Will You Live to See Miracles?

Some people pray that they will see miracles but when a miracle happened right under their nose, they don't even know it. They don't even believe about a miracle when they heard of it. They will question and ask for more details until the miracle does not seem to be a miracle after all. There are many people who are like that.

I've seen and experienced many miracles in my life, especially when I travel. It's when you step out of your comfort zone that you experienced miraculous events that no one can explain. My most recent miracle was my RM50 note turned into RM100. I have a few RM50 notes with me and I took one out to buy some meat at the market. I put it down on my shelf to comb my hair and I was contemplating whether to keep it in my pocket or bring my sling bag along with me. Then I remembered about the incident where my RM50 note flew out of my pocket, gone with the wind. Actually I didn't see that piece of money flying off, it just disappeared. So, I decided to bring the sling bag along. Lo' and behold, my RM50 note has turned into RM100.

Being excited and all, I texted my friends and loved ones. Hallelujah~! Amen~! Those were the responses I received but to my dismay, some even questioned whether I have taken the wrong note, seen wrongly. They even asked how could it happen. And they are believers of Christ. Suddenly, it dawned on me what there are people who have never experienced any form of miracles in their lives. Lord, help them of their unbelief. I started to text a few more people and in the end, I truly understand the whole thing with miracles. If a miracle so small that you will cannot believe, do you think God will show you bigger miracles?

You can't even believe that my RM50 turned into RM100. It's like Jesus carrying out His first miracle where He turned water into wine. If something that simple you refused to believe, even if He healed a person who is permanently disable, you wouldn't believe it. Number one, I cannot explain to you how my RM50 turned into RM100. I seriously do not know how to explain that but I wasn't blind. Well, if you can't believe that, will you believe me when I told you that I missed a train in Melbourne and being upset and all, I prayed a short prayer, asking God to help me out regarding this train issue. After moving forward a couple of stops, in the middle of the train track, the train stopped and started moving backwards at top speed. While other commuters were baffled and started to complain, I was baffled myself but I was really excited. We arrived at the other train station 45 minutes earlier than the train that we missed and we managed to catch that train. The furious commuters who got down the train demanded for an explanation from the station master, but the station master could only apologized for the technical glitch. I have nothing to complain. I was skipping around happily. You might think God is selfish at that point of time, not thinking about others who might be late to their appointments and destination, but I'm sorry, I cannot explain that either.

I have one too many miraculous incidents in my life that sometimes I tend to overlook them. Try not to ask for too much of scientific explanation. His ways are higher than ours. If everything you need lengthy explanation then sad to say, till the day you die, you will never live to see any miracles because you're blind at heart and you believe too much about science that you forget the wonders. Step up your faith. And by the way, you don't have to be a multi-millionaire to realize that God has blessed you tremendously. I may have no money in my wallet but I have really good food on the table. That's a miracle on its own.

Do you know that when you entertain your unbelief so much, you tend to explain everything within your pea-brain capacity and thinking that you have a smart answer, you become a real idiot? Like when you see the sick being healed, while the sick rejoiced because of the healing, you and your big mouth might water down the miracle because you explain it off that the medication is finally working. When the train moved backward, you just said it's a technical glitch and when there's nothing else to explain about, you just said there's no such thing. Change your mindset and look out for miracles.

Kissed by the Devil...

"Look into my eyes... and feel the Father's love. Look into my eyes... look into my eyes..." And one by one, they were slain, by what power, one would ask. Is it the power of the Holy Ghost? To the one with poor knowledge and understanding towards the Word, that man will believe that he has been slain under the anointing of the Holy Ghost. To the one who is knowledgeable and stay close to the Lord, the spirit man will be on the alert and know instantly that the whole congregation was dancing with the devil, clothed in the sheep-skin. When the righteous and alert were not 'touched' by the devil, the devil himself delivered a kiss. Did not Judas Iscariot betray Jesus with a kiss? 

I have heard the voice of Jesus.... I have also heard the voice of the one from hell. I will not be deceived by any other voices or actions portrayed. Look into the eyes and feel the Father's love... please show me in which part of the Bible Jesus shows the Father's love through His eyes? Did he heal the blind by asking the blind to look into His eyes? Did he deliver a kiss to the one with demons in his body? There... there.... the whole congregation danced with the devil. What has happened to the church?

