, ‘Enough, it’s getting too long.’ At that time, there was a surge in protégés of aesthetic medicine. I’m sure you’re aware, aesthetic medicine had peaked over the last few years, and I saw good money in there. So much so that I said, ‘Forget about ophthalmology, I’m gonna do aesthetic medicine.’ So that’s what I did.

The truth is, nobody makes heroes out of the average GP in the neighbourhood. They don't. They make heroes out of rich celebrities, politicians, rich and famous people. So I wanted to be one of these. I dived straight into aesthetic medicine. People were not willing to pay when I was doing locum back in those days. Anything more than $30, they would complain that “Wah, this lo kun (doctor) jing qwee (very expensive)”. They made noise and they were not happy. But the same people were willing to pay $10 000 for a liposuction. So I said, ‘Well, let’s stop healing the sick, I’m gonna become a beautician; a medically-trained beautician.’

And that was what I did – liposuction, breast augmentation, eyelid surgeries, you name it, we do it. It was very good money. My clinic, when we started off, waiting time was 1 week; 1 month; became 2 months; became 3 months. There was so much demand that people were literally queuing up to have aesthetic work done on them. Vain women – easy life!

So the clinic grew. I was so overwhelmed, from 1 doctor, I employed 2, then 3, then 4 doctors, and carried on. Nothing is ever enough. I wanted more and more and more. So much so that we set up shop in Indonesia to lure all the Indonesian tai tai’s. We set up shop, set up a team of people there, to get more Indonesian patients to come in.

So, things were doing well. I’m there, my time has arrived.

Around some time in February last year, I said, ‘OK, I have so much spare cash, it’s time to get my first Ferrari. So there I was, getting ready for the deposit. ‘OK! There comes my first Ferrari!’ I was looking for land, to share with some of my friends. I have a banker friend who makes $5 million a year. So I thought, ‘Come, let’s come together. Let’s buy some land and build our houses.’

I was at my prime, getting ready to enjoy. At the same time, my friend Danny had a revival. They were going back to church, some of my close friends. They told me, ‘Richard, come, join us, come back to church.’

I have been a Christian for 20 years; I was baptised 20 years ago, but it was because it was fashionable to be a Christian then. All my friends were becoming Christians then. It was fashionable! I wanted to be baptised, so that when I filled in a form, I could put there “Christian” – feels good. In truth, I had never had a bible; I don’t know what the bible is all about.

I went to church for a while, after some time, I got tired. I said it’s time to go to NUS, stop going to church. I had a lot more things to pursue in NUS – girls, studies, sports etc. After all, I had achieved all these things without God today, so who needs God? I myself can achieve anything I want.

In my arrogance, I told them, “You know what? You go tell your pastor to change your sermon to 2pm. I will consider coming to church.” Such arrogance! And I said 1 statement in addition to that – till date, I don’t know I’ve regretted saying that – I told Danny and my friends, “If God really wanted me to come back to church, He will give me a sign.”. Lo and behold, 3 weeks later, I was back at church.







THE DIAGNOSIS


In March 2011, out of the blues – I was still running around, ‘cause I’m a gym freak and I always go to the gym training, running, swimming 6 days a week. I had some backache, and that’s all I had, but it was persistent. And so I went for an MRI to exclude prolapsed disc. And the day before I had my scan, I was still in the gym, lifting heavy weights, doing my squats. And the next day, they found that half my spine had bone marrow replacement. I said, “Woah, sorry, what’s that?”

We had a PET scan the next day, and they diagnosed that I had terminal lung cancer, stage 4B. It had spread to the brain, half the spine, whole of my lungs were filled with tumour, liver, adrenals…

I said, “Can’t be, I was just at the gym last night, what’s going on?” I’m sure you know how it feels – though I’m not sure if you know how it feels. One moment I was there at the peak, the next day, this news came and I was totally devastated. My whole world just turned upside down.

