Last night the i-Bridge committee had a potluck, or rather 'potbless' dinner together at Li Shuan's condominium. I proudly prepared a salad dish to contribute to the food spread. It is no secret that I do not know how to cook. Whatever little culinary skill (and believe me, it was little) I picked up during my time in UK has gone out of the window since coming back to good old Malaysia, with its abundant variety of good and inexpensive hawker food, including mommy's home cooked food. The only time when I go to the kitchen to prepare food is for breakfast, and even then it usually means the most cooking I would do is to make half-boiled egg with the microwave.
Is it my fault that I'm a through and through born and bred city girl?
When the committee decided to have a potbless dinner, I quickly jumped at the opportunity to prepare something. The only thing that was not super challenging was preparing a salad. Or so I thought.
When I was wondering what kind of salad to make, the amount of different salad recipes I found on the Internet was enough to make a poor skill-less beginner like me overwhelmed. Finally, though I hated the thought, I finally gave Gurjeet a ring and humble myself to ask her for help. Actually, that wasn't very difficult to do. What was difficult was waiting for her to finish laughing at me before she started giving me her recipe.
The good thing about having a friend who can cook well is that I could call her up every other minute to ask her, "What ingredients?! What to buy?? How much to buy? Where to buy? How much salt? How much pepper? How do I cut the green apples? When do I mix the dressing? Why are you laughing?! Stop laughing!! Some support please!!!!".
At the end of it all, I could proudly present my first formally made-for-public salad to the i-Bridge committee and was so glad to see them finish everything! Makes a skill-less beginner like me proud! Oh ok, some credit goes to the teacher *eyes rolling*.
Tuesday, November 30, 2004
Cooking for dummies
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Friday, November 19, 2004
Delicate ankles, not big!
Usually I only like to enter one entry a day. But on days when inspiration hits me, I write more than one entry, but I set the entries to be published on different days to space out my thoughts which can be plenty. I know some of you might consider my writings to be heavy and too serious. So I'll try to fill up in between with some light note here and there.
On the last night of the camp last Sunday, nine of us snuck up to the lighthouse at 12am, and walked round the lighthouse to sit facing the ocean. Then Hwok Lok had a brilliant idea, to use a different path from the one we used to head back down from the lighthouse, which was seconded by Michael Drieberg (it's a Chinese dude but don't ask me why his surname is so canggih) who went to scout the path with Hwok Lok, and because both of them came back positive, we proceeded down the not-so-well trodden path which was covered with big bushes. Hwok Lok insists that there is a path, and I believe him. I'm sure it was under all those bushes!!
When I finally reached the blessed cement stairs, my ankles felt like it was bitten by a hundred insects!! And my ankle has been itching for the last two days! Is it a surprise when I have eight insect bites on my left ankle!?!
So I proceeded to send them a polite text message of rebuke that went:
"Oi!! U know the path u took us thru the grasses 2 head down fr the lighthouse? Brilliant idea, Einstein! My ankle has 8 insect bites n I've been itching 4 2 days now!!"
Michael's text message in reply to me:
"Hmm, I really tot u were praising me. It was u that suggested it rite? I just go n scout only, n I walked thru it twice also no prob :p Looks like u have really big ankles to have 8 bites. Hehe."
Grr... it's not enough to add insult to injury, but to blame it all on me.
On the last night of the camp last Sunday, nine of us snuck up to the lighthouse at 12am, and walked round the lighthouse to sit facing the ocean. Then Hwok Lok had a brilliant idea, to use a different path from the one we used to head back down from the lighthouse, which was seconded by Michael Drieberg (it's a Chinese dude but don't ask me why his surname is so canggih) who went to scout the path with Hwok Lok, and because both of them came back positive, we proceeded down the not-so-well trodden path which was covered with big bushes. Hwok Lok insists that there is a path, and I believe him. I'm sure it was under all those bushes!!
When I finally reached the blessed cement stairs, my ankles felt like it was bitten by a hundred insects!! And my ankle has been itching for the last two days! Is it a surprise when I have eight insect bites on my left ankle!?!
So I proceeded to send them a polite text message of rebuke that went:
"Oi!! U know the path u took us thru the grasses 2 head down fr the lighthouse? Brilliant idea, Einstein! My ankle has 8 insect bites n I've been itching 4 2 days now!!"