The end is drawing nearer, many churches will die away. It will just be a building for the old faithful. There are people who refused to follow the cloud. The main reason would be it's not nice to leave the church just like that. Well, put courtesy aside, you have to save your own soul. There shouldn't be any compromise. If a church leader has done 99 things correct but 1 wrong move that's against Biblical teaching, the alarm in your senses should have screamed out loud. No compromise. God never even give Aaron's sons a chance to explain what wrong they have done. Both sons died on the spot. So, there shouldn't be any compromise in any part. A church that's spiritually dead is better than a church that's lukewarm, a minute hot for Jesus, another minute dancing around with the devil.

Speak to the leader, you say... A man who worships his own pride will listen to no one even when he's digging his own grave connecting down to hell right under your nose. A church which tends to veer towards the worldly thinking is like a ship riding straight into the whirlpool. One may say that the Spirit of God is with us, so nothing can be done to our soul, let's just enjoy watching horror movie. Are you afraid of horror movie? What kinda question is that? Why should I enjoy horror movie? Why do you want to scare your spirit man for the fun of it? Watching horror movie does not show that you're a brave person. It shows how much pride you have that you can even hurt your spirit man just to show off. Isn't it pure stupidity to throw caution into the wind and out of the window? If you know that your neighbourhood is a safe one, why do you still lock your door? Why not just remove the doors and windows?? The one who comes in the night to steal, kill and destroy will be an outsider, not your neighbour. Sheer stupidity to open your soul to the devil. 

A man who explains the Bible with all sorts of theological nuances to water down the true meaning ought to hang himself like Judas Iscariot.  

Piano Exam and I...

I have a year to practice but I don't see myself doing that. I'm the greatest procrastinator because as time draws nearer and when I feel the heat, then I can perform better. I don't remember practicing day and night on the piano just to get a pass. I can pass by just sight-reading the whole three pieces and playing the scales through trial and error. For aural, I will just spit out whatever answer that I can think of but aural for grade 7, there's nothing I can vomit out. One month ago, I finally opened my scales book to see what's inside. Scales in legato, that I'm okay with but in staccato. What kind of animal is that? And a third apart? And what on earth is chromatic scales? I shrink by a size or two after flipping through the pages. It's okay... let's tackle them one-by-one. One week before the exam, I finally have the courage to go through the aural CD.

Through my experience, I need one week to master the scales including the one with a-third apart. Then, another week for contrary motion. One more week for chromatic scales and another to master the arpeggios. 

The pieces, I plan to breeze through them, as long as I hit those notes correctly, I'm going to pass. That sort of view changed drastically the moment my sister said she's coming for a visit. The first day itself when she heard me playing, she said it was terrible. Teruk.... teruk... The next day, I decided to seriously practice and in order to do that, I have to sacrifice my time for cooking. Since she's back, she only wants to eat hawker food so mi madre has to take her along. I'm left with no one to cook for me, no food on the table and the saddest part was I was left with only a bunch of bananas and I had to eat that for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The hubby was not around, busy with his stuff. I only wanted that distinction to plaster it on my sister's face. Just to spike her. I've never sat on the piano bench for 6-8 hours a day. It was terrible.

I did not even sit in front of the computer, didn't even prepare any answer sheets for my students who are all sitting for trial exams. I told them my exam is more important than theirs. Then, 5 days before the exam, I decided to take a video of my fingers playing those three pieces because my travel buddy said she has never seen me playing a piano before. I sent her those video and I sent to another angel who could help me give sound advice. Then, my itchy finger just clicked on the video and my own fingers playing intimidated me. Yes, I got intimidated by my own fingers. You know when you watch it on YouTube wondering, how on earth they played so fast.... well.... yeah... hmmm.... My angel gave good advice as a booster for more marks. I took that seriously but two days before the exam, it dawned on me that I will never get a distinction because my motive was completely wrong. I stressed myself up just because I wanted to prove to my sister that I can do it even though it's a last minute. I gave up trying. I'll just laugh my way in and out. 

