"I was watching BET one night, and they were interviewing a man about jazz music. He said jazz music was invented by the first generation out of slavery. I thought that was beautiful because, while it is music, it is very hard to put on paper; it is so much more a language of the soul …

The first generation out of slavery invented jazz music. It is a music birthed out of freedom. And that is the closest thing I know to Christian spirituality. A music birthed out of freedom. Everybody sings their song the way they feel it, everybody closes their eyes and lifts up their hands."

"I never liked jazz music because jazz music doesn't resolve. But I was outside the Bagdad Theater in Portland one night when I saw a man playing the saxophone. I stood there for fifteen minutes, and he never opened his eyes.

After that I liked jazz music.

Sometimes you have to watch somebody love something before you can love it yourself. It is as if they are showing you the way."

[via donald miller, blue like jazz]

read the book on the way to shanghai (oh btw i ended up bringing two books for the hol, despite the 'ambitious' tag. am thankful i did :D the flight was about 5 hours, by which time i almost finished with one book.

this was easy reading, much like reading a blog, but it left me wanting by the end of it. like how he has described jazz music, the book didn't resolve. maybe the hype of "more than one million copies sold" got to me. maybe it wasn't meant to be. ah well. appreciate his honesty though. a lot of us are jerks but we wouldn't admit it, what more have it published and publicized. also i could relate to his "in my own world" thingy -- not the best of traits by any measure, but it's just who he is. heh - he feels like a friend now. the book's gonna be made into a movie -- wonder how it would translate on screen. it would not likely be shown here, so here's to torrents and downloading.

happy friday!

duke ellington & john coltrane :: in a sentimental mood

happy 8th, hubby!

:)

i know what love is
i bask in its splendor
i balk at its sacrifice

and i pride myself of these things
sometimes

but who am i kidding.

He is jealous for me

loves like a hurricane

I am a tree bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy

when all of a sudden

I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory

And I realise just how beautiful You are

And how great Your affections are for me

And oh, how He loves us so,

Oh how He loves us,

How He loves us all

We are His portion and He is our prize,

Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes,

If His grace is an ocean, we're all sinking.

And Heaven meets earth like an unforeseen kiss,

And my heart turns violently inside of my chest,

I don't have time to maintain these regrets,

When I think about, the way?

#1
saw this gorgeous sky from the putra train, after work, on the way to meet jazz for a dinner of fish head noodle in bandar puteri puchong. didn't get the name of the restaurant, but it serves salmon sashimi and even cod in place of the normal fried fish with the noodle. a bit the pricey though, but yummeh!

back to the pic, my hat off to the awesome Painter. =)




#2
my siblings came back -- on separate trips -- a couple of weekends ago. sis came back first w her bestie ah jane, then kel, then mel with his gal liyani and her dad, so there were some wonderful meals with a lot of catching up. heart! brought mel+liyani+L's dad to putrajaya for a night tour after one of the dinners. it was my first time there (at nite as a tourist) as well.. :)

oh well, they've all gone back down south. and i reawwy, reawwy miss them. :(












#3
this was after dinner w hubby at an indonesian restaurant in taman desa. i had some kinda nasi with fried chicken (not unlike ayam penyet) while hubby had the same with fish (not unlike otak-otak). food was decent -- definitely will be back for second round cos i spied sambal petai udang on its menu. yums.

was too full after dinner so walked around -- there was a korean shop (not unlike lotte mart)(yes, there are a lot of 'not unlike' in this para hehe) in the neighborhood so we dropped by and bought some korean ramen perisa sotong (we had two steaming bowls of them by the next day - nice!) -- before settling here at hailam kopitiam for coffee. =D



#4
saturdays are made of these: pampering and good food. hehehe. since i fell sick (on a weekend no less! grrr..), i self-prescribed a pedi to make the days easier to bear. and not surprisingly, ww also shared my sentiments, so there we were, sniffling and coughing and wrapping paper wantons away as our feet were washed and nails trimmed and painted. oo-ee! haha.. was supposed to have lunch thereafter w another friend but she ffk-ed me last min, so ww and i just cont'd the afternoon with lunch at woo pin fish head noodle restaurant (very near that indon rest in #3)(i wuv fish head noodle, can you tell? hehe). it was my first time eating the sang yu (un-fried fish) version of the noodle. bunchabones aside, it was goood, and i finished all my soup. hehehe..

spent the rest of the day at my mom's place, sewing away. whee! got all six pillow covers done, and just started on the curtains. just gonna close one eyes to the senget lines. hahaha..

admiring my pedi on the new quilt sheet. you can't see it here, but the shade on one foot is darker than the other. i couldn't decide which one i liked better, so i had one on each feet.




