More pictures...

Right now, I'm watching Roswell and eating Tofiluk. Hehe. Didn't know tofiluk was sold in Thailand, never came across one until Daron saw the wrapper on the ground in Chiang Mai. We checked their 'Snack Bar' and lo and behold, Tofiluk! Heheh. Haven't eaten tofiluk for a long time, and when I tasted that familiar taste again, it felt good! Hehe. Well. Here are some more pictures of the trip and also the concert. As I've said before, I'm too poor to own my own camera, so these pictures were taken from D and D's digicam. Hehe. Thanks guys. :)


Shimona, Bob, Me and Joy at the waterfall.


The 'fountain'. Look how clear the water is!


Me and Daron drinking the water from the 'fountain' for good luck. Hehe. So superstitious. Well, it was just for fun - at least for me. Hehe.


Shimona took this. Not bad. Hehe. Before going sight seeing, after a really good lunch!


Me and the kids. Deanna said they wanted to take picture with me, but they were shy at the same time, I had to be extra friendly. Hehe.

Now, pictures of the concert.


RJ, Deanna and Me.


with Sendy.


Julie and Julie. Hehe.


with Tanya.


with my good kaibigan, RJ. Hehe. Did I used the right word, RJ? Hehe.


JJ, me, Fie2 and Pappu.

That's all folks. Nite nite. :)

Music Rendezvous Vol. II

Time flew by so fast. It seemed like it was just yesterday that we performed in the Music Rendezvous concert. Last Saturday was the second concert organized by the MC String Ensemble. This time, instead of 14 string players in the string ensemble, there were only 7 of us. Three new players - Lyndelle, Lemuel and Sendy. It was great - we didn't feel as much pressure as last year and we pulled all the songs off pretty well, no major off tunes (definitely less than last year). Hehe. Here are some of the pictures - will post more later, I have a class in about 30 minutes, need to get ready now.


During the intermission, we had nothing to do so we took pictures. Me, Lemuel and Lyndelle.


Me and Nok.


Aichii, Nat and me.


With Daron and Lyndelle.

More pictures will be posted up later.

MCCC trip to Chiang Mai

Hehe. Sorry for this late, late post about the trip to Chiang Mai. Well, it was a great trip despite just experiencing the loss of my beloved cousin. 10 hours on the road was fun (sort of) too - sleep, played games, sleep again, played games again, and so on. We arrrived at the city of Chiang Mai at around 8 p.m. and went shopping at the market. The market was biggggg, if only we had more time to shop. The group stayed at the Chiang Mai Adventist Church compound for the night. The next morning, the group were up bright and early. Before heading to Chiang Mai Adventist Academy, we were brought to a temple - forgot its name though. Did some shopping - no, actually I did most of my shopping for Thai silk there, knowing that we wouldn't be stopping at any more places selling Thai silk.

The weekend went well, really well. We stayed at Hardin Hall, some 5 minutes from the Academy. The church service was amazing, especially the song service. The kids - oh, they were great. When they sing, it's deafening (in a good way, though). You should have heard them, they were loud, and I mean LOUD. It felt good - leading song service in front and listening to their voices - it was great. I've never heard people singing this loud in a church before - certainly not in MC though. Saturday afternoon - visit to Buatong Waterfall. Amazing waterfall - you can climb the waterfall without slipping because the rocks were not slippery - at all! And then, while the others were still enjoying the waterfall, Acharn Damrong brought us to the see the 'fountain'. The water was clear, and when Acharn Damrong told us that there is a belief that when someone drinks the water from the 'fountain', it will bring good luck to them. Mr. Gerald decided to try, at first we just watched. But then, we decided to try it too, and the taste of the water was uhm...i don't know. It was full of minerals, so you can imagine how it tasted like.

Saturday night was also great. We led song service again, and sang "Ring Christmas Bells" and "Ding Dong Merrily On High". After that - games! The students had fun playing the games - so I observed. The night was still young when we headed back to Hardin Hall. Earlier, we had already decided that we would stay awake the whole night because we had to wake up at 4 a.m. But then, the electricity went off, so we couldn't watch movies or play cards. What we did was we played the 7 Up game and the knots game before deciding that we might as well get some sleep.

The journey back to MC felt shorter. Maybe it was because I slept most of the way and didn't feel the time passing by. We arrived at MC at around 4.30 p.m. All in all, I really enjoyed the trip and I'm looking forward to more trips with the MCCC next semester! Meanwhile, enjoy the pics. :)


Deanna, Me, Joy and Shimona - in the bus before exiting the gates of MC. Hehe.


Joy, Me and Daron - at the market in Chiang Mai.


Shimona, Me and Joy - with the poodle. Hehe.


Me and Deanna.


The food we ate. Didn't know Shimona was behind me. Hehe.


Shimona bonded with this cute poodle - newest member of the MCCC. Hehe. Oh look, it has a tie!


With the other MCCC.


Sabahans.