I got a really nice lady for an examiner. She's really kind. Jesus is on my side. I got all the easy scales... everything's easy even sight-reading was in adagio. I just don't like the piano used for exam. It's like typing on a computer keyboard. You always try random pressing to see whether you like it or not before buying it. Sometimes it's like holding a pencil. There are some who prefer fat pencils, some with rubber grip and some with a thin body. It's a matter of preference. And the saddest part was I usually can't play for others to hear that's why I'm never a performer. 

I was nervous this morning. I made mistakes which I have never made before. It's like suddenly you don't even know that 1+1=2 and you try to use trigonometric formula to figure out what's 1+1... you get what I'm saying? So, my conclusion is, if I am to take grade 8 exam, I will not torture myself sitting for hours on the piano. No matter how much I practice, when I'm nervous, nothing good comes out of it. Thanks to everyone who keeps me in prayer. Your prayers have all been answered. 

It feels really good without stress. I'm back on the computer and I have a pile of essays to write. I would rather write 300 essays than concentrating on 3 piano exam pieces which I end up making more mistakes while practicing harder. To my neighbours who have endured the long hours of listening to the same scale over and over, thank you for not banging on the door or throwing stones into the house to show disapproval of such noise pollution. Thank you to the back lane neighbour who took his/her time to blow the saxophone together with me when I was doing the scales. Thank you for the accompaniment and you started the scale again when I got stuck halfway and started mine. You're a really great and wonderful saxophonist. Hope we can meet one day and say hi since we're just one back lane away.... if only we open our back door.  

Malaysia, My Home, Our Land~!

Thank you Tan Sri Anthony Francis Fernandes for your brilliant work in birthing AirAsia with the tag motto of 'Now Everyone Can Fly'. No matter what others say about AirAsia, I only have praises to sing to AirAsia. Never late for any flight I was in. Thank you once again. 

It's the time of the year where we head out of the island, flying to the capital of Malaysia. We read in the newspaper that it's advisable to be at the airport two to three hours before for domestic flight. Thus, we make it a point to be early and there was no crowd at all at the airport. So we ended up being too early thus, the photo taking session. I was walking around, leaving the hubby to snooze on the chair. He's so comfortable he can sleep anywhere. I was looking for a bottle of mineral water and I found Dunkin Donuts selling bottled drinks. A 500ml bottle of Spritzer cost RM4.15. I told the cashier that I would continue fasting since it's still the month of Ramadhan.

My precious brought along her school work. I did not ask her to bring any of those. I did not even know she brought them along. She's big enough already so I no longer pack her luggage for her. She decides what she wants and there... her assignments tagged along. Hubby and I were betting that she wouldn't get anything done on a holiday. Hehehehe.... we were partially right~!

I did not book any window seat as I thought we've seen more than enough of Malaysia from the sky above. But the passenger beside me found it quite troublesome to get into his window seat since we were already well seated in our B and C seats so he decided to sit behind us at the aisle seat. Thank you for that. Greatly appreciate the opportunity to view Malaysia from above once again. That's the first Penang Bridge. As the plane soars above, my pride soars with it. I am really proud to be a Malaysian. Greatly honoured to be able to call this our home, our land. It is really beautiful.

Shall we just put the political scenes behind and just take in the beauty of this land. We are indeed blessed compared to other countries which have to make use of whatever's thrown to them. Our education may not be top notch, but don't forget that our students are not hardworking and do not take the initiative to learn. We're blessed with plenty of food, with all kinds of cuisines from all over the world. Malaysia is well-known now whether for a good cause or for all the wrong reasons.

A decade ago, many people who has never travel abroad thought that Malaysia belongs to one of Singapore's cities, now you know that Malaysia is a country on its own when our plane vanished into thin air, then our plan was shot down and you might have also heard of our political circus washing their dirty linens for all to see. As I look down on this land called Malaysia, I'm still proud to be living in it. I don't plan to migrate. I love this place. It's a hot country so I tend to stay indoor to avoid the scorching sun. 

