Lord of my Dance

...5...4....3....2....1...HAPPY NEW YEAR!! *fireworks* Can't believe another year has come and gone. Another 525,600 minutes spent and never to be retrieved again. I remember exactly one year ago today I was in church for the Watchnite service(naturally). My close friend and ex-colleague, Bee was back and so were a lot of old friends I haven’t seen for a long time. Was so excited to see her and made an appointment to meet up so that we could catch up with each other the next day together with the “5 sisters”. Fast forward a year later, I’m in church for the Watchnite service again with the “fireworks” from the keyboard going off at the opportune time. After reflecting for the year gone by, here I am deciding whether to move on to another church. Part of the reason was because I felt I wasn’t growing much in the church and the fellowship of other believers who share my passion for studying the Word deeply was sadly lacking. The other part of the reason was because I felt that some o...

It's that time of the year again where we exchange gifts with our friends and loved ones. Recently our young adults group had a Christmas get together and each one brought a gift to exchange with each other. I have always loved shopping for gifts, so given a budget of RM10, I went looking for a nice gift that can be unisex...after all what if a guy ends up getting a hairclip, what is he going to do with it? Start cross dressing? We had a lot of fun guessing what were in those mysterious looking and shaped packages. One of them were wrapped in just plain white paper but in the shape of a rocket. Another was wrapped up in layers and layers...and layers of paper! Happy unwrapping!! And another was wrapped up nicely but I think weighed about 2 kilos. The host happily tossed it over to one of the guys and it dropped with onto his lap and 'kena' his more tender parts of the body...Ouch!! If you guys are wondering what could have been that heavy...well wonder no more. He unwrapped...

I managed to catch the "Narnia" movie when I was back in Ipoh for my post Christmas holidays. Since I read the whole set of books many, many....many years ago, I can't really remember all the details but I know the gist of the story. Actually when I first read the this particular book, the story kinda reminded me of the fairy tale called "Snow Queen". The story was about this evil Snow Queen and a couple. The Snow Queen kidnapped the boy and promised to make him king if he could piece together a mirror. The girl tried desperately to rescue him from the Snow Queen and in the end, as with fairy tales, they ended up together again destroying the evil Snow Queen. So in this particular book of the Narnia chronicles, the Witch reminded me of the Snow Queen but of course the story ended up very differently. In fact as the story progressed with the appearance of Aslan the Lion, and his willing surrender to the Witch's intentions in Edward's stead, it started to ...

I was still recovering from shock when I heard the news last night. I was following one of my friends to my church member's Christmas open house when she apologised that she didn't reply my sms earlier. Apparently she was in a daze cos Peggy, one of her friends was warded into ICU after a snatch thief tried to mug her. It was only 2 days ago when Peggy was happily chatting with my friend's little daughter in the car as she followed us to watch the Christmas presentation in our church. Now she is in a coma due to internal bleeding from the incident. Sometimes we cry and ask God "Why God? WHY???" But we praise God that she is already a Christian so if God should say her time is up, at least we know she is in a better place. I couldn't help but wonder, what if it was someone else who was not a Christian? What if that person had died? Did we do a good job in pointing this person to Christ during our Christmas presentation? Or was is just good entertainment...

“Joyful, joyful, Lord we adore Thee…..” I never thought I’d grow tired of hearing this line but after hearing for about a few thousand times these past few weeks as we practiced for our Christmas presentation I kinda had about enough for one year. We nearly panicked as the day drew closer but thanks to God for His blessing and providence, we did it….after all, like most typical Malaysians, most of the preparation was done quite last minute. Being in charge of the hip hop dance number which was scheduled at the end of the show but was shifted to the beginning….at the very last minute….I had quite a number of challenges on the way to the final product. Initially I asked my dance instructor for help to choreograph the dance steps but due to both our busy schedule, we postponed it again and again. When we finally could find a time where we both could meet, he was suddenly down with high fever for a week! My dancers couldn’t wait to get started already since we only had about three more...