#5
that's my nephew eu jin (BIL's baby) -- so cute! he turned one (obviously) recently. was supposed to have a small party yesterday but he was down with the flu -- the poor thing -- so we just had a simple cake cutting ceremony. the jelly cake was nice and ohsoprettyiloverainbow, but i could only take two bites as i was really, really stuffed from our banana leaf lunch w chongy, whom i've not seen since forever (a month?!). well, hubby was already asking of her whereabouts, which means that it's been too long. too long, ya hear! don't be a stranger ok. and have an awesome holiday!! :D

kitty looks on approvingly.

#6
one of the harder decisions to make when going on a vacay is "which book to bring?" something too deep and my brain will hurt (more likely that i won't be interested), too simple and i'd be done before the plane touch down at the destination. bringing two books would just be too ambitious and unnecessarily taking up space meant for holiday loot ;), but not bringing any is inconceivable. urgh.

well, i've gotten it right before, but i've also experienced lugging along a hardcover book which i didn't even flip through, so it's all touch and go when it comes to such decisions.

anyways, that book came in the mail today. i literally squealed when the mail room guy passed the envelope  to me. hahaha.. wouldn't you?! at 239 pages, it should be just about right (if i don't start reading now la). so yeah, grandfatherland, here i cometh.

happy birthday, sis!!

30 years of sisterhood. this is surreal.

...

don't really know what to say. hahaha..
just this: love & miss you lotsss!! :D


[sorry a bit the late, but i've backdated this post :D]

hey [sister], do you remember when

we used to play outdoors

'till the light was absorbed by the night.

hey [sister], it was an innocent time.

we used to laugh 'till we cried,

but still [girls] on the inside.

(I wanna do it again)

first time staying out all night.

last time that we got away with lies.

I can hear it in the back of my mind.

over and over again.

(I wanna do it again)

late nights and early lights.

never thought it would come to a goodbye.

I replay it on the back of my mind

over and over again.

(I wanna do it again)


anberlin :: younglife

Hellowwwwwwww, did anyone miss meeeeee? :D

the date of my last post was 7 September -- i think that was about the longest (in?)voluntary break i've ever taken from blogging. heh. oh well, it's been a busy month, but in a good way cos despite the long hours, i kinda love what i've been doing -- but i do hope that by the end of next week, i'd be clocking shorter hours again. can't wait.

some random pics since i last posted (won't gonna be bothered with chronological order:


church camp at cameron, early september

 

#1
dimsum at the famous foh san in ipoh with the entourage going up



#2
i forgot what the joke here was already. seemed funny then.



#3
strawberry moment cafe - weiwen - strawberry strudel



#4
mamak session opposite where we stayed (cool point hotel)
there's a starbucks a few shops up.oh the commercialisation of it all.



#5
kea farm, near equatorial hotel -- auntie arul buying vegetable




#6
i saw a guy woking his rubik's cube on the train ride to the office one morning
and i thought to myself
hey i wish i could solve one of these like u know, one thing to do before i die kinda thing
so i got myself one
and it's in the corner collecting dust
some day.




#7
eggs, asparagus, tomatoes & some intoxicating mushroom -- everything fresh from cameron (eggs fr supermarket though) -- our first meal home from camp. major YUMS.

 


#8
dinner w hubby at zang toi's west 57th cafe
it was a convenient but ended to be a very poor choice
its banana chocolate cake is still to die for
but the food quality was terrible



#9
no. 8 was supposed to be a bday dinner but it failed so bad so i made it up
food here was the yums
cost about the same as the above, but we loved this!
went to the j. ampang branch -- quiet, lovely ambience -- there was hardly another soul there, save for another table

 


#10
farewell lunch for the brainiac couple
debbie's off to nottingham for the year to complete her masters degree in law
while yingks would be finishing his PhD in about the same time
i hope they'd catch some good musicals and visit those old castles they like
best wishes!




