Journey mercies

It's going to be 2009 soon and I feel excited.

I think it'll be a good year. There is something about having hope and possibilities. It makes me feel like I could do anything, be anything I want to be. If only I could be forever 26 and be and do everything that I want to do.

Benefit of having a much duller job than the previous one is that I have the luxury of anticipation and plan ahead.

I'm glad I don't have that many 'best friends'. They can be quite high maintenance sometimes. You know who you are.

I met up with Valerie's aunt and uncle who lived near my aunt today, who are Malaysians who have lived for over 20 years in the UK. I had lunch and spent the whole afternoon getting to know this couple.

As I was waiting for them and their kids to get ready for their Saturday evening service at church, Val's uncle gave me his guestbook to sign. As I did, I saw a name above mine that looked oddly familiar, so I asked Uncle Tony how he knew the person, and at the same time I looked up a little higher and lo and behold! I saw Bro O and Jessie's name right there (the name I saw was familiar because Bro O had given me the name of the couple they were going to be staying with in the UK)! They visited them during their trip to UK in November which I had missed.

It never ceases to amaze me how interconnected Malaysians can be, especially the Malaysian Christian community.

I have successfully averted falling ill for another day!

And I have an ill-free Christmas day today! (I fell ill last year on Christmas morning and I was tethering last night)

Will be joining the church for the Christmas service this morning, after which a church member will drop me at cousin's place to join family for Christmas lunch. Will spend the weekend with them because I'll be joining the christening service of my godson, my cousin's third child.

Was so thrilled that they had asked me to be the godmom until my mother talked about all the time and effort (and trouble) that needs to be put in.

Hmm...

Nevermind. I'll be one of those eccentric godmoms who does things with no rhyme or reason.

Another church member will be picking me up from my aunt's place on Sunday afternoon to save me the trouble from taking public transport back to my place. Feel very blessed and loved!

Merry Christmas y'all!

My biological clock has begun tick-tocking.

Ticky tock!

It'll go boom one day!

Labels: Random things

The kids are already on their Christmas break this week and the family went out to Tesco tonight as a treat. Usually the kids are in the room going through their homework and stuff before going to bed early.

Dang.

I feel jealous. I wish I had 2 weeks off work too. But while I'm wishing for stuff, I wish I had a 2 months break again. :P

Labels: Random things

When I got back to my flat from Malaysia, my room felt a little empty. I think it was because everything was neatly in its own place. Or maybe because Yvonne cleaned up a little before she left.

She was staying at my place in the last few days of her holiday in UK, which I had all intention of spending with her, but due to grandfather's death and funeral, I pulled my flights forward and had to let her spend her last days in UK alone. She occupied herself with my Internet connection though, which for some reason all the Malaysians who have stayed in my place enjoy the most. -_-

I haven't fully unpacked yet, but since I came back, for some reason, mess seemed to explode everywhere. I don't know how honestly.

After a while, I just decided, cleaning up is not worth the time and effort. So I declared to myself, no more cleaning.

It felt so liberating.

Until after 2 weeks of mess in my room AND in the kitchen AND the living room. I gave up on trying to badger the kids to clean up the living room simply by refusing to step into it.

I cannot bear the kitchen with dishes lying about everywhere, so I wiped every dish clean and tucked it all away one night, and my landlord got the hint that I was back and not ready to give up my kitchen habits.

I'm still working on my room - the inner sanctuary is always the toughest fight.

No matter how hard I try to convince myself I'm not the fussy type, I think deep down, there is an OCDic person lurking about.

Labels: Musings

I ate leftover yummy lime cake for breakfast while watching GI Jane.

Labels: My stupid moments

Yesterday my office had a women's Christmas lunch in a nearby restaurant. The few of us sitting at my end were talking about their disappointment when they first learned that Santa Claus was not true.

I told them I used to believe in Santa Claus too, until one day (I forgot how old I was), I was saying to my sister in a wistful tone, "I wish Santa Claus would come to Malaysia... why does he only give presents to kids in America?"

To which my sister gave me a look and said dryly, "You do realise that Santa Claus isn't real don't you?"

Aaaahhh...

Well, unlike my English counterparts, I wasn't disappointed in the least with that discovery!!! Hah!!! If anything, I was glad that Western kids didn't get fantastic presents every Christmas for free either!!

Labels: My stupid moments

Every Tuesday nights I have the church homegroup at the Andrew and Nicky's. Unlike most of the other homegroups, ours is the only one that has dinner together before Bible study and prayer. I've always joked with a few others from different homegroups that they are too boring, just having Bible study and that's that.

There are always new faces appearing in our homegroup because it's meant to be more geared towards internationals, and students from the local university, so attendance is always very fluid.

Having been away for 2 months, I was surprised to see 80% of the people there tonight were new faces but funnily enough, all of a sudden the internationals have now become the minority and the English folks are again the majority.

I got to A&N's early from work, and the family was setting up their Christmas decorations.














It was so sweet, apparently when I went to the first Sunday service after I landed on Saturday evening, I sat in front of Alistair and Dominic and apparently they both told their father, "Supergirl is here!"

I have a superman T-shirt which all the kids from church know and they always ask why I'm not in my superman T-shirt.

