A typical day in Remy’s life

… But I can’t help liking Remy a lot. He’s the star chef in the very endearing and funny Ratatouille. Managed to catch it yesterday with a dear friend. It was a truly wonderful evening.

I think everyone who’s anyone can relate to the movie. That’s because there’s a Remy in everyone of us. We have big and seemingly impossible dreams. And sometimes we feel like such a small fry in the face of giants and that everything else is against us.

Being a cat lover, I naturally detest rats. They are so cunning, dirty and have screechy voices. There were some parts of the movie where I cringed upon seeing a bastion of rats swarming about the kitchen. Yeeech.

Coincidentally, just last week, I was introduced to a character very much like Remy. He’s none other than Detective Conan.

• Both of them have a hero. Remy’s is a famous dead French chef, Conan’s hero is Sherlock Holmes.
• Both of them are especially gifted. Remy has amazing culinary skills, Conan is a brilliant detective.
• Both are small. Remy’s a medium-sized rat, Conan shrunk to the body of a 7-year old kid.
• Both are the hidden genius behind their unskilled and often-times idiotic ‘bosses’. Remy controls his chef alter ego like a puppet, Conan tags along this big and lumbering adult detective in his cases.

Another observation is that a couple of my guy buddies were inspired to cook French cuisine after the movie. Whereas for me, I just wanted to pig out on authentic French foodies. This just confirms my belief that men make better chefs. If my dad were to watch Remy in action, methinks we’ll have French food this whole week at home :P

Anyway, after the movie, I thought that maybe rats weren’t that horrible after all. That was until we were crossing this road and I saw a real-life rat appearing from the sewer and skulking under a car. It was huge and black. Its fur glistened with droplets of drain water.

Eeeeeew. Nah, I still hate rats.

But do go catch the movie if you can. The typical Pixar intro in the beginning is great, too ;)

Photo credits

“Don’t ever forget kindness and truth. Wear them like a necklace. Write them on your heart as if on a tablet. Then you will be respected and will please both God and people. Trust the Lord with all your heart, and don’t depend on your own understanding. Remember the Lord in all you do, and he will give you success.” (Proverbs 3:3-6, NCV)

I wonder how kindness and truth would impact our lives if we wore them every day as the writer commends. Kindness is really under-rated in the church in my opinion. We are impressed with giftedness, talent and success but kindness seems to have little curb appeal. I love the fact that kindness and truth are paired together. We are often willing to share what we perceive to be truth with one another, but not always clothed in kindness. To this powerful pair add trust. Trust is perhaps the greatest gift we can give God. It says that we believe he is in control at every moment, no matter what seems to be true.

So, as you dress each morning and put on your earrings or rings, you might notice that God has added to your jewelry collection. Truth and kindness wait to be wrapped around us as we step into each new day, trusting God.

May His grace and peace be with you today,

Sheila

Since bezzie left for Aussieland, I’ve missed her terribly. If I had appreciated her a lot before when she was near at hand, I appreciate her warm loving friendship even more now. Especially when one of the close friendships I have now seems to be fraught with tension and is hard-going. I know that if we bail out of friendships the minute it hits a snag, we won’t have a single friend left to count on. And there is no such thing as the perfect friendship.

Bezzie and I did have one or two episodes where we misunderstood each other (thanks to the terrible side of SMS). But it was also so easy and quick for us to see where the other is coming from and quickly restore the friendship to an even higher level.

She and I put some thought to this strange phenomena. We are not the most benevolent creatures on earth and we do have our limits and boundaries. The only explanation we can offer is that for some weird reason, we are absolutely ok with each others’ quirks, weaknesses and even blindspots. We just… click.

“For all I know, to the rest of the world, you may be one kind. But you are the one kind that I’m used to and I think you are alright!” said bezzie.

“Ditto!” I echoed happily. “We are two of a kind!” We then hugged each other electronically. Our emotional love banks must have brimming to the fullest at that moment, I can tell ya that.