#11
the office tower in which i work
waiting for hubs after work one night




#12
hub's friends from tawau - ps george and his wife - on a 3 day stop by KL en route to china for a 2-week missions work
hope to visit them next year!



#13
yumcha after lunch on sunday
this was at K3K in kuchai


#14
at glad tidings, jalan gasing
two of hubby’s friends were ordained recently – congrats rev Joel & rev Tryphena!
rev joel, ps george (from #13) and hubby first knew each other from our recent trip to lahad datu and struck a quick friendship
life's like that sometimes.


apology for the poor captions
it's a lazy Saturday afternoon so please don't hold it against me
i'll try to fix them later if i could
i proofread two annual reports back to back yesterday
so i'm really zoned out
thank God for the weekend

we just came back from church camp in cameron highlands. it's got my vote as the best camp site we've ever had. loved the things we got to do and the places we went during the afternoon free and easy. loved the chilly fresh air. there was even a starbucks just across the street for those missed a slice of yuppiness. -_- we had a good camp speaker too: ps benjamin chew fr cornerstone city church, spore who delivered simple (and LOUD haha) yet timely and much needed reminders for our faith.

pic taken from Bala's hotel and cafe which shares a similar ambience (and price!) to that of Olde Smokehouse. had a good tete-a-tete over tea and some warm fluffy scones that evening *heart* thank you. :) went back to this place again the next day with hubby and another couple. in total, i ate 4 scones in 2 days. diet fail but i like! :D

will be putting up some pics in FB tmr and maybe cerita more. withdrawal syndrome kicking in rite now. back to checking work emails for now. :(

forget me not.

Once — but no matter when –
There lived — no matter where –
A man whose name — but then
I need not that declare.

He — well, he had been born,
And so he was alive;
His age — I details scorn –
Was somethingty and five.

He lived — how many years
I truly can’t decide;
But this one fact appears
He lived — until he died.

“He died,” I have averred,
But cannot prove ’twas so,
But that he was interred,
At any rate, I know.

I fancy he’d a son,
I hear he had a wife:
Perhaps he’d more than one,
I know not, on my life!

But whether he was rich,
Or whether he was poor,
Or neither — both — or which,
I cannot say, I’m sure.

I can’t recall his name,
Or what he used to do:
But then — well, such is fame!
‘Twill so serve me and you.

And that is why I thus,
About this unknown man
Would fain create a fuss,
To rescue, if I can,

From dark oblivion’s blow,
Some record of his lot:
But, ah! I do not know
Who — where — when — why — or what.

MORAL

In this brief pedigree
A moral we should find –
But what it ought to be
Has quite escaped my mind!

A poem by William T. Dobson from the book Literary Frivolities, Fancies, Follies and Frolics, 1880

[via]

thank God i managed to squeeze in a "life" despite the crazy days at work the past week. more stuff came our way this week. critical yet exciting times. :D



at filmmakers anonymous' 13th screening in the annexe, central market
a.k.a. chongy's premiere of her first short film (titled "Moving") :)
congrats again!! :D may all the stories you want to tell be eventually told.

i was there with the hoo sisters and one of their BFs ;) last Friday.. there was a record breaking vibrant crowd -- abt 150 pax? the last screening i went to, there were no more than 15 -- that packed the place that night. good thing we got there early -- got a nice place 2 rows from the front. :) eight shorts were shown, some with more room for improvements than the others but there was no shortage of talent and skills and ideas, and i really enjoyed myself. there was a Q&A session at the end with the directors of the shorts which drew some interesting questions and good answers. technology is so canggih these days that many of those shorts were filmed with digital cameras. just amazing..!



attacking the huge ginger steamed fish at a fundraising dinner organised by a methodist church in seremban - celebrating the 5th anniversary of the old folks' home they've started. it was also a reunion dinner of sort -- we were invited by hubby's old friends from his prev workplace way back when hehe. the whole gang are still in seremban and they make it a point to meet up regularly. we try to make it as and when possible. the restaurant (ming kok) was huge - there were at least 150 tables with space for 10 more - and located in a newly developed business area in.. erm.. dun rber the name of the area. hahaha..