This Christmas has really been a nostalgic one for me. I was window shopping these past few weeks for some Christmas gift ideas when I came upon Memory Lane the other day. What caught my eye was this little miniature wardrobe wrapped in bright, eye-catching colours. I was attracted to it and went in to take a closer look. It actually turned out to be a jewellery box shaped like a miniature wardrobe. It even has a little mirror inside and a turnstile inside one of the glass cabinets...to hang your necklaces in. Hmmm....good idea especially each time I take out my necklaces from my jewellery box, it all gets entangled and takes me forever to get them unentangled. Then nostalgia came in....I still remember how I got my first jewellery box. I think I was about six or seven of age and my favourite grandma used to come visit once in a while especially during the Christmas holidays. That particular Christmas, she came to visit and gave me a jewellery box for Christmas. It was made of...

Maybe it's the Christmas ambience that makes you nostalgic and makes you think of home. Maybe it's been really that long since I went back to my hometown to spend time with my family. Or maybe it's because God has set eternity in our hearts and this longing for a place called HOME....a place where we feel where we really belong, which is in Heaven, at the feet of Jesus. I woke up this morning and just had this longing for HOME. My housemates just moved out of my house this week and so I'm all alone in the house again. I kinda welcomed the stillness and solitude after coming home to a house full of people for the past one year. Always being surrounded by people the whole day, I really treasure the opportunity to be alone and recharge my energy. And yet at times, I wished that I didn't come home to an empty house but to a house of people I love and who loved me and are glad to see me come home....especially miss my dog, Leesha. Why this unrest in my spirits? Thi...

It's Christmas time!!! My favourite time of the year. I love the ambience and the mood...the Christmas carols. The Christmas decorations...the whole works. I was at Mid Valley recently and they decorated the place really well. It kind of reminded me of some magical Christmas dreamland....something like the land of Narnia. I took some pictures of the landscaping but since my handphone camera wasn't very good, it didn't really do justice to it. I really like the this one. It was like going into some sort of medieval castle....probably the Snow Queen's castle or something like that. Well, being an artistic person and pretty much a dreamer, I would have loved to do this kind of visual merchandising...if only just for fun. I love creating beautiful stuff and love to be surrounded by things of beauty. Just going up into this little "fantasy architecture" just kinda makes you forget time and just for a while, it seems you are in another place, another time.....

The calendar boy is finally out in print!! I took it to his class last weekend and teased him about looking so fierce. He quickly took the postcard and tried to hide from view cos there were two other members with him then who also teased him when they saw the postcard. Haha...sorry lah. This is what you get when you pose for such publicity stunts. The photo really didn't do him justice and looked pretty fierce. Knowing him to be a pretty friendly guy, what you see is not what you get... Even got him to sign it for "memories sake". He was reluctant...feeling very "pai seh". He didn't like the picture either even though it was pretty difficult posing for it and even got scolded. There were only 6 featured in the Dec issue of New Tide. I guess the rest will be coming next month and the New Icon Feb issue would have another version of the calendar as well. Hmmm...I think the company is just trying to make a fast buck from us from this stunt. After al...

Here's another hilarious article by Liz Curtis Higgs. Kinda like "Kids say the darnest things" and always good for a laugh. Enjoy! Guess What Junior Said Today … and maybe you wish he hadn't! Every mother thinks her offspring is hysterically funny. "You'll never believe what our four year old said," a woman in Topeka once assured me. Oh, I'll believe it, all right. I recently overheard my daughter, Lillian, phoning a friend. Her mother answered and asked Lillian if she wanted to leave a message—a new concept for my daughter. "A message?" Lillian said, dumbfounded. "Okay. Tell her to put my foot in her prayers." A big "Haaawwww!" slipped out of my mouth before I could stop it. (I've heard of putting your foot in your mouth, but in your prayers?) "Mo-ther!" Lillian whined, stamping her foot. The same foot she'd supposedly hurt a week earlier, the one with the Ace bandage, the one she'd danced on seco...

I thought of inserting this hilarious article taken from the archives of "Today's Christian Women". The writer, Liz Curtis Higgs, is one of my favourite authors and she really knows how to tickle your laughing bones. I've always enjoyed reading her articles and thought of sharing this funny article in my blog. For more articles by her, you can check the archives of Today's Christian Women feature column, Life with Liz or Lighten Up . The Truth About Men ( and why they don't require an instruction manual ) After 13 happy years of marriage, I'm here to report that men are embarrassingly easy to understand. That's a blessing, considering when you hit 30, you're trying to figure out who you are. When you reach 40, you spend your days mind-melding with a teenager; at 50, you begin to wonder whatever happened to the aging parent you thought you knew. Realizing women could handle only so many unanswered questions, God graciously gave us fathers, brothe...

