My Area Can No Longer Be Gated?

Yesterday Hubbs and I received a notice from the resident committee that MBPJ has given the management of the community 14 days to remove the barriers from the entrance of the area. Apparently no gated communities have ever been approved in the PJ area. How crap is that? That would mean that kids can no longer run around freely without their parents and the pool and gym would have to be opened to the public.

One of the main reasons I bought this place was because of the guarded and gated concept. Over 5 years, the place has also appreciated more than 100% because of the guarded and gated concept. So you can imagine how upset and I was and still am to received such shocking news. Today I called up the resident committee president and apparently the developer did not obtain the necessary approvals from MBPJ. That would mean all the residents in this community were duped into buying the place because of their gross misrepresentation. I believe all of us living here were willing to pay a slight premium for house solely because of the guarded and gated concept. How irresponsible can the developer be?!!!

To rub more salt into the wound, there's a rumour going around that a certain ex-politician just sold the house in the community not long before the letter came. Would that mean that this ex politician knew what was going to happen and decided to cash out? How unfair is that?!!!

At this moment no one knows what is going to happen and what recourse we would have against the developer if MBPJ actually succeeds in removing the barriers. All I know is that this place will not longer be safe and our houses won't be worth as much anymore. So much for having foresight and living in a good piece of investment. I also wonder whether this is the work of the newly elected state government in their attempt to digg out corrupt practices of the previous state government. I guess if that's the case, those living here that voted for the opposition better start regretting!!

Sunday School Camp 2008 is Over!!

Sonforce Special Agents 2008...Joel is soooo cute!!!

I'm so glad to be home. As mentioned in the previous post, the PD Methodist Center really needs a make over. When we were leaving for home yesterday, I figured out why the place is so dirty especially the toilets, other than the place being old. Just as we finished the final session yesterday, a group of youths from Jerantut were waiting to check into the place. Given that there are not more than 10 workers living in the Center I would imagine that it would be impossible to clean up 6 dorms, 4 chalets and 1 bungalow and the dorm toilets in time for the next group. So it was obvious that the caretakers don't clean up the place immediately after one group leaves. A few groups probably sleep on the same sheets and use the dirty messed up toilets before each cleaning cycle. Super yucky. I wanted to take a picture of the toilet to post it here but I figured I didn't want to have any memories of the place.

However, saying that, the camp itself was excellent. The kids had a blast and I hope that they managed to get to know God better and make God more personal in the lives. As for me I think it was nice to do something for God. While driving back yesterday, dangerously half asleep, I felt a sense of achievement, not of pride but the feeling that you've made someone happy and in this case, God. Although compared to a lot of the other teachers I didn't contribute much but I truly felt great that I managed to serve God albeit my many complaints .

The only thing that was a downer in the camp was the stealing incident and the notebook incident after the camp. To be honest I was a little depressed after finding out about the notebook because it just seemed as if we have all labored over the weekend for nothing since the message didn't get through that one child. To make things worse there were some parents who were rather bossy when picking up their kids. It was as if they paid us to take the kids to camp and hence had the right to boss the teachers around. Good thing was that this attitude was only limited to a few parents.

All in all, I was glad that I went to camp and managed to serve God in my little way.

I wanna go home

Ok. Methodist bungalow in pd officially needs to be re built. The place is so run down, old and the toilets are beyond dirty. What to expect from a 40 plus year campsite right? Good thing that day 1 is over. Another 36 hour to home. I can't wait. Forcing myself to be constipated can't be too good.

Other than the camp site the sessions have been very good and i'm sure everyone felt the presence of God during the sessions. The kids and some super "on" teachers are having a blast.

Another 36 hours and counting. As for Elmo he's having a great time at doggie camp as evidenced in the picture above.

I wanna go home!!!! I wanna go home!!!!

Elmo's Off to Doggie Camp

The weekend that I've been dodging for over a year is finally here and there's no escape for me. Yup Sunday School Kids camp 2008 is here. We've got 130 primary school kids under our care for 3 whole days. How exciting! Camp this time round is at Methodist Bungalow PD. Apparently the place is super runned down and rat infested. One can only imagine the condition of the toilets :( poor me!! Oh well like our organising chairman i.e boy, continues to remind us, we are doing this for God and I guess for God everything and anything is bearable. So please pray for God's grace to be with me.

As for Elmo and Rusty, since no one will be around to care for them we have placed the two cousins with Elmo's trainer. Looks like they too are off to doggie camp for 3 days. I bet they'll have a great time with the trainer. Boy's wife and I commented right after the two boys were picked up that now we know how it feels to be empty nesters. Ha ha!!

I'm already missing Elmo. Will blog about kids camp 2008 when I get back. Remember to pray for me ok? Oh ya, please vote as well. The poll isn't doing too well :(

Crazy Days Ahead!!

This is going to be one crazy 2nd half of May. Tomorrow we will be doing our very first full commercial. It's going to be exciting but I know I'm going to be so tired. From what little experience I have with commercial production, I've got a feeling the shoot will drag way past midnight. So I guess it is a good thing that today is a holiday.