Labels: Friends

I'm trying to make it a point to take more pictures to accompany the blog, since it makes things a little more interesting and family and friends can see what I'm seeing rather than them trying to imagine it.

Last Friday, I went to Hyde Park with Anna, where they were having a German Christmas market, which had food, drinks, rides, knick knacks, band playing Christmas music and a ice skating rink.

I must be getting old. Anna wanted to go on a ride but I was not keen. But also because the ride she wanted to go on was just going round and round and round in the air. I was not keen with the idea of getting motion sickness, which I can be prone to. Anyway, the weather was so cold, I probably get motion sickness and freeze. So no.

We had mulled wine, which was nice and warming. It was only a small little plastic cup, but we met one of Anna's German friends after that and she was talking about how she could only finish half the cup of the mulled wine which made Anna and I look at each other guiltily, because we had finish our own cups.

Afterwards, when we were in the tube on our way home, we both struggled a bit, because we were a bit sleepy from the wine.

Labels: Friends

I was walking back home from the bus stop after work, when I saw a man standing in the middle of the pavement looking up. And I thought to myself with a bit of alarm... "What in the world is that sticking out of the side of that man?!? It looks like an arm!!! Oh. It is his arm."

And giggled at myself.

Hehe.

It's just that his arm looked like a fake arm, and I was wondering why he had a fake arm stuck out of him.

I'm just tired.

Still adjusting to work.

Labels: My stupid moments

Oooof... going back to work the first day after 2 months. I went back to the office with a bit of trepidation, but other than some rustiness and nervousness, it was not too bad.

However.

I forgot that working does take a physical toll on you. I'm tired.

Bed is calling me, but so is my dishes, tomorrow's lunch, and laundry. Aaahhh... the price of living on my own!

Labels: Work tales

Well, after 2 months in Malaysia, I'm finally back in good ol' dreary, cold and wet London.

I got up at 7am on Saturday to catch my flight back to London. Glad to have sat in between normal, non-smelly and thoughtful people in the plane so that made the trip bearable. Except for a baby nearby that wailed with all its might every half an hour throughout the flight.

The plane touched down at 3.45pm, half an hour earlier than scheduled and the immigration queue was blessedly short! Less than 10 minutes compared to the 2 hour wait I had to endure last year when I first arrived in London.

I was glad that Chris R and Martin F came to pick me up from Heathrow airport when I found out all trains passing my stop has been cancelled and taxis cost a bomb (£30-50) on weekends. But due to traffic, I had to wait for a while before they managed to find me.






The weather has turned quite cold, it was about 4 degrees when I landed. It's not too bad, I just need to remember to carry gloves with me. I am just a little surprised that I adjusted to the cold quite well. In fact, I had the heater on for the first time since I moved into the church flat, and I woke up to a not warm, not cold room this morning and felt it was a little suffocating. I actually prefer my room to be a little chilly in the mornings.

Where's the fun of life without a little hardship eh?

After Chris and Martin picked me up at 7pm, we went to Martin's place for supper. He bought the house some months back, and I didn't manage to visit it until yesterday night. It was small but cosy, and I think the guys are pretty happy to have a proper bachelor's pad for them to hang out in.








By the time I got back and ready to get to bed, it was 10pm London time. About 6am Malaysian time. Needless to say, I knocked out pretty quickly.

During my first service back in London, I sat all the way up front, where a few rows of seats are aligned to face the right profile of the podium, and where all the other seats are placed facing the front of the podiun to the right. I sat right at the end, so it was positioned slightly behind the podium itself. Being seated there also meant that I could easily see the faces of those seated in front of the podium and vice versa.

I thought that Paul L, the pastor, had seen me as he looked over to my direction a couple of times. But when he was preaching, and just getting to the swing of the message, he turned to his right to look at those seated there and he suddenly stopped and exclaimed loudly, "EW, you're back!! It's good to see you!! We've been praying for you!! Why are you seated there?!"

I had to resist the urge to slide down my seat in embarassment but I guess I'm glad to know that he genuinely likes me! Someone pointed out afterwards that his reaction in seeing me is forever immortalised in the tape recording of the sermon.

There was a moment during the service when I felt a little down missing family and friends back in Malaysia, but looked over to the faces of the people and saw some of them smiling warmly back at me, and I felt infused with a sense of gladness. It was like a reassurance from the Lord that where He leads He will always provide. There is a joy, in knowing that you give your fate over to an all-powerful, all-mighty God who is good and will never bring you harm or evil, but in everything, in every unsure step you take into an unknown future, it is for your good, to bring you one step closer to that eternal joy.

KiCheol and family had me have breakfast with them, while in the afternoon John S invited me to have lunch at his place. That's one thing about the folks in IPC, when a family came back from a stint overseas doing mission work, and when a mother gave birth to a new kid, they got different people to provide them meals until their lives settled down for them to go back to a routine of living. I'm thankful that they are also taking care of me.

I'm not glad to be back, but I am glad to finally stop having my life being put on hold. I am not glad to leave family and friends in Malaysia, but I am glad that God has blessed me with family and friends in London in stead.

Labels: Travels