The Comeback

Felt so good tonight to be able to hit some birdies! Haven't been playing for nearly 2 weeks now. It's sad that I might not be able to play for another 2 weeks again!

Sometimes the feelings just felt different after you stopped for a while and you pick it up again. It's almost like first love but not quite.

Perhaps that's why in our spiritual walk, there're ups and downs too. So when we were down, and after we got up, it felt so great!

So, don't feel bad if you're down, just remember to stand up from where you fall!

Looking forward to 2 weeks from now....another night of action packed badminton!!

KK Tragedy

KOTA KINABALU: A climber slipped and fell to his death when
trekking up Mount Kinabalu. Tan Tzu Hau, 31, from Inanam here, was found dead
5.5km from the Mesilau trail at about 2pm on Monday by a Sabah Parks porter.

Ranau district police chief Deputy Supt Suhaimy Hashim said that Tan was part of
a mixed group locals and peninsular Malaysians trekking up the mountain through
the Mesilau trail when the incident occurred. ''Tan was trailing behind the
group when he apparently slipped and fell.

No one knows exactly how he fell but a porter who was behind spotted his sprawled body beside the trail," Suhaimy said. He said the incident occurred near the Panar Laban rest house at the height of 3,270m of the 4,101m mountain.

''His body has been brought down to Ranau and we are waiting for the post mortem to be conducted, he said, adding that police did not suspect foul play as they believe it was a case of misadventure.

Masilau trail is second but tougher route to the mountain as
compared to the more popularly used Summit Trail or South Ride Trail.

Accidental deaths among climbers on Mount Kinabalu is relatively rare though they have been a few incidents with the last reported incident occurring in Aug 2001 when a British teenager Ellie James lost her way and was found dead on the mountain
nearly a week after she went missing.

We were just on this mountain a few weeks ago! Thank goodness we were OK.
God be with the victim's families and comfort them!

Sports Cancelled On 20/9

Just rang up Collingwood College to find out what went wrong yesterday and of course I get the expected answer.

The person in charge is on leave. The replacement thought that everyone has been informed. So they apologize for it.

Apology accepted. No problem but please don't do it again. :)

Anyway, just found out that this Sunday, our booking was cancelled too! And yes, nobody was planning to inform us as they thought we were told. Anyway, not going to make a fuss about it.

So guys, please note.

Sports on Sunday (20/9) is cancelled!

Back to normal on 27/9.

Racism After 9/11

Just when we thought the Western world would have learnt its lesson from 9/11 regarding respecting and treating other races/nations with respect, it seems most have forgotten about 9/11! Probably what people said is right, most westerners have poor memories when compared to Chinese! 8 years seems too long for them to remember the valuable lesson!

Today, we are unfortunately treated without respect and pushed to the junks! Just because we are a group of Asians (Malaysian Chinese to be exact), they didn't have to treat us like how they did today. It's totally uncalled for and it provokes racism hatred!

Here's what transpired in this eventful Sunday:

We have regular bookings for the large gym in Collingwood College every Sunday from 9.15am to 11.15am EVERY Sundays except public holiday. Today, when we got there, we found out that there were table tennis tables in the middle of the court but no one was around.

So we rang the caretaker to find out what's the issue there. Rang twice but no answer. Then we checked whether there're any notices saying there're events today, nothing to be found. So we assume it was from the day before and the people just didn't pack up properly.

We started our games. Then around 10am, a group of Westerners stormed in demanding that we leave the premises immediately and put their tables back on.

The first sentence the old lady said was:

"We're not being racist here but...."

Yeah right! Who would expect you to be racist in the first place except deep inside your racist heart & mind, you knew yourself as a racist pig?!

She then talked loudly as if we are all deafs or as old as her and couldn't hear properly. Asked us to leave immediately, said she's calling the principal, blah blah blah~~! All of us were just dumbfolded by her over reactions!

After that, 3 other gentlement took over the conversation and admitted it wasn't our fault nor theirs but rather the college's irresponsible handling of this matter. The college NEVER informed us of this. They should at least given us a week's notice.

We're deeply disappointed with the college but even more so to the racist treatment that we all received today! We today are victims of incompetency and racism!

Being nice Christians, of course we didn't make things hard for everyone. We packed up and put their stuff back on. Now here am I back home, posting this blog for your information so you'd becareful next time! :P

p/s: not all westerners are racist. Only some probably least educated ones!

My Last Session

This is it! My last badminton session in Melbourne...for the month of August :P

Need to play super hard tonight! Hopefully will be a fun night!