Once again I realised how blessed I am to have such a person as bezzie in my life. Thank God for the electronic means of communication that makes keeping in touch a breeze. I’m all for modernisation – gadget-wise, that is :D

We made a stop at Kota Bahru, Kelantan before taking the plane back home after our trip to the islands. The above pic is just one of the unique things about shopping there. Guys and girls need to queue up separately at the checkout counters.

I also noted that the shops do not sell Cleo or Her World magazines. The only women magazines available on the rack are those with respectably clad ladies gracing the covers.

And to our delight, the shoes and clothes sold there were very practical, solid and yet stylish in nature. The prices are really reasonable, too. CY who was born, bred and currently living in the heart of bustling KL somehow never found the time to shop there. But in Kota Bahru, she hopped from shop to shop, amassing about 7 items in less than 2 hours.

“Wah, Kota Bahru is on sale leh!” she said with glee.

MF and I looked at each other and then back at CY. “My dear, the WHOLE of Malaysia is on sale right now,” we told her. “You can always buy that bottle of Nescafe back in KL.”

“Oh,” she blinked in surprise and looked at the Nescafe bottle nestled in her arms longingly. “Well, I never do have the time to shop back home. And I do so want the cute Nescafe travel mug that comes with this bottle…”

“Ok lar, buy lar,” we encouraged her and off she flew to purchase more stuff.

When we reached KL at long last (thanks for the flight delay, Air Asia!), she quickly put the cute mug to good use. Soon she was curled up on her chair sipping hot Milo reverrently from the mug she got from Kota Bahru.

Who would have thought that KL-ites would find Kota Bahru to be their shopping haven?

Just got back home and yep, had a great and rejuvenating time at the beach with my friends. Along with some photos and wonderful memories, I also brought home some nasty and itchy insect bites. Bleh.

There are some pros and cons in returning to a familiar place for holidays. For one, we are more confident in knowing when’s the best time to do certain activities. We know what to skip and what are the experiences worth re-savouring. And it’s always good to note that certain gems in the island have remained the same. This includes the lovely place that we stayed in – Samudra Beach Chalet, Pulau Perhentian Besar. The beach is pristine, virtually unspoilt by the massive development that has been going on in other parts of the island. It was a good place to stay but no snorkelling can be done at the beach due to the dead corals.

Leafy trees at Samudra

From experience, we knew that the Perhentian Island Resort beach was worth going through the 30 minute moderately strenous hike. The hike there was fun!

And the PIR beach was as lovely as we remembered it to be. But alas, it was too hot for a dip. So, we spent a lovely time lazing the afternoon away and eating foodies in the restaurant overlooking the beach. The food at the hotel’s restaurant was bland at best to cater for the non-Malaysian palate. And indeed the amount of Caucasians beach lovers outnumbered us Malaysians. But the ice cream was delicious. And that was what most of us had.

After ice cream, we headed to Long Beach at Pulau Perhentian Kecil and had a nice time dipping in the sea and playing Questionnaire Frisbee there. Unfortunately, we were dismayed to see massive jetties built on a couple of once-beautiful beaches. The contraptions were such an eyesore that I didn’t take any photos there. The only place where we could view the sunset was blocked by a huge jetty under construction. The place was also not maintained well. Stinking sludge gathered at a pool very near to the beach.

So that was part of the cons of revisiting those once-pristine beaches. The current reality could not match up to the memories of what it once was.

But this time around, I had plenty of cats to play with. It’s been months since I last held a cat. And there were heaps and heaps of friendly and cuddly cats walking about the island. This souvenir shop had 15 cats which can be found unexpectedly snoozing on the product shelves. Aaaaaah, the cat cravings in me has been satisfied for now :)

We ate a lot, played a lot of UNO and board games. I managed to finish reading two books and journalled to my heart’s content. Would I return to Perhentian again? Probably not in the near future.

Next stop, next year: Bali.

• Notebook & gel pen
• An Agatha Raisin book
• A couple of devotionals
• e-Bible
• MP3 playa packed with soothing tunes
• Sunblock lotion
• Fisherman-like hat
• Clothes & toilettries
• Baby, phone, chargers

and last but not the least…
not 1, not 2 but THREE packets of Chek Hup :D

Fare thee well, folks. Will be back in a few days’ time, God willing. Toodleydoo for now!