the moment this kitty jumped on the bonnet of my car to say Hi, i knew she was gonna end up here. strange, the mind of a blogger. every event in life, every single event, turns the "convert to blog" switch in my head. lol!

anyways, this kitty has a owner, as evident by the collar on her neck. she also has black socks and white shoes. aww so cute. she'd decided to drop by when chongy and i were having a lil tete-a-tete a few nights ago outside her (the human not the cat) house. double aww.

no aww though for chongy's old uncle neighbor across the street who appeared out of nowhere and stood at the gate watching us for the longest time. that, was creepy. we waited and waited but he never left, just standing still with his arms over his gate. so we drove one round thru the neighborhood and when we came back, he was gone. he must have thought that we were up to no good. hahahaha.. don't know who freaked who out more. :D



hakka lui cha from a stall in kuchai (restoran leong wei, opp restoran 211 where some awesomely delicious fried chicken are found - take my word for it). it was my first time trying this from this particular stall, and i really liked it!! the soup was yummy which made a lot of difference (but they charge if you ask for more - boo!) though some might it a bit salty. too bad they are only available during day time. i would so love to have this for dinner more often.

i watched the documentary Food Inc a couple of nights back, and its message must have really got to me cos i'm thinking twice about what i put in my mouth. i had KFC the day after and i got nauseous trying to keep my food down. ergh. i would really love to retire to a community where we would grow or rear our own food. who's with me?!

nothing much has happened lately. so here's hoping that a barrage of pics (mainly food lol) a blog post maketh.





dinner/supper with hubby at A-One Porridge (opp Imbi Palace) one evening after my work/his gym - it was a rainy evening so the porridge was puurfect. the steamed chicken was succulent and juicy too. i got greedy and ordered one biji of century egg. the guilt weighing on me (heh) but it was delish! :D came to abt RM25 for the 2 of us.





lunch at nirwana, bangsar with the girls LL & MC. loved the colours, loved the food. loved the tiramisu dessert too (from alexis, one block down =) loved the catching up and the making fun of. don't really love the (at least) four fund solicitors who stopped by our table throughout the session.




i haven't used the sewing machine for gondunkulous years. but like swimming and driving, you don't really lose the skills. :D then again, i made a major boo-boo which had me un-stitching the entire piece. argh. so yeah, it took me like 3 hours to sew one piece of pillow cover. so fail.




the sewing machine, which gave my legs quite a workout (it has a pedal that needs to be .. pedaled to move the needle) and my mind a good walk down memory lane =)




my mom's guzheng, which distracted me even more from my sewing effort. hehehe..i learned that this thing has only the Do, Re, Mi, So & La strings.. (and according to wiki, you could get Fa & Ti.. by doing something.. i don't rber haha) my first session, and probably my last.




a super late lunch in broga, semenyih, one sunday after church. it was a longggg drive o.O we had 2 fish and lamb and vege, all cooked the same style -- wrapped in aluminium foil cooked over charcoal. quite delish, i must say, but definitely not worth the journey. stopped by Kajang on our way back for satay (i don't rber the name, but it is the only Chinese-operated shop around). that, was worth the journey. burrp!

hello, sheryl chong :)

at our fav tongsui place, sweet bean, in sri petaling. prices have gone up since our last visit (2 bowls like this used to cost abt RM3, now it's like RM4++), but their sesame and peanut paste are still the best ones around and quite worth paying for [we've been disappointed enough times, haven't we? =(]

at the balcony of my office -- level 42 of a certain building :) it's a nice view of the hazy city, and more importantly more for a sickly me that Friday when i snapped this - it was warrrm. i usually slip out here to take private calls, or just for the sun when my @$$ is freezing off in the office.



just got this book in the mail this morning! it was my first purchase from bookdepository.co.uk :D cost me  USD12.76 (abt RM40.. which is about the price of a regular book.. this book retails for USD13.99 so technically i got it cheaper online than i would have from a bookstore, if they carried this title =) -- and best of all, delivery is FREE! (well, the same book costs about USD10 from amazon.com but they'd wanted to charge me a delivery fee of USD9 o_O)

yay - one item struck off from wishlist! :D



chicken soup for the body and soul. it's a huge pot -- it makes for about 4-5 big bowls of soup -- but hubby and i being avid soup drinkers -- we could finish this in a sitting or two :D

since my last update, i've only gotten worse. sunday came and went like a dream. and nightmare. got an MC and stayed in and slept my day away. boiled this (chicken soup with corn and carrot and potaytoes) before i was knocked out from first course of cough syrup and flu pill after the visit to the doc's. woke up in the evening, drank some and took my 2nd course of med. still groggy the day after. @_@ argh.)