Hopefully get the chance to play in Limbang or Miri as well! Perhaps can try Uncle Kuek's indoor court! He He!!

Then I'll be off to M'sia for 2.5 weeks starting Wednesday night!

Watch this space for update & photos!

Mouse in Pepsi!

Source: here
Date: 31/7/09


ORMOND BEACH - Federal officials are investigating what an Ormond Beach couple found in a can of Diet Pepsi last week: the remains of a possible rodent.

The Food and Drug Administration is testing the can, which Fred Denegri popped open on July 23 and drank, only later to discover what was inside.

"It was unreal," said his wife Amy Denegri, who became suspicious of the can when she couldn't shake out the thing inside.

"It's big enough that it wouldn't come out."

The Diet Pepsi can was one of the last to be consumed from three dozen cans that the Denegris bought at the Sam's Club in Daytona Beach.

Pepsi officials said Wednesday that they traced the can back to the manufacturing plant in Orlando and didn't find anything amiss with the company's quality controls and soda sampling.

"It is virtually impossible for this type of thing to happen in a production environment," said Pepsi spokesman Jeff Dahncke, "We run about 1,250 cans per minute on these production lines. Their speed, along with the rigorous quality control systems we have in place throughout our manufacturing process, give us great confidence in the quality and safety of our products."

Fred Denegri has long been a Pepsi fan and is something of a "addict" to Diet Pepsi, said his wife Amy.

The 55-year-old man had pulled out the can of soda to enjoy with his dinner at the couple's outdoor tiki bar.

He took the first sip and had an awful reaction to it, she said.

"I can't describe his face but if you think about what he just drank, you can imagine," she said. "He said, 'This doesn't taste right. I don't know. It's disgusting.' "

They poured out the soda and a "pink slimy thing" was the first piece to come out of the can. They peered inside and saw what they believe was a mouse, or what was left of it.

They called poison control, but Fred Denegri didn't become sick. An FDA official retrieved the can for further testing.

"We take all complaints seriously and are moving quickly to investigate it," said FDA spokeswoman Susan M. Cruzan.

In the meantime, the Denegris are surprised by their sudden notoriety. "We felt it needed to be out there, that the public should know," she said.

And Fred Denegri is still drinking Diet Pepsi. "We buy the bottles now, though. And he pours it into a glass," she said.

Down But Not Out Yet!

As expected, another crushing defeat tonight. I lost all my games again, so another 0-4.

The good thing is 3/4 of the matches are close games by just 3-5 points roughly. So it's a moral victory for myself!

Another way, got off for next Thursday. After that, I'll be away for 3 weeks namely 13th, 20th and 27th. Hopefully my game doesn't go downhill again!

Can't afford to!

I should be considering joining tougher social games but during "cost cutting" periods, it's hard to juggle between excellence and money!

Conquering The Summit

In about a month's time, I'll be climbing the 4th highest mountain in Southeast Asia, Mount Kinabalu. It has been more than 10-15 years since I last step my foot on Sabah, I can't even remember anything except Pulau Manukan by name!

Anyway, I aim to take down one of M'sia toughest challenge this time. Failure is not an option! Just hope the weather will permit me to get to the top! To be the King of the world (dreaming~)!

Last Saturday was a good opportunity to play around with my SLR camera as I haven't been diligent enough to practise my skills lately. Though the nature of the shots are a lot different (actions/candid vs landscape/macro), hopefully I can take a few good shots! Quite disappointed with my shots on Saturday though. Nothing nice! LOL! Need to learn to have an eye for good shots!

My poor wife claims to be the Innocent victim to my lust for adventurous challenge! However, she has only "practised" once up to now. Running/walking 20 minutes on the treadmill! I'll keep you guys posted on how she's doing when we get up there! HAHA!

Diana encouraged her last night by telling her that she cried all the way up and down the mountain! LOL! Oh yeah, and could hardly walk a few days after that!

As for myself, didn't train for this as well. Just busy training for badminton games as I don't want to pummelled again in the weekly competitions! Won 2 matches last week, yay~! This week I'm facing probably the strongest opponents, looking at a 0-4 results. :(

Crash, Boom, Bang

Nice words to describe the start of the second season for the badminton competition. Totally crushed tonight. The score was 9-3. I lost all my 4 matches though came close in winning one of them.

Last season, we also started off with only 3 points. With 7 teams this time, we need to work a lot harder to get into the Semis!

Our captain must be quite upset too! He He!

Oh well, gotta work harder to train and prepare for another 10 weeks ahead!!