New day

It’s a new day again. It felt good to wake up, go for yoga, walk around the track and see the sunrise this morning. It might have been a good start for the day if nothing had happened back home. Today, my beloved cousin will be laid to rest until Jesus comes. I might look and act as if nothing happened, but there are times that my mood suddenly changes. I just want to say that it’s still a mask that I’m wearing, inside it still hurts so bad. So, forgive me if I suddenly go quiet or act differently. Yesterday, I skipped my 8 o’clock class – feel pretty guilty about it, but glad at the same time. I knew that even though I went to class, I might not be able to fully concentrate on what the teacher says. On the other hand, I can say that I’m glad I didn’t go to class because I got to chat with my cousin and just talk about our cousin. I cried as we had our chat, he cried too. He said he called our uncle and our uncle told him not to worry because they are doing okay. I’m also glad when he told me that the support given by other family members were great – as soon as my uncle called his other siblings, they immediately went to the hospital even though they live 2 or 3 hours away from Kota Marudu. I was glad and comforted to have known that. There are three of us first cousins who are not able to go home – a cousin and her 3 children in the UK, another cousin in KL and myself – I’m not alone in my feelings after all.

Anyway, I’m still trying to feel better but it’ll take time. I just have to occupy my mind with other things so that I won’t think about it all the time. And I’m glad that I have my friends to do that.

On the other hand, tomorrow the Chamber Choir, together with some teachers and students, will be traveling to Chiang Mai! I have been waiting for tomorrow to come and finally it’s here! The journey will be 10 hours long - macam mo pigi Tawau saja or even further…hehe, cakap-cakap saja ni, bukan saya pernah pigi Tawau.:P
I guess this will be my last post for this week; next post will be on Monday the 14th. So have a good day and good weekend!

Oh, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my cousin and room mate, Lorena! May God bless you with many more birthdays to come. Always be thankful for birthdays. :)

p/s: I can't shout in my shoutbox, dunno why leh. Kakak Bibi, tnx, I know I can always count on you. I haven't been smsing you lately, miskin bah hehe, will do soon:)

Thank you so much

Thank you for your thoughts and prayers. It's always nice to have friends who are there when you are down. It's really hard for me to cope and deal with the death of my beloved cousin, especially when I'm far from home. I haven't seen her for a long time and I didn't have the chance to say 'goodbye' to her for the last time. It hit me really hard. I'm trying to cope with her death, but I can't do it all alone. That's why I'm grateful to have friends here who offered comfort to me. I want to be home badly, to be there with family and relatives during this time of loss, but I know it's not possible, especially now. I just hope that you will continue to pray for her family.

Special thanks from me goes to:

Daron - thank you for the hug and comfort. (sorry if I woke you up with the sms)

Deanna - thank you for the effort of cheering me up, thank you for chatting with me in
the middle of the night (sorry to kacau you..hehe), thank you
for your prayers, thank you for the hug (really needed that:))

Shimona - thank you for saying that you are available if i needed to talk or cry, thank
you for your prayers and concern, thank you for your tip (;P)...I'm glad I
came for yoga this morning, took my thoughts away from it at least for a
little while. :)

Lyndelle - thank you for the comfort, thank you for your prayers and concern, thank
you for the sms you sent me

...to Fiona, Tina, and the others, thank you also for your prayers, comfort and for being there. I don't know what could have happened if you all were not here. I really, really appreciate it.

***To Amy, thank you for the words of encouragement, and to Leo, terima kasih to you
too. I can't shout in my shoutbox, but keep 'shouting' there.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

The result of sin...

I just lost a dear cousin. I was almost going to deep sleep when I received an sms from another cousin that requested me to pray for this particular cousin as she was critically sick in the hospital. That was around 11.15 p.m. I started to get uncomfortable. And then about 30 minutes later, my cellphone rang again and this time it said "Call". My heart started beating fast. I knew it was my brother, and he told me that they just arrived at the hospital in Kota Marudu, and also told me that there's little hope - that hit me. Before he hung up, he told me that he will call again if anything happens. I could not sleep. I was wide awake, thinking repeatedly to myself that my cellphone's gonna ring any time, it's either good or bad news. And then, as I lay on my bed, cellphone beside me, I heard that dreadful ring and saw that "call", I answered the phone, it was my brother and by the tone of his voice when he said "Adie..." (little sister), I just couldn't help it but to burst into tears. That was 12.03 a.m. (Thailand time). Damn it! My bro tried to calm me, but it didn't help. I haven't seen her for a long time, probably a couple of years, and I didn't get to see her when I went back last summer. I feel really, really bad. I knew this was gonna happen, but I didn't expect it to happen so suddenly and ... arggghh~! Death is so cruel!! This sinful world is cruel!

She was a great sport. We rarely see each other, except during family reunions. And whenever we get together during those family reunions, she was always there, cheerful and talkative. She always had a smile on her face. She was the family's best friend. She was strong despite her illness. I will truly miss her company whenever the Lamam family gather together again.

Please pray for her family, even if you don't know her. Thank you for your prayers.