Ah Ma's Water Baptism

I'm so happy to witness Ah Ma's water baptism on 23 August 2008 at East Coast Beach at the ripe old age of 75. Ah Ma's testimony was simple - because most of my daughters are Christians.

Acts 16:31 - Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you shall be saved, you and your household.

At first, Ah Ma was hoping to be excused going into the water. However, when the Pastor encouraged her to get her herself all wet. The water baptism is a symbolic burial, by which the new Christian publicly declares they have died, and are now beginning a new life, in Christ. The Greek for the word ‘baptizo’ means to immerse, plunge, dip, or bury in water. It excludes “sprinkling”, unless really sick.

All of a sudden, she whipped out her bag of clothings,
2 sets of towels and even a pair of slippers ..... hmm very well-prepared. All she needs is a little encouragement.

Got to know that it's Ah Ma's first time in the sea.

Wah, so cold & wet!

GOOD!
"A good dip" or was it "good gal"?

The pom pom supporters!

Jas, Ah Ma, Carol & me heading back to home.

Geez... Thanks and No Thanks!

Recently, I read a very amusing email to someone entitled "Thank you!". At first, the writer thanked the person for his great help with THANK YOU in caps some more and later goes on to mention that there are still some outstanding job duties that need to be completed during the remaining time that he has with us. The note then ended with a "PS" requesting for his notification of the off days that he will be clearing.

Erh... Is that a THANK YOU note? My consolation is at least there is A THANK YOU NOTE, which is better than none, right? Call me optimistic! Haha

Suddenly, it just dawns on me when is the last time, I sincerely penned a handwritten thank you card to someone. Although, I do that every day by email, thanking my speakers for the forms and papers that I received from them. And often at the end of each event, we received thank you notes from grateful organisers and that lifts our spirits. Not that I'm a sucker for compliments, but a sincere and well-thought-out note, makes me feel being valued and appreciated. Thank you notes are very personal and they take time and thought to write, and thus makes me feel special.

I have 2 storage boxes; one containing blank cards for sending out and another for greeting cards received. And of course, this is before email became popular. Over these few years, the cards received are dwindling, except for the ones sent by my insurance agents.

I remembered during my courting years, I actually forced Gavin to buy me cards instead of pressies for celebrative occasions. Anyway, that was just an excuse for delaying his purchase of gifts, which I rather choose my own. At first, there was " To Val" .....blah blah blah (words from the card) and then signed of with "Love, Gavin". I gave him a hard time and forced him to write at least a 3-liner blessings/greetings on the spot. Boy, that was like squeezing brain juice out from a man of few words. And after marriage, it's "Huh? No need lah? Already 'lao fu lao qi'. "Occasionally, I would bring out those few cards that he gave me and read them aloud. It gave both us goosebumps! Yikes!

I guessed if I really like receiving cards then I should start first by sending them.

• It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35)
• If we sow sparingly we will reap sparingly, and if we sow bountifully we will reap bountifully (2 Cor. 9:6).
• We must sow as we have purposed in our hearts, not grudgingly or of necessity because God loves a cheerful giver (2 Cor. 9:7).

Lastly, I must try to remind myself that I need to put a big full stop and purely thank my eldest son, Bryan for helping me put the dishes away in the sink after dinner. Often I ended with BY THE WAY, can you also please help me throw the rubbish in the chute outside, which is like 20 meters away from our door :P Suddenly, it's like my thanks become a command! And Bryan would give me that face and phrase "Why me, again?"

Facing the Brick Walls

Recently, I was recommended this book "The Last Lecture" by Randy Pausch by my sister Caroline. It is based on his talk which was modelled after an ongoing series of lectures to an consider their demise and to talk on what matters to most of them. However, the author didn't have to imagine as if his last, as it is truly his last, as he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He just died on 25 July 2008. The lecture he gave wasn't really about dying but about the importance of overcoming obstacles and of enabling of dreams.

His last lecture on "Achieving Your Childhood Dreams" can be found on YouTube. Here, I have linked his short 10 minutes overview and his full 1 hour 20 mins long lecture.

I have watched the video clips and am almost finishing the last bit of the book. It has been inspirational and yet humourous. I was reading it on the bus journey and I couldn't help nodding my head to some of his sharings, which are very real and I can even identify with some of them. Occasionally, I was smiling like an idiot to myself that all these are so very true -- of what life has installed for us and what would be our response. Do we want to walk a life of victory or simply dwell in our own circumstances?