I couldn’t accept it. I have a hundred relatives on both sides, my mom and my dad. 100 of them. And not a single one has cancer. To me, in my mind, I have good genes, I’m not supposed to be having this! Some of my relatives are heavy chain smokers. Why am I having lung cancer? I was in denial.






HIS ENCOUNTER WITH GOD


So the next day, I was still in a state of denial, still unable to accept what was going on. There I was lying in an operating theatre in a hospital, for a needle biopsy (for histology). There I was, just completed the biopsy, and lying in the operating theatre. The nurses and doctors had left; told me I had to wait for 15 minutes to do a check X-ray to make sure there’s no pneumothorax (a complication).

And there I was, lying on the operating table, staring blankly at the ceiling in a cold, quiet operating theatre. Suddenly I just heard an inner voice; it was not like coming from outside. It was inside. This small inner voice that I had never felt before. And it said very specifically, it said, “This has to happen to you, at your prime, because it’s the only way you can understand.”

I said, “Woah, why did that come from?” You know, when you speak to yourself, you’d say, “OK, what time should I leave this place? Where shall I have dinner after this?” You’d speak from a first person point of view. You don’t say, “Where should YOU go after this?” Whereas the voice that came spoke as a third party. It said, “This has to happen to YOU, at YOUR prime, because this is the only way YOU can understand.” At that time, my emotions just overflowed and I broke down and cried, alone there. And I knew then, subsequently, what it means to understand that why this is the only way.

Because I had been so proud of myself, my whole life, I needed nobody else. I was gifted with things that I could do, why do I need anybody else? I was just so full of myself that there was no other way I could have turned back to God.

In fact, if I were diagnosed with stage 1 or 2, I would have been looking around busily for the best cardiothoracic surgeon, remove a section of the lobe (do a lobectomy), do preventive chemotherapy…The chances of it being cured is extremely high. Who needs God? But I had stage 4B. No man can help, only God can.

A series of events happened after that. I wasn’t sold after that, because of the inner voice, I became believing, prayers, all that. No I wasn’t. To me, it was just ‘maybe there was a voice; or maybe that was just me talking to myself.’ I didn’t buy the story.

What happened next was that I was being prepared for chemotherapy. I started off with a whole brain radiation therapy first; takes about 2 -3 weeks. In the meantime they prepared me for chemotherapy, supplements etc. One of the things they used for chemo was a thing called Zometa. Zometa - they use it to strengthen the bones; once the bone marrow (replacement) is cured of cancer cells, it becomes hollow, so we need Zometa to strengthen the bone to prevent compression fractures.

One of the side effects of Zometa is that it can cause osteonecrosis (bone death) of the jaw, and I had to have my wisdom teeth removed. Years ago, I had my upper wisdom teeth removed, cos it was giving me trouble. The lower ones didn’t give me trouble so I said, “Forget it, just leave it.” So of cause, Danny volunteered to remove it for me.

So there I was, lying there in a dental chair, asking myself, suffering all the side effects of radiotherapy, and now I have to go through wisdom tooth surgery. As if I’ve not had enough to suffer! So I asked Danny, “Eh, bro, is there any other way? Can I not go though this?” He said, “Yes, you can pray.”

I said, “What’s there to lose? Ok lah, pray lah!” And so we prayed. And we did an X-ray after that. Everything was all there, all the appliances and everything. And lo and behold, the Xray showed that there was no wisdom teeth in the lower jaw. I know most people have 4 wisdom teeth, maybe some have none, but to be missing one or 2, as I understand – I’m not too sure, as I understand – is not that common.

Still I was, “Nah, I don’t care about that.” To me, as long as I didn’t have to take out the tooth, I was happy. At that point, I still wasn’t sold on prayers. Maybe it was just a coincidence – for whatever it’s worth.

I continued meeting my oncologist, asking him, “How long do I have?” I asked him. He said, not more than 6 months. I said, “Even with chemotherapy?” About 3 – 4 months, he said.

