I love to wear black-coloured clothes. It’s not my favourite color, but I like it for the following practical reasons:

• It’s slimming
• I can eat anything I want without stopping to think if a messy encounter will stain my clothes. More so when chicken curry happens to be my favourite food
• It’s slimming
• It’s a professional color
• It’s slimming
• It goes well with all my bags and accessories
• It’s slimming

As you can tell, the numero uno reason for me wearing black is that it is so flattering to the figure especially when you have bulges to hide.

So I happily donned on a black outfit over the weekend and bumped into a friend who hasn’t seen me in a couple of months.

“Eeeks, you’ve lost weight!” she looked horrified.

I was genuinely puzzled, “What do you mean I lost weight? I still weigh the same as the last time I saw you.”

“No lah, you looked much better then. Now you’ve… you’ve… gone skinny!” she grimaced.

I recalled that another friend had commented that I don’t look great in a black dress I wore to a wedding dinner recently. Then it dawned upon me that the weight that I lost during the hectic production days has now caused me to resemble a beanstalk whenever I wear something totally black. I now understand why a waif-like friend of mine doesn’t have a single black garment in her wardrobe.

Today, I decided to put my new-found theory into test. Instead of a black or grey jacket, I wore a pastel pink one to work. I have never worn that before although I had it for quite a few years now. The reactions of my boss and colleagues were very, very flattering.

“Wow, looking good today!” said one male colleague.

“It’s a very nice jacket,” said my boss (first time ever being complimented by him on my dressing!).

“Ooooh, style sebiji macam Audrey Hepburn!” said another lady colleague.
(Translation: “Your style really resembles that of Audrey Hepburn!”)

That does it.

From now on, I will minimise on wearing black stuff and choose brighter or pastel shades instead. But I won’t throw away my precious black clothes. Who knows when the bulges decide to start appearing again?

The second parter of the prophetic conference was awesome. Every prophetic-gifting-activation exercise was highly charged and we barely had time to even feel fearful or think too much about it. Everyone had to prophesy for their partners and adhoc group members that all we could do was just depend on the Holy Spirit to do all the talking. The amazement comes from the consistency of the prophetic word given by various folks who did not know us.

Ron Sawka cautioned us not to marry, buy or sell (make major decisions) based on all these prophecies. “It’s just common sense,” he said. Basically, the purpose of this spiritual gift is to edify, exhort (encourage) and comfort the recipient. Prophecies on marriages or babies are not allowed.

But when it comes to praying for prophetic healing, my group did not get a single ailment correct. If anyone senses a particular ailment in the group and someone in the group actually has it, then healing might be on hand. Alas, no one had joint pains, ankle pains, hand ache nor back pains. I was actually waiting for someone to say ‘Tooth ache’ or ‘Tongue ulcers’ both of which I am currently suffering from but no one did. I guess I’ll have to go for the root canal after all.

Eating has been such an ordeal for me the past two days. It’s really sad when a Malaysian Chinese can’t enjoy her food :( This also comes at a bad time for I’ve wedding dinner to attend tomorrow. All those nice dishes of an 8-course dinner and a healthy appetite. But no hearty set of chompers to process them. Woe is me!

Tonight’s prophetic conference was not what I had expected. Actually, I had no real expectations – but what transpired was quite mind-blowing.

For one, I initially thought Ron Sawka was too jolly for a teacher on the solemn subject of the gift of Prophecy. “Wah, I thought prophets were supposed to be sober and intense. But here he was encouraging us to sing from the Psalms and all.”

For another, I was freaked out when he encouraged us to ask 4 to 5 questions to our partner who was prophecying for us. “You mean, my partner can actually clarify with me on what I sense God is speaking to her? Aiks, what a tremendous pressure to perform!”

In short, the gift of prophecy is a word from God given to His children for the benefit of the body of Christ – in order to build them up and encourage them. We are encouraged to desire for this gift:

“Follow the way of love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy….everyone who prophesies speaks to men for their strengthening, encouragement and comfort.” 1 Cor 14:1-3

As the conference progresses, I began to appreciate what Ron was doing and bringing about in our midst. We, Asians are mostly inhibited creatures and tend to be self-conscious and filled with self-doubt when it comes to receiving and exhibiting the spiritual gifts God wants to give us. By encouraging us to sing Psalms loudly to one another and prophesying for one another, all inhibitions dropped and the gift was activated in us.

The word given by different prayer partners to me were spot on and I was also encouraged when the word given by the Lord through me was appropriate for them, too. And we were thrilled to discover that when being asked to clarify what we were prophesying for, the Holy Spirit just drops the right words to us. But me and my partner were quite freaked out and stopped prophesying after answering one question each. Heh, yeah – can do better next time when our faith level increases.

Anyway, it’s really amazing to see what God can do through ordinary people like us when we just believe His word and avail ourselves to be channels of His blessings.

I’m looking forward to Part 2 of this conference tomorrow!

Note: For a more info on what this gift of prophecy is all about, click here.

I haven’t been to the dentist for the past three years. I figured that as long as nothing breaks or hurts, it’s cool. Why fix it if it ain’t broken, right?

Well, something did break last month. One of my tooth fillings came out and left a gaping hole in my tooth. There wasn’t any pain then so I deferred going to the dentist until about a week later. The verdict? I could choose between pulling the tooth out or going for a root canal. The dentist gave me some time to think about it. Looking at the two options, a root canal would be the best one. Anyone has been through it before? I would much appreciate some info about it – at least I would know the whole deal rather than listening to just one dentist.