That's the backbone of Peninsular Malaysia, the Titiwangsa Ranges which covered a few states with different peaks. I've driven across it, went up to two of its peaks and it's beautiful no matter what you say. There are bad people in Malaysia. There are bad people everywhere. One person's mistake should not kill off the good in others. To those who like the Chinese to get out, please don't do that. We were born and bred here. Where do you want us to go? It's very selfish to say that this land belongs to one race only. Didn't we contribute to the wealth of this nation as well? Our ancestors were buried here as well. By right, this land belongs to the Orang Asli. They came before everyone else yet they have been sidelined.

It's the Raya holidays and I booked an evening flight ticket because hubby and my precious were supposed to be in school in the morning. Well, the education ministry came out with the news that it's holiday for Wednesday but I couldn't do anything already as my tickets have been booked. If not I would have flew early in the morning. That's the second Kuala Lumpur International Airport, a big piece of an airport.

KL Food Hunt: Paradise Inn at Sunway Pyramid...

 We were in Sunway Pyramid to get to our Aeroline bus. The bus was suppose to go off at 5:30pm but we were about 40 minutes earlier. So, we were contemplating whether to try out Texas Chicken. We were really full to the brim thus, we decided to walk around. We got enticed by an advertisement outside a Chinese restaurant, one of the sister restaurants of Paradise Dynasty.

 The giant abacus and the giant bowl seduced me to enter. Really got China's Chinese mentality of everything gigantic in size. I like~!

I like lights don't ask me why. It's the same thing of being obsessed with shoes and handbags which I'm not obsessed with.

Actually we saw that steamed pork belly bun being advertised with extra discount for tea time. We didn't realize that the advertisement was also of China's Chinese mentality of think big~! Come to think of it, the advertisement was actually bigger than us. When the steamed pork belly bun came to us, it was kinda disappointing because the plate was big but the bun was really small. Yeah, what was I expecting? I don't know what I was expecting but the advertisement outside was so huge. *sigh* I got tricked by advertisement.

It came with a bowl of dessert. It was something with mango. At first we thought it must be some sort of custard base pudding. I'm not very adventurous with food. I pushed the bowl to my precious first. She took a mouthful and her face just lighted up like a light bulb~! She was it was really very good. Facial expression will never lie. If the food was so-so, my precious will be expressionless. If the food was horrible, she will just push the whole thing to my hubby. Hubby like rubbish bin. Anything any of us doesn't it, he will save the food from going to the rubbish dump. After finishing our so-called tea, we had 15 more minutes before the bus leave us for good. But I wanted to try something else, like soup. The waitress quickly gave us the menu for soup and my eyes caught sight of double-boiled soup. I have no idea what the heck double boiling was at that point of time. I didn't even know I have double-boiler with me all these years~!!!!

I couldn't really understand why this pot of the double-boiled soup must cost so much. What's inside that made it so expensive. The waitress said the soup was double-boiled for many hours. I didn't understand why must the soup be double-boiled for so long and what on earth was the meaning of double boiling? Hubby said something like steaming but without the steam. Hubby is my walking dictionary and also my kitchen encyclopedia but I thought he's talking nonsense that day.

I told hubby I must dig out what's inside the soup that made it so expensive. Got few pieces of babi meat, got few pieces of pumpkin.

Three chicken feet. Odd pair... can't run away... so sad. I remembered there were dried oysters used and a lot more Chinese herbs listed on the menu. I didn't bother to take a picture of the menu or else I could go home and double-boil my own Chinese herbal soup. 

The three of us needed so many bowl just to drink a small pot of soup. The waiter and waitress were very kind and understanding. The soup was really hot so while we were sipping our first bowl, the waiter poured the rest into different bowls so that it would cool down faster. They're so kind. Unlike some waiters who would refuse to give you even an empty plate or extra pair of chopsticks. I didn't want to rush into finishing the expensive soup so fast. I wanted to take small sips. We made it to the bus :D

Now, I truly understand what makes double-boiled soup expensive. I came back and for the first time in my life I realized that  I actually do have a double boiler. My precious' mom sent us a Eu Yang Sang's hamper during the Chinese New Year. There were instructions for double-boiling the soup. The best ginseng soup I've ever tasted. It took me 4 hours to double-boil the soup. Other than ginseng there were dried red dates, dried longan and chicken meat added. The ingredients were not expensive. Trust me. I've bought a few Chinese herbal ingredients from the Chinese drug store and there were only a few Ringgit but after boiling the soup for 4 hours, I would charge you RM600 for one bowl. It's not because it's hardwork. There's no human energy involve in waiting for the soup to be double-boiled but human sanity is involve here. During that 4 hours, you can't go anywhere. Can't even take a nap. I was so afraid I might burn down the whole house if I leave it. I could only sit on my piano and started playing random songs until my neighbours became deaf. The piano room is just at the kitchen. Yeah, if you can't cook then you'll have to pay for others. Now, that I can cook, I'm not willing to pay others who serve me food with no standard.