I was on my way back home on the commuter last night when I saw this amusing incident involving two malay girls and one male foreigner.  I was actually standing near this cubicle near the doors since there were no more seats available.  These two malay girls were standing next to each side of the door and chit chatting.  Then this guy, quite fair, probably from north India or Nepal judging from his way of speech, came out to stand next to one of the girls, leaning against the wall.  As the commuter train rattled along its way, suddenly the girl looked back at the guy because he was standing closer and closer to her.  He quickly apologized and moved away abit.   The train rattled quite violently later and he was kinda pushed towards her, whether on purpose or not, I’m not too sure but so he quickly apologized again and this time went over to stand over the other side next to the other girl.  He then started talking to ...

The screams and laughter of children echoed throughout the waiting hall. Parents chatted noisily while making sure their children kept out of trouble from the corner of their eyes. I just watched them in amusement and felt like a little kid again. Nope, I wasn't in a kindergarten or in a children's centre. I was actually in the waiting hall of the "Panggung Bandaraya" waiting for the Black Art Theatre presentation of "Thumbelina" We went in about 10 minutes before the show started and I happened to sit down next to a semi-retired lady who happens to be a freelance drama and speech teacher for kids. She also gives sessions for those who needs coaching in voice projection and public speaking. We chatted while waiting for the show to start and I even invited her for our Christmas presentation which is also using the same black light effect (see below my cbox for more info), which was the main reason why I'm attending this "Thumbelina". She ...

If you have been reading the newspapers lately, they seem to be highlighting a lot of plights regarding transexuals. Another article came out today which you can read here about how a transexual alleged that she was humiliated and forced to strip in front of three policemen after being detained for suspected vice. And all this happening right after the "infamous couple" incident. I'm beginning to wonder ..."Is that You God? Are You trying to say something to the Church?" I actually went to the bookstore to find out how does the Church in general address this issue on gays and transexuals and reaching out to them. And what about gay churches? I was actually quite surprised that I couldn't find any...or maybe I was looking in the wrong bookshop. Well, this issue has been around since Noah's time so why so hard to find a book that addresses this issue....maybe God is asking the Church and maybe specifically the Malaysian Church to wake up and do somethi...

Just saw another article on the 'infamous couple' this morning and was feeling a little outraged. Transsexual drama queen?? Sinful couple?? Who gave these people the right to condemn them? Who do they think they are? God? My anger is not because he is my friend, but the at the judgemental attitude of society. Too often we are ready to accuse others unjustly of wrongdoing. We fail to see that we, ourselves, are guilty of sins. Judging is necessary in life, but it must be done fairly. Even as we judge, so we shall be judged (Matthew 7: 2). Sometimes, our motives for judging are for improper purposes. Putting someone down makes us feel superior but it is actually a manifestation of pride. When we enjoy besmirching another, we become "stone throwers" and we lose grace. If you look in the Bible at passage (John 8:1-11) , Jesus didn't condemn sinners but extended outrageous grace. The scene is the temple courts where Jesus was teaching. The Pharisees, unable to g...

A recent article came out in The Star tabloid regarding a couple who spent about RM 1 million ringgit on their wedding. Now this was no ordinary wedding...the bride happens to be a man who underwent three major surgeries in order to be a woman and the groom happens to be.................... my ex-schoolmate! For the full article, just click here Imagine my shock when I saw the photo and article. Hmmm...didn't know he had it in him to love someone so much, he proposed six times to her(him?). I used to see him in school back in Form 6. He even dated my classmates before...ahem, they happened to be females. He's quite a good looking guy and though I've lost touch with him now, he used to join my class when we went out for group outings. He's actually a quiet guy and also quite active in sports, but I didn't really knew him very well. I can still remember the time he came to persuade me from quitting as a librarian. What happened was when I started my Lower 6 F...