H1N1 Vs Bible

A thought came to my mind today after seeing so many sick people around me. So I thought I would pour it out and see what you guys think?

Bible, in the book of Hebrews says

Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

H1N1 says

If you're sick and come close in contact with one another, you are risking their health.

As we all know Governments around the world are asking employers to be kind enough to let their sick employees to take sick leaves, some even asked for unrecorded sick leaves to prevent the virus from spreading to other employees. Schools are closed down to prevent further outbreak, some major events are cancelled, etc.

But what about the church? Should we ask our members to rest at home and avoid church gatherings? Or should we say, we shouldn't stop gathering as that's what it was told in the book of Hebrews.

Is this a trial or temptation? Should I or shouldn't I? <-- materials from a couple of weeks ago. :P

If you go, you risk spreading the disease to others, which is often noted as selfish and inconsiderate.

If you don't go, are you contradicting the Word of God and use your own principle as a ruler? In those days, people risked their head to go to meet each other. Today, it's just a flu and we are finding excuses to skip meeting one another?

If you are saying on either way, where do you find the authority to decide or discern which is the right thing to do? Are we assuming so and so because "we think, I think, etc"?

Let's hear it from you...

Road Block

What could have been a beautiful finish on the road to redemption was wrecked in a major road block. My aim was to get two runner up positions for both Mixed and Mens events but I fall one position short!

After knewing my team mates for the Mens event, honestly, I knew I couldn't stand a chance getting champion or runners up. However, we couldn't even get 3rd position so we had to settle for the last position! All teams are much stronger than us in both tactically and skills wise. Nonetheless, I still wanted to challenge them!

We only managed to win a game from the 3 series that we played. Shame on us~! We nearly won a series when my teammates were leading 26-22 in the decider but they lost 30-27 in the end. Too bad!!

Team events really talks about team efforts and not individual performance. So naturally, I couldn't carry the team like how Jordan carried the Bulls, Kobe carried the Lakers, etc. Skills wise, I'm still way below par!

My aim now would be to improve more and hopefully reach A grade within 1-2 years?!! HAHAHHA!!

I know I'm dreaming but it's all good~! I started playing and training around 2006, managed to reach D grade finals...OK lah...not too bad!! If only I didn't stop between 2007-2008, I might have been a B grader by now....oh well!!

Also, maybe it's time to look for more consistent partners for competitions....hmm...!

Slow Starter

This is one of my bad habits: a slow starter. Needed quite a while to get myself warmed up and get into top form.

Today, this has caused us the championship in the mixed events. Quite unfortunate that the first team we played was the strongest team. We lost the first match by 2 points, I think. Mostly due to unforced errors. Then we won the second match to bring it level 1-1. However, in the decider, I crumbled and lost! I guess that's what you get from a scratch pair! So, we lost the series 2-1. We can only complained "If only....".

After that game, we knew each others' games well now. So, we went undefeated throughout the tournament. Just quite unfortunate that the other team didn't lose any series after that. If they had lost one series, we could have been the champ! Luckily, we didn't end up empty handed as we won the runner up trophies. :)

However, no excuses and congratulations to the champ.

Time to get rested and prepare for my the Mens' team event tomorrow. Need to get down to business early and not making the same mistakes again. My team mates are again scratch pairs, never team up with them before. Guess it'll be another tough road ahead.

Road To Redemption

After 3 years of absence in badminton tournaments, this weekend will mark my comeback. What's interesting is, I'll be playing two tournaments over the weekend: JT ULTRA/ MUBC Team Tournament Mens & Mixed events. A bit test to my stamina and physical recovery!

I haven't been to any proper training since 2007? Yesterday I just went for a half training session and my muscles are sore!! Hopefully it'll be fine after tonight's sleep to be ready to get on the road to redemption!

Back in 2006, I was lucky enough to be the 1st runner up in 2006 JTULTRA team's tournament D grade. Can I repeat or do better this time? Hmm....I guess I need to know who is my partners for the Mens' events first! I think I'll only know on Sunday itself!
Hopefully I can at least get a trophy this weekend!! My trophy collections are still quite empty!

Sunday Sports - Update

OK folks, people have voted. Though not many has voted, this is the concensus.

We'll continue with the Sunday sports session, continue our vision to allow our church members to be both spiritually and physically healthy! We'll only increase the fee to cover for the court usage though.

In terms of financial situation, we currently only have $65.75 spare cash in reserve. Every week, we have about 12-16 people coming to the sports now. The bad news is exam period is coming soon, we might get less people coming.