I couldn’t grasp that. It was difficult to come to terms. And even as I went through radiotherapy, I was struggling everyday, especially when I wake up, hoping that it’s just a nightmare; when I wake up, it’s all over.

As I was struggling, day after day, I went into depression, which is the typical denial, depression blah blah blah that you go through. But for 1 reason, I don’t know why, there was this specific day that I was supposed to meet my oncologist. At about 2pm, I felt this sudden surge of peace, comfort, and in fact, a little happiness. It was just overflowing. For no rhyme or reason, it just came about 2pm, as I was getting ready, dressing up to meet my oncologist. So much so that I whats-apped all my friends that, “Bros, I just feel so good suddenly! I don’t know why, it just came!”

And it was only days, or was it weeks after, that Danny revealed to me that he had fasted for 2 days for me, and he was bargaining with God, and fasted for 2 dyas, and he ended his fast at that exact same point, about 2pm thereabouts, that this surge of sensation came to me for no rhyme or reason. And I didn’t know that he was fasting for me. And when he ended the fast, I felt that sensation!

Whoa, things were getting a bit too coincidental. I was starting to buy a bit of the story, but still I wasn’t sold. As days passed by, I completed my radiotherapy, about 2 weeks plus. Getting ready for chemo, so they let me rest for a few days.

See, the mortality rate of lung cancer : Lung cancer has the highest mortality rate. If you add up breast, colorectal (colon) cancer, and prostate cancer (the top few cancers in Singapore for men and women), if you add up the mortality rate of these 3, it still doesn’t add up to lung cancer. Simply because, you understand, you can remove the prostate, the colon, the breast, but you cannot remove your lungs.

But there’s about 10% of lung cancer patients who do pretty well for some reasons, because they have this specific mutation; we call it the EGFR mutation. And it happens, only 90% of the time, in Asian ladies who never smoked in their lives. Me, first of all, I’m male. 2ndly, I’m a social smoker. I take one a day after dinner; weekends, when my friends offer me, I take it as well. I’m a light smoker, not a social smoker. But still, my oncologist was still not hopeful for me to have this mutation.

The chances of it happening for me was maybe 3-4% for me to get it. That’s why I was being primed to go for chemo. But through all the intense prayers, friends like Danny, people that I don’t even know, it turned out that, during my waiting for chemo, the results came back that I was EGFR positive. I was like, “Woah, good news!” Cos now I don’t have to undergo chemo at that time, because there’s this oral tablet that you can use to control this disease.











Just to share with you some idea – this is a CT scan – thorax – of my lungs, before treatment.

AFTER BEFORE

Every single dot there is a tumour. You can see all the mets (metastasis) there. This is just one single plane. Literally I had it in both lungs, and I had literally tens of thousands of tumour. That’s why the oncologist told me, even with chemo, at most 3-4 months.

But because of this mutation, they have this oral medication. This is what happened after 2 months of treatment. As you can see over here; this is what God can do. And that’s why I’m still here having this opportunity to share with you. As you can see over here, the difference between before and after treatment.

At that point, I said, “Well, it’s to be expected, isn’t it? The medicine is good.” I’m still not buying the story. Well, the guys prayed for me and the tumour markers started to come down. 90% of the tumours were wiped out, and the tumour markers came down to more than 90% over the next few months.

But still, you know, once you have the clinical knowledge, you know the statistics. One year survival, two year survival; having all this knowledge is not a good thing. Cos you live with the knowledge that even with all this, the cancer cells are so unstable, they keep mutating. They will overcome and become resistant to the drugs, and eventually you’re gonna run out of medication.

So living with this knowledge is a huge mental struggle, a huge mental torture. Cancer is not just about a physical struggle, it’s a huge mental torture. How do you live with no hope? How do you live with not being able to plan for the next few years? The oncologist tells you to bear with it for the next 1 – 2 months. So it’s a lot of struggles as I went through: March, then April. April was my lowest point, in deep depression, struggling even as I was recovering.