The long queue snaked along the walkway outside Espanda club and it was only 8pm. At the entrance the organisers were busy giving away doorgifts and free drink coupons. Behind the stage, 30 nervous young men were getting ready for the final round of interview. Inside the club, it was already jam packed with people waiting impatiently for the event to start. There was hardly any standing space left and yet people were pushing their way through to get a better view of the stage while the long queue kept getting longer outside. Finally there were lots of cheering and wolf whistles, the young men were coming out to do the catwalk. Dressed in jeans and body hugging white T-shirt with "I'm A Hunk" printed in front, to show off their muscular bodies, all 30 of them looked liked cover-guy models vying for the title of....New Icon/New Tide's latest 12 Hunks of the Year 2005. In between interviews, there was also a special presentation from our Malaysian Idol, Daniel as we...

Been too busy to go for the Planet Shakers Conference...aiyah, what to do, so many things going on and with Christmas coming. Sometimes I wonder whether we are doing too much. After all God must have a reason for giving us only 24 hours in a day. While we try to accomplish more with the time we've been given, sometimes we wish we have a 48-hour day. Hmm...does it seem surprising that Jesus never rushed anywhere and yet was always on time and accomplished a lot of things?? Anyway, found a sneak preview of what's happening over there...wish I was there. Wish you were there but can't, just click on N ª R r Ø w ª Y ¿ Hey, tonight's the last night if you can make it....

Woo hoo!! After much thought, I finally managed to get my death wishlist done....sounds so morbid...haha! Or rather a list of things to do before I die. Not that I'm thinking of dying now but it's a good practice to step back and take a look at what you want to do with your life, what you want to achieve and whether we are going that direction right now. Here's 25 items, well actually there was more but at this point 25 is sufficient. So here goes... Things to do before I die Lead as many as possible to heaven... hey since I'm going there, might as well show the way Fulfill my God-given purpose in life Leave a legacy Fall in love unconditionally...to the right man ( God needs to help me out here cos I don't trust my heart) Have my first kiss at the marriage altar Bungee jumping!!! Skydiving...people must think I'm an adrenaline junkie Start an orphanage Make a difference in someone's life Take a cruise around the world Go up in a hot-air balloon Own a ho...

My friend invited me over for a movie with her last night at a shopping mall nearby. I agreed and took a bus to the mall to meet her. Since it was peak hour, the bus was slowly getting crowded and the roads were also beginning to get jammed. Then I saw two young guys dressed in white shirts and black pants got onto the bus. They were holding some brochures and what looked like bibles. Being familiar with their 'costume', my guess was they were either JWs or Mormons. Since there wasn't any seat left, they stood during the ride but I could see them 'surveying' the passengers in the bus and finally one of them sat down next to an elderly man when there was a seat available. He quickly struck up a conversation with the man and started sharing about his beliefs. Later the other guy did the same with a younger guy who sat in front of me. I kinda eavesdropped on what he was sharing and I heard him say that their 'bible' is a little different than the 'h...

Today I managed to call the personal empowerment contact person that my boss passed to me. Right now I need to pray for God to provide the resource and opportunity to attend the workshop. Hmmm...didn't realise that this kind of workshop can cost RM888!! It's supposed to be at Mont Kiara for a weekend but only food is provided, not a stay-in workshop. It should be sometime before the end of the year. She just needs at least 10 people to start the workshop but right now she only has about 4 people interested. Gosh! I really need to work out my budget....what with Christmas coming and all. Time to get a little creative again this Christmas?? Do I have the time??!! Time is such a precious commodity to me....sigh. I need to MAKE TIME!! Just have time to start getting in touch with my soul again by making this simple list: What makes me happy: Dancing and singing in the rain! Puppies and dogs...love to watch them sleep and eat Making music...on my piano, violin, guitar...any...

Finally had some time do some spring cleaning during the deeparaya holidays. Man...do my room need a spring cleaning!!! I've just threw out 5 bags of rubbish and my room still looks cluttered with so much stuff...what to do, I like to keep stuff *sigh*. Actually it took me 3 days to finally finish cleaning my room...hehe, had to stop halfway to meet up with friends and other activities. Now I only need to find time to clean my bathroom... As I was going through my stuff, I remember this saying I heard from "dunno where" that The state of our room reflects the state of our soul ....hmmm....i don't know what credentials the person who said this had, but I reflected on it and I think there is some truth to it. Just looking around my room with stacks of half-finished books and papers strewn around, my piano and violin lying there untouched for "dunno how long"....it kinda reflects my soul too. Too busy rushing here and there, doing this thing and that, I t...