my mom's stuff (that small rusty box containing drawing chalk must be about my age! that ruler too! and a pair of scissors to cut the cloths..) for my mini project. :D can't describe the euphoria that sweeps me every time i think about/work on it. :D slowwww and steady....

i was supposed to be making this:

garlic and lemon roasted chicken with potatoes


but the chicken ended up being an ingredient in this:

chicken lotus root soup with peanut, red dates and wolfberries

which is still very yummy but for the circumstances about it. cos you see...


/begin rant/


arggghhhh..

i'm all miserable and whiny now. it started with that tiny cough on Tuesday evening just before i met up w FL in bangsar (glad to finally meet up, and again, congrats re. the bun in the oven! :D) -- i knew the moment i coughed that cough that it was not a good sign.

by the time i met up w my parents and bro (who came back for a quick visit) on Wed nite (ate in serdang.. yummy!), the itchiness has flared up..

Thursday night i was a good girl and stayed in, but the cough persisted. i'd begun taking cough syrup (remainder from a previous visit) - it was the non-drowsy type so i was kept awake until i slept from tiredness.

by Fri morn, it was *coughcoughcough* and when i got into the office, i felt feverish. saw the doc, got a half day MC, hung on for a meeting after lunch (thankfully, it ended early) and left for home by 3. hubby said he cld pick me from work but as the weekend coincided with the PC fair, driving to town is insane so i took the train.. got home by 4ish. had lunch/dinner. spoke to chongy for a bit (which reminds me that by now she kinda owes me a story :D) and went to bed by 6.

slept til 3ish when my fever came back and got me really restless. i was going up and down the stairs going to the loo, drinking water, taking panadol (i just finished a whole strip in 24 hours argh) and more cough syrup, re-cooling the ice pak each time it got warm, switching on and off the aircond to adjust to my body temp, and generally waking my hubby up each time i move about. arggghhh...

hubby woke up at 6 to go hiking at bukit gasing -- about the same time i fell back into prolonged sleep.. got up and 11ish, stayed in bed til 4ish. watched the Informant! (matt damon ooh) nose started to get runny and itchy. went for music prac nevertheless (i hope i didn't infect anyone -- i stayed far away from everyone). came home aft prac. drank soup (yums!) and now. in bed. miserable. argh. ARGGH.

i feel like my weekend's been robbed! noooooOOOoOoOoOoo.. why? WHY??

/end rant/

God, i pray that tonight's sleep will restore health to my body. thank you that my body is working hard at combating whatever germs and diseases i've caught.

this awkwardness between us, i wish there wasn't.


today's mood: optimistic


maybe one day. :)

i've been tweaking the post below one too many times. still it doesn't capture what i had in mind and i'm too tired to click on the edit button yet another time. it's way clearer in my head. ergh nvm lah.

i've had several conversations in the past few days touching on interfaith romance and friendship and relationship in general. for most part, i was a passive participant, mostly listening and occasionally chiming in with some questions or thoughts, and reading up some articles, but mainly was on the receiving end (i wanna say absorbing, but hahahaha my thick skin doesn't absorb well =) and just wondering *thinking cap whirling like a 486 of yore*

this thinking business is hard.

...

this ground level here is rather suffocating with so many guarded-misguided-self seeking opinions that conjure illusions of being real but you just know they are not (mm Inception reference peeking :P). and how often do we wrestle with myopic views that insist so strongly that they are the truth -- they doth protest too much methinks -- that we begin to suspect that they are? i want to peel my eyes from the present and move upward til i am able to better perceive and grasp and appreciate eternity.

mmhmm and then what?


...

random digression: for most part i have no idea what she's singing about - could have been unrequited love or bowel motions - but she sounds just effortlessly sexay. that's french (the language) for you! :D

carla bruni :: quelqu'un m'a dit