HIS ACCEPTANCE & PEACE

And one of those days, I was there in bed, struggling in the afternoon, asking God, “Why? Why do I have to go through this suffering? Why do I have to endure this hardship, this struggle? Why me?”

As I fell asleep, in my dreamy state, a vision just came, that says Hebrews 12:7-8.

Now mind you, at this time, I had not read the bible. I have no clue what’s Hebrews, I don’t even know how many chapters there are. Totally clueless.

But it says Hebrews 12:7-8, very specifically.

I didn’t think too much of it. I just continued sleeping. Then I woke up, and I said, “What’s there to lose? I’d just check it out lah!” Danny had bought me a bible; it’s still quite new. I said, “It’s ok, just try.” So I flipped to the Old Testament. Hebrews to me sounds like something ancient, so it should be in the Old Testament right? So I flipped through the Old Testament. No Hebrews there. I was so disappointed.

Then I said, “Maybe New Testament, let’s have a look!”. WOW – New Testament, there’s Hebrew’s!! It says Hebrews 12:7-8. It says, “Endure hardship as discipline as God is treating you as His children.”


I said, “WAH!! Where did that come from?” I was getting goose pimples all over my body. I said, “This can’t be, right?” I mean, what’s the chance of somebody, who has never read the bible, to have a vision of a chapter of a specific verse, that answers my question directly?

I think God called to me directly as I was there sleeping, struggling with it, asking God, “Why do I have to suffer? Why do I have to suffer this?” And God says “Endure hardship as discipline as God is treating you as His child.”

At this point, the chance of that happening is even lesser than my EGFR being positive. There’s just no way; there’s so many millions of thousands of verses in the bible, how can I just conjure up something like that?

So at that point, I was sold I said, “YOU WIN! YOU WIN!!”

Ok , I was convinced. And so from that day onwards, I started believing in my God. And the last time I heard that inner voice was the end of April. And that inner voice, same thing, in the afternoon, as I was sleeping (this time I wasn’t struggling, just going to sleep). In a dreamy state I just heard Him say, “Help others in hardship.”

It was more like a command, rather than a statement. And that’s when I embarked on this journey, helping others in hardship. And I realised that hardship is not just about being poor. In fact, I think a lot of poor people are probably happier than a lot of us here. They are so easily contented with whatever they have, they’re probably pretty happy.

Hardship can happen to rich people; it can be physical hardship, mental hardship, social, etc. And also over the last few months, I started to understand what this true joy is about. In the past, I substituted true joy with the pursuing of wealth. I thought true joy is about pursuing wealth. Why? Cos let me put it to you this way, in my death bed, I found no joy whatsoever in whatever objects I had – my Ferrari, thinking of the land I was going to buy to build my bungalow etc, having a successful business.

It brought me ZERO comfort, ZERO joy, nothing at all. Do you think I can hold onto this piece of metal and it’s going to give true joy? Nah, it’s not going to happen.

True joy comes from interaction with other people. And at a lot of times, it is a short term pride, the past. When you pursue your wealth, Chinese New Year is the best time to do it. Drive my Ferrari, show off to my relatives, show off to my friends, do my rounds, and then you thought that was true joy? You really think that those guys who sold you your Ferrari, they share their joy with you? And your relatives, wow, they share this joy with you? In truth, what you have done is just to illicit envy, jealousy, and even hatred. They are not sharing the joy with you, and what I have is that short-term pride that wow, I have something you don’t have! And I thought that was joy!

So what we have is basically a short-term pride at the expense of somebody else. And that wasn’t true joy. And I found no joy at all on my deathbed, thinking of my Ferrari – to hold on to it, sayang it?!?

True joy I discovered comes from interaction. Over the last few months I was so down. Interaction with my loved ones, my friends, my brothers in Christ, my sisters in Christ, and only then was I able to be motivated, able to be uplifted. To share your sorrow, to share your happiness – that’s true joy.