Below are just 2 very practical lessons that I've picked up from the book.

• When you are screwing up and nobody tells you anything to you anymore, that means they have given up on you. When you see yourself doing something badly and nobody is bothering to tell you anymore, that's a bad place to be. You may not want to hear it, but your critics are often the ones telling you that they still love you and care for you and want to make you better.

• The brick walls are there to stop the people who don't want it badly enough. Brick walls are there for a reason. They give us a chance to show how badly we want something.

There are plenty of other interesting life lessons, and I strongly recommend this book to you.

Red & White

Here are the lucky numbers for your National Day Draw.

6 Kiddos doing their after lunch "business". L-R: Clarissa, Joshua, Joel, Bryan, Caleb & Shayna Excluding: Aaron & Asher (twins) who are at their Ah Ma's house. So, all in all there are 8 kids, and soon they can form their own table.

The 5 Beautiful Cha Bors L-R: Val Hea, Gina, Angela, Val Yeo & Alvena

4 Jumping Jacks & Jane. Actually, couldn't get a shot of the 4 guys: Erik, Gavin, Jacob & Patrick.

The 2 August Birthday gals who just turned 35 Gina & Angela receiving their birthday angbaos.

And finally, 1 group shoot, which took us nearly 20 minutes to gather.

Hi, I'm Hitler.

I'm glad that the peak period, which I dreaded most is finally over. Besides the stress, it's having been released from brooding over what and how to say politically sweet nothings that are pleasing to people's ears! My colleagues advised me to simply nod my head in agreement, or choose to ignore their comments. However, some sarcastic remarks and actions were simply too annoying to be ignored.

The last 2 months was having like knots in my blood vessels. Many a time, I felt as if there was not enough oxygen going up my brain, and that I might get a stroke anytime if I continue to work on that project. I told myself, I'm not so noble to sacrifice myself yet.

First, I was being teased that my style to that of Hitler -- a dictator. But we are dealing with 80 over speakers who need to be constantly reminded and "threatened" occasionally to submit their papers on time for my onward forwarding to the chairpersons for their perusal and comments, and for the preparation of the conference materials.

Later, I was being thanked in an email note to all my dept staff that this feat would not have been impossible for us to pull if not for the hard work of our Events Team, and especially to me, who wielded the bell and the stick! Actually, I wanted to reply to her email that I also had carrots in my one-tonne handbag, just in case the stick doesn't work!

OH! SHUT UP, VAL!

But that's really tough for me. I tend to say what I'm thinking and what I believe and have come across to some people as troublemakers.

It sometimes makes me wonder what an ideal worker should be like? Should I nod my head with agreement with whatever and anything? Or should I have a golden mouth mentality that opens for 10 minutes a day (during lunch for food perhaps) or just sits at meeting to take down notes and not voice any opinions, concerns, ideas or suggestions?

Do you know why car with lesser mileage chalked up is being valued higher, cos it is hardly ever being used - as good as new. Maybe I should not overwork my brains so that if I ever were to change my job, I can tell my new employer that I have been preserving my brains for the new job!

Busy Feasting

It has been such a busy period for the month of July with big events being packed back-to-back. At one stage, I was in correspondence with about 140 speakers and chairpersons from the 3 events, in which I was anchoring. No matter how big or how small the event is, it's still the same amount of work. It makes no difference catering for 50 pax or 100 pax. However, organising bigger event is more gratifying -- for the same amount of work, it reaps more results such as more participants and more papers.

Thank goodness, there are 5 interns (Ada, Karita & Mike from Chinese University of Hong Kong; Jim & Peter from University of British Columbia, Canada) and a new colleague, Sharon with us. We had lots of fun and how can I forget the feasting trips to Sakae Sushi, Cafe Les Amis, MacDonalds, Coffee Beans and the numerous events dinner. No wonder I put on 4 kg during the recent events peak period!

McDonalds @ Serene Centre
L-R: Ada, Karita, Peter, Jim, Mike, Henry & Alyson

"Dodo Bird" Peter & "Mentos Monster" Jim

"Miss Non-spicy" Karita & "Miss Pure"Ada

Lunch at Cafe Le Amis @ the Singapore Botanical Gardens

Henry & Yati, who was trying to pry open the durian that they picked from the garden.

A very miserable durian!

Mike bought us a THANK YOU cake.

"Mikey" Mike, who really eats a lot, yet maintains his slimness.

Conference Dinner at Long Beach @ Dempsey