The coming weekend isn't going to get any better. I'll be off to Sunday School Camp 2008 with 100+ kids in PD. I know lame tortoise is looking forward to it. I guess I am too except I just wish camp wasn't in Methodist Center PD but instead in some 5* resort. One can dream right? The upside to it is that I've apparently been placed in one of the "better" accommodations on site. Oh well, I guess I just have to grit my teeth and close my eyes when using the toilets or either that be constipated for 3 days. At this moment, being constipated sounds like a plan.

The camp isn't the end of my crazy month. The weekend after that we'll be making a trip down to Singapore and along the way stopping by at few of our restaurants along the north south highway. Somewhere along the way we will be attending my colleague's wedding in Johor. And to further add to the crazy 2nd half of May, I've got to find time to make a trip to KB and another trip to KK for the opening of 1 Borneo. By the way, my last trip to KK which was last Friday took me 5 hours to and fro by air (of course) and I only had 3 hours in KK running between 3 different locations. Sigh, just writing about it is making me tired.

So again I say, with my life, having kids just wouldn't be fair don't you think? :-)

Cancer It Is

I saw my aunt today. Unfortunately the doctor at UH has confirmed that it is 99% likely that the tumor, that is a size of an egg, is malignant. How sad. In the afternoon she visited my cousin Tim to do a biopsy just to confirm the 1%. He will be doing the masactomy on Monday. Good news is that the tumour apparently hasn't spread. Now we can only hope and pray that everything will go well and that this horrible disease will be contained.

Current mood: super depressed.

You Will Never Walk Alone

This was posted by lame tortoise in response to my previous post. Thanks esiotrot!!

You Will Never Walk Alone

Point of Grace

Verse 1:
Along life's road
There will be sunshine and rain
Roses and thorns, laughter and pain
And 'cross the miles
You will face mountains so steep
Deserts so long and valleys so deep

Pre-chorus:
Sometimes the Journey's gentle
Sometimes the cold winds blow
But I want you to remember
I want you to know

Chorus:
You will never walk alone
As long as you have faith
Jesus will be right beside you all the way
You may feel you're far from home
But home is where He is
And he'll be there down every road
You will never walk alone

Verse 2:
The path will wind
And you will find wonders and fears
Labors of love and a few falling tears
Across the years
There will be some twists and turns
Mistakes to make and lessons to learn

Pre-chorus:
Sometimes the journey's gentle
Sometimes the cold winds blow
But I want you to remember
Where ever you may go

Bridge:
Jesus knows your joy, Jesus knows your need
He will go the distance with you faithfully

Words and Music by Lowell Alexander
© 2001 Word Music, Inc. / ASCAP

Doc Says All Clear

Went for my follow up gynea visit today. According to the lovely Dr Tang (again I have to say what a friendly and understanding doctor she is, if only all Malaysian doctors are like her, seeing a doctor wouldn't be such a dread) all is clear. Apparently the medication did work and the polyp/cyst (don't know the difference) is no longer there. So I was told to go forth and multiply.:) But I doubt I'll be doing that anytime soon. Thanks to all who helped pray. As always God is faithful. All praise and glory be to Him.

Today has been a weird day. Although I'm glad that my "oven" is clean, my mom and I just received news that my aunt may most likely have breast cancer. It's really so sad that cancer is so prevalent nowadays. The scary thing is that it seems to be happening to those close to us. Somehow nowadays, it seems that one either dies from cancer or heart attack or stroke. What happened to dying of old age? I've been moody and depressed the whole day about this as it made me question the purpose of life. To make things worse, I've not been able to talk to anyone or I guess more like I don't feel like talking to anyone, hence this post. Hubbs has been super busy of late and 3 nights a week I'm left alone at home, tired and just needing some companionship. And to make things worse, the nights when he's home early I'll be working late or in the case of this week, travelling for work. Am I suffering from depression or am I just tired? Go figure..:(

The silver lining to the whole day is Elmo. Thank God for the golden fur ball. Here's a picture of him that I just received from the trainer. Isn't he cute?

Elmo's Losing His Teeth

According to the few doggie books that hubbs and I have been reading, a puppy will have his teeth fall out and grow new permanent teeth around 4-5 months. Looks like it has finally happened with Elmo. Two days ago, hubbs realised that one of Elmo's tooth was slightly shaky. And before that one dropped out another one began to wobble and then another and then another. So yesterday night while playing with him 2 teeth fell out. The other two miraculously disappeared so we figured that he probably swallowed it. Being the good "parents" that we are, we decided to keep the teeth. Maybe hubbs may want to put it under Elmo's bed and wait for the tooth fairy to arrive :-) Here are some latest pictures of Elmo chewing his favourite veal rib before his teeth began to fall and Hubbs favourite keepsake, Elmo's fallen teeth.


Elmo has got slanty eyes




This is how big Elmo is fully stretched out.


Elmo's teeth. Quite disgusting.