Photo credits

I’ve been in a rather green mood lately. Almost everyone I know including my parents have been/are busy enjoying themselves on the beautiful beaches of Malaysia/Indonesia lately.

Gah. Pah. Bah.

But tomorrow, it’ll be MY turn to go gallivanting on the beach. Aaaaah, already the greenness on my face is dissipating as each hour slowly crawls towards the morrow.

Why, oh, why doth the minutes pass ever so slowly???

I got look like Si Tao Poh meh?

So there I was minding my own business. Well, actually minding the company’s business. The desserts shop opened last week, and I was there on two separate occassions.

On the first occasion, I had the camera bag slinging on my shoulder. My colleague and I saw a lady staring at the menu with interest and so we approached her to introduce the concept of our healthy desserts to her.

“Healthy desserts? You’ve got to be kidding me,” she said. But after we pitched to her on how our desserts are indeed healthy stuff, she looked convinced and ended up having one of our signature desserts after her lunch.

She also unexpectedly asked us, “Are you two shareholders of this place?”

My colleague and I looked at each other. Then I looked at myself – garbed in a blouse, skirt and camera bag. I think I look more like a reporter than anything else at the moment.

“We’re just part of the company,” I said, feeling happy and strange at the same time. It’s the first time that anyone had thought that I looked like a shop owner. And the feeling is indescribable.

The Second Time

Yesterday I found myself there again to pass some stuff to my colleagues. This time I was garbed in a nice black T-shirt, black pants and big black bag. Little did I know that I caught the attention of an elderly patron who was enjoying a smoothie. The auntie flagged one of my colleagues over, pointed towards me and asked this one question:

“Eh, that lady is the owner of this shop ar?”

My colleague was caught by surprise and hurriedly answered, “No, she’s the photographer who took the pictures on this menu.”

Then he came over to relay what transpired between them. I turned to look at the auntie who had a cautious look on her face and flashed her a huge smile. Her face relaxed as she smiled back at me. She didn’t know it but she made my day by mistaking me to be the boss lady of the place.

Woo hoo!

Photo Credits – JS, Melb

Tassie, Australia

After many years with PMachine, I’ve finally decided to switch over to Serendipity. And together with it, a brand new look. It wasn’t an easy choice to make and it took me a long time before taking the plunge. I’m still figuring out how to sort out some kinks in this spanking new blogging machine. But all in all, I like Serendipity. A lot.

Au revoir, PMachine. You’ve served me well all these years. It’s a pity that they stopped all development work on you.

Ok, I spoke too soon. Was ill today due to dehydration and rested at home. But at least I wasn’t down while the project was going on. So, yaay :)

Had ample time to catch up on my reading and reflection. One of the revelations I had today was that no matter how close I think I am to a person, there are still many, many facets of the person that I do not know. Therefore I cannot assume I know where they are coming from. And to always practice reflective listening.

A case in point – in my family, when it comes to food, we pretty much eat what we want when we go out. If someone doesn’t want to partake the main dishes on the table, he can always order something else on the menu. So when a group of friends wanted to eat steamboat and I didn’t feel like steamboat that day, I told them to go ahead and order steamboat while I get something else from the menu. To my amazement, they quickly discarded their plans to eat steamboat and we ended somewhere else, despite my protests that I’m totally ok with watching them eat steamboat. I was sure that the restaurant had other things on their menu.

I felt rather weird about the whole thing. But upon reflection, I guess in my friends’ families, they probably make it a point to ensure that everyone will enjoy the main course TOGETHER. So the next time I join that particular group of friends for makan, I better eat what they are eating or just meet them for drinks later.

And to add icing to the cake, a close friend got the revelation that God put us together because we have specific weaknesses that rub on each others’ nerves. This is so that we know we are not so great after all and still have things to deal with. When this person shared this with me today, we burst out laughing. Nothing like God’s brand of humor to put the spark back on a good friendship.

All in all, it has been a great day. Flu and all :P

Photo Credits