And you know what makes you smile? True joy comes from helping others in hardship, and because I’ve gone through this, I know what hardship entails. In fact, there’re some cancer patients who tell me a lot of times, people come up to them and tell them, “Stay positive. Stay positive.” Yah, right. You come in my shoes and you try to stay positive! You don’t know what you’re talking about!

But I have the licence. So I’ve been going out to meet other fellow cancer patients, to share with them, encourage them. And I know, because I’ve been through it, and it’s easier for me to talk to them.

And most importantly, I think true joy comes from knowing God. Not knowing about God – I mean, you can read the bible and know about God – but knowing God personally; getting a relationship with God. I think that’s the most important. That’s what I’ve learnt.

So if I were to sum it up, I’d say that the earlier we sort out the priorities in our lives, the better it is. Don’t be like me – I had no other way. I had to learn it through the hard way. I had to come back to God to thank Him for this opportunity because I’ve had 3 major accidents in my past – car accidents. You know, these sports car accidents – I was always speeding , but somehow I always came out alive, even with the car almost being overturned. And I wouldn’t have had a chance. Who knows, I don’t know where else I’d be going to! Even though I was baptised it was just a show, but the fact that this has happened, it gave me a chance to come back to God.

Few things I’d learnt though:
1. Trust in the Lord your God with all your heart – this is so important.
2. Is to love and serve others, not just ourselves.

There is nothing wrong with being rich or wealthy. I think it’s absolutely alright, cos God has blessed. So many people are blessed with good wealth, but the trouble is I think a lot of us can’t handle it. The more we have, the more we want. I’ve gone through it, the deeper the hole we dig, the more we get sucked into it, so much so that we worship wealth and lose focus. Instead of worshipping God, we worship wealth. It’s just a human instinct. It’s just so difficult to get out of it.

We are all professionals, and when we go into private practise, we start to build up our wealth – inevitably. So my thought are, when you start to build up wealth and when the opportunity comes, do remember that all these things don’t belong to us. We don’t really own it nor have rights to this wealth. It’s actually God’s gift to us. Remember that it’s more important to further His Kingdom rather than to further ourselves.

Anyway I think that I’ve gone through it, and I know that wealth without God is empty. It is more important that you fill up the wealth, as you build it up subsequently, as professionals and all, you need to fill it up with the wealth of God.

I think that’s about it. It’s good to share. Thanks.
Eric Tham added a memorabilia for Dr Richard Teo Keng Siang

Sunday, October 28, 2012

'P' Driver: Terror Rides...

My eldest has passed in her driving test, got herself her probationary driving license and all of us were taken for a terror ride. In my life, I only allow a few people to fetch me around. Being a fast driver, I feel completely safe driving myself around but when others drive me around, I will squirm in the seat and scream my lungs out. A couple of Saturdays back, my eldest offered to drive me to the nearest Tesco to get me a few things that I needed for the kitchen. I gladly handed her the keys and I chose to sit at the back. I have always have this thought that if I were to sit behind, I wouldn't die that fast. Pork volunteered to sit in front. 

By the time we turned out of the junction, there was a huge bump and my eldest just stepped on the gas pedal as if the bump ceased to exist. I was screaming for her to slow down and due to her incompetence to estimate the distance and the meaning of slowing down, we flew through the bump and came to a sudden halt as she hit the brake. And my heart just went on a bungee jump down the legs. I was about to puke and we were just a few metres out of the house. It was a safe journey from then until we reached Tesco and she created a traffic jam when she couldn't turn into the parking lot. There were two parking lots available, one required her to drive in head-on and the other lot required the reverse parking skill. She has neither the skills and since impatient drivers were honking, I asked her to get down and I took over the wheels. I was glad we reached Tesco in one piece.