Aaaaarrgh!! I just had to let it out. I finally had some free time to watch a movie during the deeparaya holidays so I decided to watch Zorro 2. Everything was fine until this guy with spikey hair walked in and sat right in front of me. Not only was he tall, when he sat up, his hair was blocking half the screen!!! The cinema was pretty crowded so there wasn't an empty place around for me to move to. Can you imagine the frustration when I had to keep bobbing my head left, right and above his head to see the screen? I was so tempted to flatten out that hair in front of me!! Why do guys nowadays have to have this spikey hairstyle? Hope it goes out of style soon or cinemas better start implementing a ban on spikey heads to enter the cinema. They are an obstruction to others and hazardous to the owner....someone might get hurt you know. Maybe get their eyes poked out by the spikes or someone decided to do something drastic about that visual obstruction in front of him...who kn...

My dance instructor is up to it again. Another "beauty contest for males"...and this time he has to do it without his shirt on!! This is the requirement, in case you think I'm putting "gambar lucah" on my blog...:-P Actually my colleague commented that he looks better with his shirt on...haha! When I asked him what were the majority of the comments, he said most of his friends said he looked like a small kid. Come to think of it, yeah...he does and in fact, out of the 30 finalists, he was the only one who smiled...a little. How he ended up smiling while the rest didn't was actually because he couldn't keep himself from smiling. The photographer was telling him to hold back the smile and that made him smile....and SNAP!! Personally I think it's better that he does. Most of them looked so fierce and unapproachable. But the most ironic thing was, one of the prize sponsors was the gym he left. And now he is tied to their competitor...what a scena...

It's that time of the year again where I start counting how many candles I have on my birthday cake. Every year the candles increase in number doesn't it....hehe....doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out. Well I've finally reached the big 3-0 and I took the week off to reflect back just where have I been, where I am and where am I going to. What do I really want out of life? Well, it was at this age that Jesus started His public ministry and died 3 years later when His work was done. Pity that He died at the prime of His life, some may say but I look at it and wonder, can I complete my purpose in my generation by 3 years time? What is my purpose in my generation? I look at myself and think, "Man, I still have a long way to go!" My young adults group leader "volunteered" me to be the "sitting duck" in their "target practice" today. Hmm...not a practice everyone would like to do on their birthday. The main reason...

Today is a sad day for me. I have to say farewell to a good friend, mentor and supervisor. Even though she is my boss, she is much more than that to me. What can I say....I pray that she will find what she's looking and hoping for. May her path be blessed and God watch over her always. Our staff got together to get her the beautiful saree she is wearing. She said she will always treasure it and can bring it with her wherever she goes. Hmm...when she goes back to US to be together with the one she loves one day. Always an encourager and epitome of excellence in whatever she does, farewell to a well loved friend.

My colleague just came back from Disneyland and was passing out these candies. They are these sugar coated gummies with sugar icing decorated on them to make them look like cartoon characters. There are four different types. She passed one to me....it's still on my table. Too cute to eat lah...

I still can't believe that I won an Ipod Shuffle!! This is the first time I actually won anything in a lucky draw. This lucky draw was conducted during my company annual dinner recently at Sunway Lagoon Resort Hotel. The theme for the dinner was "International Gala Spectacular" so we were supposed to dress up in any costume that represents a country...like Statue of Liberty, Geisha, etc... There was even a RM500 prize for the best dressed male and female staff. Hmm...I actually contemplated dressing up but then again, no lah, too much work, not enough time. The winner for the female category was a staff dressed up as Princess Pei Pei from China, while the male category is ....actually i felt it was abit out of topic but the guy actually dressed as a lady while his wife dressed as a man. Creative idea but abit out of topic. Oh well, he won anyway. Both of them were supposed to dress up like that when they come to work on Monday or they'll forfeit the title...do...

I went for my usual cardio dance last Saturday and started to miss my instructor already when he said it will be his last class next wednesday. Was very tempted to join the other gym so I actually went to check it out last Friday. It looks good so far but the next day, I kinda felt too lazy to travel all the way which roughly takes about an hour to get there. The other 3 members of his class were also contemplating about joining the other gym and asked what was the best package and days to go. Later we decided to take some photos for memories and everyone was like modeling with each other. I think we laughed so much that we must have caused quite a ruckus cause the passerbys were kinda staring at us and wondering what was all the commotion about. He had to take a shower because he had another class later in another branch so we continued to "model" some more. When he finally came out again, he hanged around with us a little while more so we focused all our cameras on h...