KL Food Hunt: Paradise Dynasty in Bangsar Village...

While walking aimlessly in Bangsar Village, we finally stopped upon seeing this Legend of Xiao Long Bao. We were full from Three Little Pigs but we just had to have those xiao long baos.

We were seated in one corner and while waiting for our baos, I played with the camera first. 

Nice place. We like Chinese cuisine anytime... if we didn't chance upon the Three Little Pigs, I would really like to have my lunch at Paradise Dynasty. After around 15 minutes, the steam basket came to our table.

I love colours especially those eye-catching colours. No doubt the shape of the xiao long baos look like the cartoon drawn 'shit', the colours made them cute.

Crab Roe Xiao Long Bao...

Original Xiao Long Bao...

Szechuan Xiao Long Bao...

Foie Gras Xiao Long Bao...

Ginseng Xiao Long Bao...

Cheesy Xiao Long Bao...

Garlic Xiao Long Bao...

Black Truffle Xiao Long Bao...

That's all... one for each different flavour. The three of us took a bite and passed the spoon around. Then, we quickly leave the place when it started raining cats and dogs. Outside of Bangsar Village became like a monsoon drain with lots of water. Scary... we did not want to be caught in a flash flood, missed our bus *our first time taking bus to KL* 

KL Food Hunt: Three Little Pigs & The Big Bad Wolf at Bangsar Village...

It was our last day in Kuala Lumpur. I Googled out three shopping malls and asked my precious to choose. She decided on Bangsar Village so we left Kuchai City Hotel and hailed a taxi to take us straight there. No point searching for buses. We didn't have time for buses. 

When we were walking towards the building, instead of heading straight to the main entrance, we were drawn to this grey door with those 'Three Little Pigs' wording. We were wondering what kinda place was that. We know about the Big Bad Wolf book sales but if they are selling books, why were the books non-halal? 

 The moment we pushed the door opened, the whole place looked so classy and we were both saying,"Oh, no~!" Yeah, oh no.... we're going to overspend. My precious thought that we should just walk out but then we were attracted to the piggies drawn with chalk on the wall. 

 We were seated at the nearest table, served by a really friendly Filipina. She gave us the menu and even the menu was attractive with a burger-menu bookmark.

 There were two chapters in the book and then because we were so hungry, I gave green light to overspending. Just order without looking at the price. And with that, my precious went ahead and ordered something really simple....

 ... such as the pumpkin soup. I was banging my head against the wall, in my imagination. I came back and made her a whole pot of pumpkin soup.

 Then, my precious ordered salmon with bacon sliced spaghetti with a poached egg which cost roughly more than RM30. When we reached home, I started grilling bacon and salmon. Since it's so much money spent already, why not have a hearty meal, according to the hubby.

 We liked that corner as well. While waiting for our food to arrive, we kept ourselves busy first.

The Soft Shelled Crab Burger...

Three Little Pigs may serve common spaghetti dishes but they served the best burgers. McJu from Yen's Kitchen bowed out the moment Three Little Pigs' epic epicurean burgers were served on the table. They were the best I've tasted. The soft-shelled crab burger was in the common menu though. Hubby loves soft-shelled crab... 

The Gladiator...

That's the Gladiator burger with pork burger. Those were not buns but macaroni with cheese made into the form of buns. There were the best of the best that I've ever had. No regrets. Thank God we didn't walk out of the place. 

The Emperor...

A double patty burger with ham and pork bolognaise. We shared those burgers among ourselves. Should have just ordered differently then I could wallop the whole burger. I don't intend to try making these at home. I just wanted to enjoy that moment.