The journey back home was even more horrifying. The vehicle almost flipped when she turned into the housing area and almost drove straight up into the road divider. I screamed my lungs out and I was glad she was able to straighten the vehicle instead of crashing into the divider. Pork and I stepped out of the vehicle with ashen faces. 
The next day, I was lenient enough to let her drive me from the centre of town and heading south. Usually I would be flying through the coastal road but since we left the house earlier, she was given a chance to drive with ME sitting in front, coaching her. To the driving schools out there, all the instructors did a poor job. No wonder there are so many accidents involving new drivers. I proved to be a better instructor. I thought her how to change into the correct gear, when to step on the clutch, when to change down WITHOUT stepping on the clutch and how to step on the gas pedal and release the clutch without making the car hopping like a sick kangaroo. 

I was barking in so many orders but I think she learned more from me in half an hour compared to her few driving lessons which comprised of driving in quiet highway without much traffic. Those who need refreshment courses on driving, come and see me... with your own car... but I'm having second thoughts now. I wouldn't want to risk my life... I would rather drive myself... hehehehehe

Secret Recipe...

I don't have any secret recipes. I was just gonna say that the day it was pouring cats and dogs and I was an hour late for my class, I had the opportunity to flip through the newspapers, reading every page including the advertisements and the promotions. I was looking at the buy 1 free 1 marble cheesecake in conjunction to Secret Recipe's 15th anniversary. Mi mama happened to call so I just mentioned it to her. The cheesecake wasn't cheap but if it was a buy 1 free 1, it was a good deal seeing that the material to produce a cheesecake ain't anywhere cheap.
It was stated that the promotion would start at 11a.m. at the Gurney Plaza outlet. The other house was near Gurney Plaza... you can say that I have houses with the best location. The houses are near to everywhere. Look at the queue and to think that I would join the crowd, it was unthinkable. But I went. I was there at 11:15a.m. and  I thought the queue should be just nice since I was just 15 minutes later than the starting time. I was wrong though. Gracie was already nearing the cashier when I reached and she walked away happily with two marble cheesecake. By the time it reached my turn, I was the 106th customer. Oh, wow~! And it was an hour later that the lady-in-charge said to the customers in front of me that there wasn't enough marble cheesecakes to be given away so we had to make do with one marble cheesecake and one voucher to be claimed within a week.
I was about to protest as I have waited for an hour and to go back there again was a waste of time. At the sight of size of the marble cheesecake, which was worth RM86 inclusive of taxes, it wasn't worth the money. Then, I thank God that I was 15 minutes late and I was the 106th customer. The lady-in-charge said that we could claim whichever cake we wanted on display, provided that there was ready stock in the refrigerator. But when the vouchers were given out, I DO read the fine prints. It was written that if there's marble cheesecake in store, then we would be given the same cake. Between verbal promises and black and white statement, black and white would have won any arguments as no one recorded what the lady and the cashiers said.
I was one step smarter. I was thinking that if I go again the next day, the marble cheesecake wouldn't reach on time all the way from Kuala Lumpur. So I would have the chance to choose other cakes. There wasn't much choices to choose from among the cheesecakes selection. To choose from chocolate fudge won't be a good bargain, so I brought my pineapple and my precious along, and being chocolate lovers, except for my pineapple, we settled for the chocolate berries cheesecake. I sort of love it but my own homemade chocolate cheesecake was a level above this commercialized cheesecake. 

It proved to be true that black and white statement was at the upper hand. The girl who went with me said there were so many marble cheesecakes to be handed out with those holding the vouchers 5 days later. Thank God for my witty mind :D

When It Rains, It Pours...