Well, I must say that I was suitably impressed with Dr. M’s clinic. I found it through the Yellow Pages and the first thing that went through my mind when I was seated on the patient’s chair was, why was there a computer in the room? And what’s a tv set doing up there in front of me? Something to keep the patients entertained while their teeth are being filled or scaled? Heh.

Dr. M himself was a surprise to me. He was very young, gentle and had braces. A dude who practices what he preaches. He was very courteous, patient and explained everything I wanted to know about my options. Little did I know that it was part and package of the consultancy charges. Continue Reading »

My company is on a hiring spree and many resumes have been flooding in – all to be sorted and channelled to the appropriate persons by yours truly and Mike.

The only weird highlight in this hectic day was receiving a resume that was directed to my department.

It wasn’t not just any resume. It was a resume of a guy who used to be quite a pest in the past. A guy who chased after me (and any other sweet young things) for dates. But also a guy who used to look down on me and would turn a deaf ear to what I have to say just because I was younger than him.

Would I ask him to come for an interview for a position that will report directly to me?

Go figure :P

I’ve just got to know that PMachine Pro is now free for download! And it used to cost about USD50. It’s got loads of nifty features and spam control. I wasted no time and upgraded immediately :)

If you want to leave a comment (or a meow!), you will notice that you would now need to add a random word before submitting it. This will hopefully prevent all those nasty comment spammers from advertising their nefarious activities like casino, poker and porn.

Things like this just makes me believe that yes, there is such a thing as a free lunch!

Hi, I’m back and am wonderfully refreshed! There was cool air, clear skies, sunshine, lots of flowers and greenery, good food and company, inspiring moments with God and friendly cats!

Turns out that the people (family) who followed us to Fraser’s were really nice and fun to be with. I should have known that my friend’s friends would be people I can get along with. None of us ladies wanted to end the night yesterday. We kept on chatting and chatting until our eyes started to droop with exhaustion.

We kinda felt like the prophet Elijah, running away from Queen Jezebel (city life) to an obscure and peaceful place and not wanting to return to town so soon.

Fraser’s was wonderfully cool and relaxing. Upon reaching KL today, our hearts melted at the sight of the blazing sun. All too soon, it’s back to the world of multiple showers a day and stress-filled days.

Note: I’m still waiting for my new camera to arrive and so, the beautiful pics taken in Fraser’s will be posted later after my friend burns them to a cd for me. Shouldn’t take too long ;)

Mom smiled when she saw me reading a book this morning. Her smile turned into a surprised ‘Oh’ when she saw the title.

But mom, being mom, did not ask any probing questions. She just commented that it was an interesting title and left it at that. I guess mom’s pretty cool that way. I don’t have to be paranoid and hide things from her.

From our recent conversations, she knew that I was doing some emotional spring cleaning and any tool that I need to help me do a thorough clean-up is fine by her. And indeed, this spring cleaning which began on a tough note is starting to show some positive results. Nothing like facing some unknown skeleton in my cupboard and sweeping it away with God’s love and grace!

For one, I am now reading again! For another, I am not slacking so much now. There’s just something about being lazy that frazzles me. Laziness is like a black cloak that envelopes you and makes your limbs and mind grow heavy and kills all motivation to actually get up and do some work. For me, laziness is a sign that something else is preoccupying my mind and discourages me from participating fully in present day living. It is one my most bitter enemies that often disguises itself as my friend.

“Aiya, one more hour in bed won’t harm you. You need the rest mah.”

“You’ve already watched 2 DVDs, what’s one more?”

“You can always do that report tomorrow. No one will hound you for it anyway.”

Need to really look at laziness for what it is and give it a firm kick when it chooses to come knocking on my door.

Anyway, here are some quotes from Dick Innes, the author of ‘How to Mend a Broken Heart’ which I found especially helpful and profound. May it be a blessing to those who are doing emotional spring cleaning, too.

As rainbows are painted by rain,
so faith, hope and love
are all painted by pain

The pain passes
but the beauty remains
~ quote by Renoir when asked on why he kept on painting despite the pain of his arthritis-ridden fingers. It is a lesson on not to waste the pain that we have gone through, but to grow better from it that it may also help enrich the lives of others.

Life can only be understood by looking backward,
but it must be lived looking forward

Have a great long weekend, Malaysians. Will be high up in Fraser’s Hills doing my reflections and resolutions for this coming year with my friend tomorrow. Glad to say that the tension between us lasted only for a very short while.

Last year, thanks to my 2-week sick leave, I read slightly more than 52 books. An average of a book per week. That’s a Guiness by my standards :)

Now, I haven’t read a book in weeks and am currently stuck at Page 100-something of Fellowship of the Ring. Am such a slacker when it comes to reading these days.

Come to think of it, am such a slacker nowadays when it comes to almost everything, too.

Is it because I need a break or because there’s been a tad too many public holidays lately?

After all, there is such a thing as too much of a good thing being bad.

*ho-hum*

Okay, movie buffs. Here’s the deal:

When: Preferably during the Chinese New Year week (but open to other suggestions)

Where: Someone’s house in PJ (with a DVD player)

Movie lineup: