Journey mercies

Yes, uploading pictures does take time and effort. I'm not going to post all the pictures, but just some of the more memorable ones I guess. I was actually quite excited to finally see US, but had to fight the urge to take pictures like a suaku.

We whizzed through New York and the only thing I went to see properly was the UN building.
























By the time we got to LA all Iwas touristed out. It was all I could do to peer with a bit of enthusiasm at Beverly Hills, walk of fame, etc. Sis kept telling me to get out of the car and take at least one picture of the Hollywood sign and I just sank into my seat sulkily and say, "Dowan lah, dowan lah."

Nope, me not a traveller. I am my father's daughter when I echo my dad's words - I see the world enough through the TV. US was interesting enough, but I think I've maxed myself out on tourist activities for the next 3 years.

These days, headlines are always screaming of news of recession and doom and gloom and it makes a person nervous about when everything is going to hit. Because frankly, it hasn't really hit me or the people around me yet.

Either:


(a) We're affluent enough that the hit just isn't hard enough to make a significant dent

(b) We're in denial

(c) It'll hit us like tsunami, sudden, overwhelming and unexpected so the question isn't if but when

(d) Impending recession is the hottest current topic so everyone is sprouting the same thing but tries to outdo one another by reporting on how the other journalists doesn't know it, but it's actually worse and so on and so forth. But maybe, just maybe, once it boils down, it isn't as bad as people thought it might be. After all, economy is based on demand and supply. More and more bad news causes nervousness and demand decreases. It's all a vicious rags and riches cycle.

(e) I'm just hopeful


At any rate, it does cause me to think a little more on how I can be more prudent with my money. So among the few things I can think to save a pound or two:


(a) Save £10 a month by walking to and fro train station, which is about 5 miles a day, 90 minutes a day. Save money, keep fit, stay healthy (although I don't know about all the carbon I'm inhaling from all the passing vehicles).

(b) Strictly only cook and no buying lunch at work. Haven't worked out exactly how much I'll save, but it's a given fact I will save won't I? Though truth be told, though I am eating healthier, I think the cost difference really isn't that great.

(c) No buying breakfast. My company provides free cornflakes and oatmeal in the office. It does not matter if I end up eating the same thing every morning of everyday I work there and how much I feel like throwing it at somebody's face, it's a free meal.

(d) Sleep early. Save electricity on laptop and lights.

(e) No more sms and phonecalls. Only email IN the office.

(f) No souvenirs from UK when I go back to Malaysia to visit.


Ah. Love it when one gets into the spirit of things.

Every Sunday I go to both morning and evening service in my church and try to avoid missing it as much as I can. In fact, if I have to travel, I try to at least make it for the evening service. Sometimes I'm thoroughly exhausted and ask myself why I need to go for both, when I have just gone for one.

It's good to be reminded why.

Truth be told, morning services tend to be about other people - where I try to make new faces welcome because I know how scary it is being in a new church, or when you've struggled for so long to find and settle in a church, you really need all the help you get from the regulars rather than being put off by yet another cold and unfriendly face.

Evening services is for me. When I'm what matters to me, and while I jump from one new face to another in the mornings, I usually gravitate to more familiar faces in the evening. The one person who I usually gravitate to is Pam.

Being 83 years old, you bet she has lots of things to talk about. But we must really be what one calls kindred spirit, she can never talk enough to me!

She looked a little more gaunt than I remembered, and something about her eyes made me a little worried. When people started to leave after the evening service, Pam and I finally managed to catch a short private moment to speak. She had shown me some poems she wrote of her late husband who passed away slightly more than 3 years ago.

What she wrote was beautiful, the love she had shared over 60 years is beautiful, but more importantly, the beauty of the gift of love she knew that came from the Lord's hand was most beautiful.

It was odd, but at one point, we looked into each other's eyes and I don't think I heard what she was saying, and I don't think she remembered what she was saying, but in that moment, we knew what was in her heart.

15 minutes later, she shook off the quivers of her heart, and she spoke more firmly, more of the matter of the mind than the heart and there she was, the person who would fight for the Lord till the very last breath. It really is my privilege to be able to claim a friendship with such a person.

But I may yet escape it for a bit!

It's been a week since I've got back from my break, but to honest, I don't in a sense feel 'settled' down yet.

A few days ago it occurred to me that I've had a steady stream of visitors every month (now who would have thought I would have so much rich friends visiting London?) and Yvonne was visiting for a few nights last week.

By the way, I love it (really) when a friendship gets to a stage where friends no longer asks, but tells you instead like how HuiMin said, "By the way, AhChan is coming down to London also and she's staying with you yeah."

I'm having another friend and her mom staying for a week and kicking myself out into the living room and then Yvonne comes back down at the end of the month again and next month I'll again have two VIPs staying in my 'hotel'.

I'm glad that I've got so many people visiting constantly but I do sometimes rue the fact that I've to give up my comfort zone to put them up. But thinking about it, it's probably the best thing they could do for me, to get me up and about and keep me from falling into a state of retrograde by me getting lazy in my comfort zone.

Having that many visitors has also had one advantage... most of the visitors leave a bit of token when they leave. It just so happens that most of them left their toothpaste. I counted it last night. I have 7 tubes of toothpaste thanks to my visitors.

Good. Save money, no need to buy toothpaste for the rest of the year.

I didn't realise it, but I actually did need the two and a half break I took to visit mom and sis in US and also to visit Newcastle. When I worked in my last company, taking a holiday could be even more stressful than not, because it meant that I would be piling up the work and I would return to the office from a holiday with a whole lot of mess I needed to attend to. So even throughout the holiday, there would be a sense of edginess.

But this time, the moment I flew out of London, I had completely put aside work and never once thought about it.

Evidence of this was when I went back to the office on Monday, stood outside the front door and realised...


...I can't for the life of me remember what my passcode is.


Thankfully there was someone who came by to open the door and let me in. I proceeded into the office, sat down in front of my PC and...


...I can't for the life of me remember what my log in password is.


Finally got IT to reset my password, tried to log in to a necessary software and...


...burrowed my face in my hands because my mind was completely and utterly blank. They had to reset all my passwords on Monday.


Got back into the swing of things soon enough, felt quite refreshed from the break, but hit new challenges at work. But good challenges. Challenges is always good.