The monsoon season is coming and it looks like most of the states in Malaysia is getting a taste of it. Penang is still the state protected due to its strategic geographical location and shielded by prayers against flood. The newspapers state that authorities are all geared up for various flood-prone states to face the onslaught of heavy rainfalls. When it rains, it really pours. Just a few weeks back, it was pouring cats and dogs. I looked out from my window and I got a 'scene' that I usually see from afar like from the top of my apartment building. But since this is a landed property, I have a totally different view. 
The large football and recreational field with potholes were flooded. I can release a few of my ducks fighting fish to have a good swim in the field. Moreover, the house is surrounded by two primary vernacular schools and a huge national schools. That explains why the house is always dusty with roughly about a thousands passing by the house on weekdays. Opposite the house, in front of the schools, is a one way street. All cars will make one round and pass by the house, unless they exit in another opening, and drivers are driving especially slower than tortoises and snails add up both on a rainy day.
Look at the crawling traffic. That's total madness and I purposely woke up early on that day so that I wouldn't be late for my class in town. Waking up early was a bad move. I should have just slept until a little after  eight then the traffic would have dissipated. 
I was stuck in my own house. Even if I braved the heavy rain and opened the gate, I wouldn't be able to reverse my car out of the porch. In the end, I walked around in the house to wait until the traffic cleared off. The main road leading to the house is always under water once it pours. You can have a jet-ski roaring around during those days. There was a good side to heavy downpours. Every time after the rain stops, the plants in the garden would just sprout a few more inches taller.

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Hee...

I have lots and lots of stuff to write about. I was thinking about writing a few stuff while waiting for the marble cake to bake but after washing up all the baking equipment and waiting for the broadband that took forever to be connected, the cake is out of the oven, cooled and into the box. Baking for my eldest to share with her friends. It's going to be their graduation dinner tomorrow and her school sux to the max~!! Where got schools that determine what kinda attire to wear for the graduation dinner. The students should have their rights in deciding what to wear. And wearing an orange t-shirt with skirt? That's hideous~!! And they have to pay RM250 per person. That's cut-throat expensive. 

There are lots of things that happen around the house. Interesting stuff that I've captured most of them in my camera but again I can't find time to upload any of them. I always don't have enough time.... *sigh* but if I have too much time in hand means I'm in big trouble... means I'm jobless... so thank God for busy times....

It's going to be 2 a.m. I better shut the lappie down and go to bed... gonna have steamboat tomorrow with lots and lots of fish balls and meatballs and crab claws and this and that... Life is great... 

Sunday, October 14, 2012

Grrr... Not Functioning...

We stayed over in the other house where I have access to my computer. I woke up early today just to use the computer. I have photos to upload but the card reader wasn't reading the card at all. And until now, it's still not reading and I have to leave the house soon for my classes. What is wrong with the card or the card reader??? It has never has any problems.... GGrrrrrr....

Thursday, October 11, 2012

Yee---haw~!

A short post. I've had quite a morning today. I was sleeping earlier and earlier in the new house and I really enjoy my sleep. Played with the rabbits before I plonked my head on the pillow. Woke up totally refreshed this morning. Had a great jog with my MP3 to accompany me then I ran straight to the wet market. Bought some meatballs and a tray of eggs. Sounds mundane... but I was having a great time... which I don't know why but I guess when you have the much needed sleep, paying off the sleep bank, it's really great even if you're washing the water cubicle... not like I've wash one before... just saying...

We brought the dogs out for a morning walk... morning walk my arse... Savvy stopped walking after 9 minutes... carried him to the playground... then after a few more minutes, he was way too tired to move. If you were there, you would have understand how tired he was. He was EXTREMELY tired... breathless... then I carried him back until it was so near the house that he decided to run. And there was a stray hyena roaming freely and tagging along. Hmph~! And there was a bleeding tree... bled itself on us... pff~!!

Right now, my precious and my pineapple are sitting for the History paper... a paper that can send shivers... but I've always love History so I couldn't understand how fearful they are with that paper... Two more papers to go on Monday... should have just finish it off tomorrow... hmmm... I wonder who set the exam timetable... 

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

No Kidding~!