Michael's text message in reply to me:
"Hmm, I really tot u were praising me. It was u that suggested it rite? I just go n scout only, n I walked thru it twice also no prob :p Looks like u have really big ankles to have 8 bites. Hehe."
Grr... it's not enough to add insult to injury, but to blame it all on me.
Wednesday, November 17, 2004
i-Bridge Camp 2004
The last weekend has been an incredible time for me. I was at an I-Bridge retreat in Port Dickson, a retreat for working Christians to take a rest from our not uncommon stressed work lives. I was looking forward to it also because I helped organized this retreat for the last two and a half months alongside Elaine Yap, Shih Chung, Chooi Li, Sarah Lee, Dave Chong, Vincent Low, Hwok Lok, and Li Shuan. And helping arrange the transportation and accommodations, I ended up knowing the names of all the campers before even meeting them.
It was great fun, with the ice-breaking games that got us all in stitches, with everyone being sporting and getting involved with the games, lots of exercise with beach volleyball in the evenings, all the chit-chatting during meal times, honest sharing and praying throughout the camp, sneaking to the lighthouse at midnight to see the beautiful view of the Straits of Malacca being serviced by the revolving beams coming from the lighthouse and playing mafia till 3am plus! At least this time I managed to get some sleep on the last night, even if it was for a paltry three hours or so.
But what really made this retreat the most special one in recent memory is because of the time spent organizing it as well. I took note that when all the committee members stood up to share their thoughts and reflection of the retreat on the last morning, everyone made comments of the two and a half months of organizing it, because I think we all somehow felt that God had blessed the time spent together and while we worked on our various responsibilities, with a good spirit of unity despite the different opinions and good bond between each of us.
The other highlight for me was also being there with Fiona, Li Yuan, and Tricia, although I do feel a little guilty for not having to spend as much time with them, being busy with things of the camp as well as my own personal habit of running here and there, trying to take in everything of the camp and people as best as I can. During youth fellowship days in teenage years, my friends used to accuse me of jumping here and there to different groups of people, which made them afraid to go to YF in church because they could not rely on me for physical support.
But it was good that I managed to spend time with them on the first night and to have a good round of honest sharing about our lives and to pray for each other. That is what I call real fellowship, and I am yet again blessed because I have found friends who I can really share about my walk with God and to share with theirs.
The greatest highlight is more personal between God and me. It was something God had revealed to me that caused me to cry quite a bit, not out of pain, not out of sorrow, but out of overwhelming awe. It was all it took to make the whole weekend a beautiful experience.
It was great fun, with the ice-breaking games that got us all in stitches, with everyone being sporting and getting involved with the games, lots of exercise with beach volleyball in the evenings, all the chit-chatting during meal times, honest sharing and praying throughout the camp, sneaking to the lighthouse at midnight to see the beautiful view of the Straits of Malacca being serviced by the revolving beams coming from the lighthouse and playing mafia till 3am plus! At least this time I managed to get some sleep on the last night, even if it was for a paltry three hours or so.
But what really made this retreat the most special one in recent memory is because of the time spent organizing it as well. I took note that when all the committee members stood up to share their thoughts and reflection of the retreat on the last morning, everyone made comments of the two and a half months of organizing it, because I think we all somehow felt that God had blessed the time spent together and while we worked on our various responsibilities, with a good spirit of unity despite the different opinions and good bond between each of us.
The other highlight for me was also being there with Fiona, Li Yuan, and Tricia, although I do feel a little guilty for not having to spend as much time with them, being busy with things of the camp as well as my own personal habit of running here and there, trying to take in everything of the camp and people as best as I can. During youth fellowship days in teenage years, my friends used to accuse me of jumping here and there to different groups of people, which made them afraid to go to YF in church because they could not rely on me for physical support.
But it was good that I managed to spend time with them on the first night and to have a good round of honest sharing about our lives and to pray for each other. That is what I call real fellowship, and I am yet again blessed because I have found friends who I can really share about my walk with God and to share with theirs.
The greatest highlight is more personal between God and me. It was something God had revealed to me that caused me to cry quite a bit, not out of pain, not out of sorrow, but out of overwhelming awe. It was all it took to make the whole weekend a beautiful experience.