I went to the STOMP performance last Sunday and man, I was impressed. There were only 8 of them but they gave a really A-class performance without break for almost 2 hours. Talk about stamina...talk about body coordination...and the RHYTHM!! My eyes were glued to the performance lest I blink and miss something I shouldn't. The performance was well....beyond words. I never thought I'd have so much fun watching and laughing at their antics as well. I've watched Fame, Cats, Saturday Night Fever, Riverdance but this is the first time I ever went to such kind of performance where the audience were asked to participate and interact with the performers. After watching the show, you'll never look at your household utensils the same way again...nor your body. It was just absolutely amazing watching the guys coordinating their hands and feet during the body percussion item. There were also anticipation as we wonder what other items they were going to use next. It started ...

Recently my cardio dance teacher at my gym was selected as the 10 finalists in a model search contest. A few of us from his class went to support him....Well...I'm not a clubbing person so finding the place was one thing and getting there was another. Finally we managed to get there in one piece with plenty of time to spare. The registration was supposed to start at 8pm and the event by 9pm. We reached there about a little past 8pm and the place was already filling up quite fast. My teacher's partner was also there along with a few other of his "kaki". We looked for him backstage and had a few pictures taken with his "canggih" hairstyle...you know the ones where the hair stands on end like spikes, kinda look like you just came out of a horror movie scared stiff...hehe...Was very tempted to touch it to see if it's as hard as it looks...but then again, don't wanna mess up his hair right before the competition. We stood near the stage so that we could g...

Just came back from my company trip in Endau Rompin, Pahang recently and was pretty tired but enjoyed it tremendously. Being quite near the swamp and forest areas, our mobile network service reception wasn't very good. We had to go to certain areas before we could see the bars in our mobile...the most three bars!! But the best place to get clear reception was at the beach, one of my favourite places:-) My colleagues and I actually woke up at 5am the first day to catch the sunrise at the beach. We waited there about 1 hour before we could glimpse some light coming up. Man, what a sight!! The sun was such a brilliant ball of fire coming out from the horizon! Intense man...if you are late, you will miss it because it was only for about 5 minutes and it was daylight. We had some telematches later on in the day including tug of war. Let me say this, playing tug of war on the sand is really tough cos there's not much ground for you to anchor your feet. Sadly, my group lost...mainly b...

I’ve always liked the Nike ads and recently I’ve discovered they have these cool dance steps taught online on their website. They have different genres like Rockstar, Brasilian, and Salsa. I also liked the ones on Xtreme Step and Hip Hop Spin. There is quite a variety on different types of sports which you can find in the Cardio Cross Training and they even have one on sword wielding called Forza. Pretty interesting website and I loved their wallpapers. They can be downloaded and I’ve inserted one here which is one my favourites. What can I say….it speaks what’s in my heart. Music makes me want to move it, move it…;-)

I still remember when I first saw the movie "Shall We Dance" and I fell in love with it. Watching the dancers dance with such grace and fluidity of movement made me just want to sigh. The most memorable scene was when Richard Gere, dressed in his tuxedo holding a red rose in his hand as he stood on the escalator to meet his wife. He looked so dashing and my knees went weak just looking at him. I still remember they played "The Book of Love" by Peter Gabriel as the background music. Dancing and music is part and parcel of what I'm made of. I can still remember when I was very young I begged my mother to let me go for ballet classes but she kept giving excuses that it will deform my legs or that it's too expensive. Now that I am reaching my 30s, my passion for dance and music is still very much alive. Since joining a gym sometime in May 2004, the dancing classes have always been one of my favourite classes. I still dream of finding a partner who is willing to ...

This blog is about my ramblings of my life as a dance and Jesus as the Lord of my dance. Music and movement has always been one of my passions and that includes dancing. I liked the way my favourite singer, Steven Curtis Chapman puts it: " I am the heart, He is the heartbeat, I am the eyes, He is the sight, I see clearly, I am just a body, He is the life. I move my feet, I go through the motions But He gives purpose to chance I am the dancer, He is the Lord of the dance." Everyone dances to the beat of a different drum but I want to dance to His drumbeats. Anyone care to join me in this dance of life?