It's Wednesday. In 8 more minutes, the form threes are gonna hand-in their shaded answer sheet for Geography. Hip hip hurrah~!! Today's schedule was slightly crazy. I prepared lunch at 9a.m. just for them to come back at 11:20a.m. and for the first time I had lunch before 12 noon. I'm having a fun time online but I have to check the clock once in awhile because I'm afraid that I might get carried away and forget to fetch them back from school. 
No joke~!! My pineapple and my precious were pestering me to bake them some cakes. I stayed awake and baking the perfect Victoria sponge with raspberry jam and strawberry jam and also blackberries. Do you know that I've never seen blackberries before. Never even tasted them before. But now I know and they know what blackberries are. I simply love this sponge cake... argh~! Have to get out to pick them now and they're gonna reward themselves with two slices of cake each. How wonderful is that? They are a pampered lot...Ask and you shall be given. Want this cake? Drop your order at vincep60@gmail.com

Tuesday, October 09, 2012

Bob Fitts' Live Concert...

That was two Saturdays away, held at TAR College's hall. I would like to thank one of my Facebook friend's who sent me the invitation but I couldn't remember who sent it to me. I've been listening to Bob Fitts' songs since I was in secondary school. It has never occur in my mind that one day I will have the privilege to attend the live concert. A Christian concert is not the same as those live concerts featuring the famous singers where the fans jumped, screamed the heads off and painted their faces like clowns.
Every one who attended, worshiped God along with Bob Fitts. Every clap sends booming thunder to hell and all of us serenaded heaven with our lovely voices. It's just not about the singer. It's about God. We're not the audience, God is. The worship was so good it lasted somewhere before midnite. If the concert went on until the next morning,  I think most people would have stayed back regardless of the time. Those who missed out on this, you REALLY missed out. 

Scaly and Furry...

It has been quite a while since I last updated. It has been crazy with major exams around the corner. Today is the first day of a major examination for the third formers, just like middle school students taking exam to enter high school. My precious is snoozing right beside me after going through Science and Geography for tomorrow and the day after next. My pineapple collapsed into a heap on the bed in the next room. It's time to rest the brain. 

I have lots of things to talk about but since everything was so outdated already, I was thinking of forgetting about those stuff that I wanted to write about. And again... I'm rushing for time now. I only have less than half an hour before I log off... *grrrrr*
After my smart doggie passed away, mi mama said no more dogs, no more being slave to furry friends. My eldest has always wanted to have pets. She loves animals more than humans. Yesterday, mi hubby has a cat stuck under his vehicle and when he started the ignition, the cat went rolling under the engine. The cat came out as a rubble... I think. I wasn't there to witness it but my eldest just came back from school and she watched the cat plonked down from the bottom of the vehicle, she didn't know what to do. She was looking at the poor cat in so much pain, she ran into the house, cried her eyes out and prayed for the cat. She was asking God to do something with that cat. Then, she ran out of the house and looked at the cat. The nine lives of the cat wore out. The cat died in pain. My eldest was thinking about the way I drive into the porch. Obviously I drive fast and she couldn't bear the thought that I will definitely go over the cat another time. So she mustered up whatever courage that's left in her, went to grab some old newspapers, wrapped the cat up and conducted a simple funeral for the cat in the field opposite the house. God bless the cat's soul....

Oh, I wanted to talk about my new pet. It's mine because I bought it. That's a big ear. I like those white shiny fins when the fish swim about. There are 6 fish in total, all in separate glass aquariums because they are all fighting fish. They will fight there's only one left standing swimming, thus they have to be separated. 
These two adorable fur balls shifted into the house last Thursday. They are so tame they don't bite. Unlike the two renegades that we had earlier. They love running and hopping around in the house. We let them have their freedom. I do not like the idea of keeping animals in cages. 

No dog in the house. So I'll just borrow a dog once in awhile. I love dogs but do not want to be tied down with one at home. And I have Malay neighbour so it's not wise to keep a barking dog. You don't expect to have a non-barking dog.