Looking around for a condo in Seremban, Malaysia

As some of you might know, June and I have decided to do missionary work in Seremban, Malaysia. Probably for at least a year or two. I thought it's really good for us, no matter in our love for people, our spirituality, our family planning or even our current city-life-stress-intake, there's just pros for all (even to avoid the loud noises from our flat lift upgrading). Anyway, we were in Seremban trying to look for a condo to rent. The idea is that it must be safe, convenient, and has great facilities like a BBQ pit, function room, swimming pool and gym, will be really good. But sad to say, since Seremban is a small town, there's not a lot of condo, since it make more sense for them to utilize their big land and build houses. So the condo we saw was not really impressive, I would say it's a super humble condo. There's a security, a small condo office, a swimming pool which actually the size of a children pool. There's no function room, BBQ pit needed to be rent at RM$100, no gym, a table-tennis table that needs to be set up. The condo is not very well maintained both on inside and the outside. The only 2 lifts looked old and slight vandalised. When we saw the apartment that we supposed to rent, it's decent but the owner already have a confirmed tenant coming in unless we give him a better offer than RM$1100 per month. Hmm, I thought let's move on, beside I don't really have a good feel and vision of friends coming here enjoying the fellowship here. We moved on to see more condo but when we went around, we realised there's not a lot of condo for rent, mostly for sale. So with no choice, we went to look for houses. There are many houses there but I'm only impressed with the one in Green Stream Estate. It fulfilled some of the criteria, like it's secure, hourly guard patrol, near to S2 Jusco shopping mall. It has 3 bedrooms, 2 toilets, a small garden, really cool. I can imagine the Singapore Christians coming over to stay, nice. I especially like the small empty field just 5 steps beside the house. I can imagine doing BBQ, funtime on the field, nice. Hopefully the neighbors would not mind the crowd if it gets too excited! Please pray for us that we can get this house!

From Seremban 0908

The Beginning of Me

I think this is the picture of me when I'm around 1 year old. I also think this is the oldest picture I have of myself. It's funny 'cos I always think that I'm not my parents' biological child just because I do not have any baby photo of myself. It's only recently that I manage to find this picture. Once I looked that this picture, some nice memories (and bad memories) started to flow back. I remembered my old flat at Clementi. The texture of my sofa and that yellowish curtain. It's so retro and 'in' then. Of course, it's the 80's! I actually remembered that T-shirt I'm wearing and that striped pyjamas pants. I thought my father always like to buy me anything that has to do with heroes, not some kiddish spunch bob square pants like now. Probably my dad wants me to be some hero. There's actually another picture of me sitting in a bambo chair where I can properly have my meal, 'cos at the same time, I'm tied to the chair. I think I was really active when I'm that small but I thought who isn't!

June's Steamed Crabs

Man, I can't believe the post that I saved under "Draft' was gone. What the heck! Now I don't feel like writing the whole story again. Well, pictures speak a thousand words, so I'll just put more pictures here. All I have to say about June's crab is, it just get better and better!

A Time to Cook

I'm quite happy today, partly because Liverpool won Chelsea 2-0, amazing. Anyway, I'm happy because I managed to cook something edible for June, ha! As promised, I managed to cook a pasta dish for her. It's strange 'cos yesterday my friends just made dumplings, both steamed and pan-fried and most important, they are quite nice. Thanks to David's simple recipe. I thought it's gonna be just put some minced pork into the pre-made dumpling skins. Probably too simple for us, David might have taught, so he decide to teach the guys or ShuHong taught the group how to make the skin from the dough and flour. I'm pretty impressed. The group is having fun, as if they are playing with play-dough, ha! Alicia's wallet size dumpling is real funny. Now I really appreciate dumpling to be small. Once all ready, put it to boil or pan fried. I thought the pan fried ones taste better but I guess its personal preference. But sad to say the pan fried process really create a lot of smoke and even make the whole place, floor really oily, that's what I hate. Anyway, most of us would care only the eating process. We had so much last night, too much bee hoon from Raymond. More carbo from Patsy then I bought the greens. So it's a quite balanced meal. So I believed all enjoyed themselves. Today I decided to cook Salmon with spaghetti with pesto sauce. Since reading so much of Dr Young's recipes, I decide to go for some different spaghetti, I bought the spaghetti made from whole meal. The color is much darker, looked like Chinese noodles after cooked. I thought it has a slight sweet taste. Anyway, I bought too much salmon, one big piece each for me and June. I marinated the salmon with lemon juice and garlic with a bit of salt, for 15 minutes. Then tried grill it but there's too much liquid 'cos of the lemon juice, I should dry the salmon before grilling it. So I took a longer time and they don't look grilled in the end but never mind, this lesson is for me to learn. I had fun and enjoyed myself. I'm also happy that I didn't use as much dished today so I don't have a great deal to clean up. I thought I'm much better at cutting garlic today, like a chef, ha! I think I like to cook Italian better than Chinese 'cos it's much simpler. Oh, another thing I did wrong is to take up the spaghetti too early while they are still boiling, think 5 minutes earlier than the instructions. They are still edible, just a bit hard. Still, I'm happy that June like my dish this time. I wonder what's she going to cook next...

Generous Friends

TingHsin gave me Jay Chou's latest album for my Christmas. It's a bit late but I really appreciate it. Though I must say that I do not have much of a thing for his songs. And the only song of his I tried to sing was his "Fearless' soundtrack which in my opinion, I didn't sing too bad, ha! Anyway, still, I do like some of his songs like the second song "Listen to your mother' on this album, it's quite nice. Funny, he has a few songs all relating to mothers. Anyway, I do appreciate what TingHsin did for me, he's always so generous. I thank God that he put a few generous people in my life, like my dad, TingHsin, Pieter, and Jason. TingHsin always sponsored our meal and drinks, so is Jason. Jason always buy my drinks until some times, I just felt embarassed. He would also initiate to give people a treat as a reward to encourage people to improve in their running. Pieter would easily share whatever he have with people. Of course he share almost everything with Desmond. And he is always happy about it. Of course I benefitted greatly from their generousity but still I learnt that I too have to learn to be generous. You just make the person's day when you did something gernerous for that person. Of course, all men should learn to be generous. The ladies are all looking out for this very important point in a man. Not just about buying gift but also about being thoughtful. Well, Tang please take down notes here.

I wanted to be more generous but everytime when I want to give, I always think about what I have left or do not have. I hate being stingy or calculative. But being thrifty is a different thing. I need to know how to balance between thrifty and generous. But I always must remember to give is always a joy and a pleasure. After giving, seeing the smile on people's faces is also a joy and a pleasure.