So, in the meantime, I think we'll just increase the fee to $4.00 per person. We'll adjust again after the exam period. We should be able to last until July. In times of recession, let's not burden our people too much too yeah...:D

If anyone has any other ideas, please feel free to comment here.

Should We Continue Or Not?

The hundred dollar question for now is: Should we continue our sports activity on Sunday Morning weekly?

The situation is since we changed the Mandarin service time to 1.30pm, we're forced to push forward our sports to 9.15-11.15am now. Due to this change, the number of people going for sports have dropped considerably to only about 10-15 people weekly.

We're now collecting only $3.50pp weekly and this couldn't even cover the costs of the courts, not to mention any shuttlecocks. So most people have to BYO shuttlecocks now.

The court hire is $75 weekly for the large gym. So we're losing about $20-45weekly.

So I'm going to let you decide whether we should go on with the sports session.

Please vote on the left hand side.

Stupidity At Its' Best

Source: The Age
Date: 6/5/09

LOCAL government officials in China have been ordered to smoke nearly a quarter of a million packets of cigarettes to boost the local economy during the global financial crisis.

The edict, issued by officials in Hubei Province, in central China, threatens to fine officials who "fail to meet their targets" or are caught smoking rival brands manufactured in neighbouring provinces.

Even local schools have been given a smoking quota for teachers, while one village was ordered to buy 400 cartons of cigarettes a year for its officials.

The edict, which flies in the face of national anti-smoking policies from Beijing, is aimed at increasing tax revenue.

In total, officials have been ordered to puff their way through 230,000 packs of Hubei-branded cigarettes worth about $812,000.

However the order was reported to have been rescinded yesterday. A notice on the Gongan government web site said the rule was introduced in March in an effort to crack down on fake cigarettes and illegal cigarette smuggling in the area, which is causing the government to lose revenue, but said it decided to scrap the edict since the article appeared. It did not elaborate.

Tobacco sales, the biggest source of government revenue, brought in $A82.4 billion in the first 11 months of 2008, up 18 per cent from 2007, according to the Communist Party's People's Daily newspaper. About 2000 people a day die from smoking-related illnesses.

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I've heard about Govt asking people to stop smoking but to force people to smoke and has a quota to fulfill, I think this is bloody ridiculous!

Sure the economy is bad, but surely there're better ways to get income for the Government?!

Maybe the over populated country wanted more to die so they have less people to take care of.

Smart! That's when people's life are not considered as worth it or meaningful! I guess that's what you get from a country that generally do not believe in God.

So much for education to build a nation.....

Sunday Sports Session - Updates

Good news and bad news.

Good news is the sport session is back!!

Bad news is time has changed to 9.15am to 11.15am!!

However, it should still be fine for everyone I hope! The changed is unavoidable due to the service time changed to 1.30pm. People attending the mandarin service needs time to go home & shower prior to service.

Please inform everyone!

Sunday Sports 19/4/09 - Cancelled

Due to the Chinese service time change to 1.30pm and the school is still on holidays, we need to cancel this week's sport session. Will try to get them next week to either reschedule the sports earlier to 9-11am or 9.30-11.30am.

It's a pity.

Oh well......

Complete Healings

God heals, God cures, God comforts.

Don't we always just hear those bold statements daily? Not saying it's wrong but if that's so, how come some Christians are still troubled by depressions, emotional scars, etc.

This normally creates a lot of issues with God. Is God really incapable of healing us? Does God even care about us? Questions which are often hit at by critics.

To have an insight on this matter, we need to understand the bigger picture. Sure the bible has examples of miracle peformed on those who are sick, the lame who can finally walk, the blind who then can see. However, apart from that, we hardly know of cases where total complete healings have taken place.

What the bible promises, is it really a total complete healing from God? Or we as Christians have so much been influenced by pagan religions, have twisted the words of God?

The bible promises God to comfort and heals us, but it was never an "instant" thing. Things do not happen overnight or after a sleep.

In fact, God brought us into a healing process and slowly build our characther to be more of His likings. It's so slow sometimes that we doubt God is even care about us! However, God promises to comfort us and be with us all the way no matter how long it will take!

Until the days of the New Heaven and Earth, we will NOT be enjoying total healings or peace on earth. In the meantime, let's grab hold strongly on God's promise that He'll be with us throughouth the days of our lives!

No Sports This Sunday

Just a quick announcement: No sports this coming Sunday due to the Easter long weekend!

The week after, the time to be confirmed due to Chinese service time changed to 1.30pm.

Check this space for updates!~