Lord of my Dance

Ho! Ho! Ho! It’s my favourite time of the year again, where my heart just skips a beat just seeing the shiny baubles dangling from the ceiling and a romantic fireplace decorating the walls. I was walking through Metrojaya the other day over at Mid Valley and their deco was just out of this world. It was like walking into some kind of “Winter Wonderland”…Mmmmm… I felt like a small kid getting excited at the prospect of exploring my first steps in that magical ambience…was sure I even skipped a little! Ok…back to earth already! With the new semester looming ahead and the frazzled busyness of constant ringing of phones and tight schedules, Christmas preparations and practices, my head is just spinning trying to gather my thoughts all at once. There is this saying that BUSY = Busy Under Satan’s Yoke. I think there is a certain truth to it. How many times have we been a victim of “Tyranny of the Urgent” where because of our busyness, we push aside the important things in favour of...

And finally the final book of the trilogy, “The Devil and Miss Prym” is the most interesting of all. In this novel about temptation is a thought provoking parable of a community devoured by greed, cowardice and fear as it struggles with the choice between good and evil. A stranger arrives at the remote village of Viscos, carrying with him a backpack containing a notebook and eleven gold bars. He comes searching for the answer to a question that torments him. Are human beings, in essence good or evil? In his sophisticated plot, he shows Chantal Prym, a young, simple girl in the village, where he buried his eleven bars of gold. After showing her the gold bars, he shared his plot to proof his theory that the nature of human beings when confronted with temptation, will always fall. He explained to Chantal, “ Everybody in this village is honest, starting with you. I showed you the gold bar, which would give you the necessary financial independence to get out of the village, to trav...

“I’m alive”, thought Veronika. “Everything’s gonna start all over again. I’ll have to stay in here for a while, until they realize that I’m perfectly normal. Then they’ll let me out, and I’ll see the outside world again.” In the second book by Paulo Coelho I have been exploring, “Veronika Decides To Die” talks about a 24 year old Veronika who seems to have everything – youth and beauty, boyfriends and a loving family, a fulfilling job. But something is missing in her life. So, one cold November morning, Veronika decides to die. She takes a handful of sleeping pills, expecting never to wake up again. But she does…in a mental hospital where she is told that she has only days to live. And as she thinks about her situation now that her suicide was unsuccessful, an inner monologue continues on in her head: “Since people always tend to help others-just so that they can feel they are better then they really are-they’ll give me my job back at the library. Since I only take sleeping pil...

My book review journey continues…and this time it’s a book entitled, “By The River Piedra I Sat Down And Wept” This is the first part in Paulo Coelho's trilogy "On the Seventh Day". The other two parts are “Veronika Decides to Die” and “The Devil and Miss Prym” . This trilogy revolve around a week in the life of seemingly ordinary people, all of whom find themselves suddenly confronted by love, death and power. Linking these stories together is Coelho’s belief that the profoundest changes take place within a short time. And while these intense changes shape the lives and decisions of the characters, they also challenge the reader, testing our strength, courage and willingness to adapt. After all the challenge will not wait. Life does not look back. A week is more than enough time for us to decide whether or not to accept our destiny. “By The River Piedra I Sat Down And Wept” is essentially a story about love. It also includes elements of Catholicism and particula...

I was still very hesitant about writing this post due to the delicate subject of those “Harry Potter books” and the last thing I want to do is open up a can of worms. There are still many differing viewpoints on whether Harry Potter books should be banned, burned or maybe…recycled? Or is the church overreacting about this particular series of children’s fictional books? I am not advocating that Christians should or should not read/watch Harry Potter but this is just to share my viewpoint and encounter with Harry Potter books. The first time anyone actually asked me whether I had any problems with Harry Potter was when I was applying for a job as a facilitator for a children’s development centre. Since they use Harry Potter to make things more interesting in their science experiment classes, they actually asked me if I was comfortable using him in the classes since I told them I was a Christian. That was 2 years ago…and I had to admit, I have never seen or read any Harry Potter bo...

“Are you getting married?” My colleague asked me as she eyed the book on Decorating for newly weds curiously on my table. I just laughed and shook my head. Apparently I had the itch to redecorate my bedroom so I had been borrowing all the books on interior decorating from the library. I actually didn’t notice the title of the book until I was taken aback by her question. Well since the unfulfilled desire to own my own place is still not within my reach, the best alternative goal within my reach was to redo my bedroom…hence the book on my table. And probably also the creative bug in me is starting to itch having been neglected for too long…doing other boring stuff! So my plan was to get all the inspiration and ideas as much as I could before the DeepaRaya holidays looms near. It’s seldom that we have two major national holiday celebration back to back so when it happens, it’s usually a long break. It also happened that Deepavali was right smack before my birthday too. So with th...

The ActsGames results were finally out after the long awaited two weeks. And the winner goes to....Hyppo Barney!! It was quite unexpected since the team didn't win alot of games, but did they score big time on the merit points! I was just chatting with one of the committee members and she said that most of us were so focused on the games and superpower that they forgot that what happens behind the scenes are just as important. I guess we learnt a lesson from the Hyppo Barneys...Hip Hip Hurray! Hip Hippo Barney! As for the winner of the cheerleading, the Red Hulks walked away as the champion while Pink Panthers came in second with very close marks. Pink Panthers were the Iron Team for being the team who was the strongest...surprise! surprise! I thought we did were around second or third. The best Sportswoman went to Aunty Molly from Mata Kerbau and best Sportsman went to Alex Au Yong from Red Hulks. Way to go! Finally, well done to all the teams out there, and thanks for that gr...

After a month of sweat and glory, ActsGames finally came to the finale last Sunday with the highlight of the event...the cheerleading event. If you're wondering what's ActsGames is, this is just a sports event held yearly by Acts Church to create "Unity through Diversity". With the the different coloured power groups combined, we had 4 teams namely, Hyppo Barney(blue & purple)...not Hyppo Bunny as some mistakenly called it...but it sounds kinda cute. Then we have Mata Kerbau (white & yellow) as in the "Bull's Eye fried egg". If you don't understand...ask someone else!! And also our adorable Red Hulks (red & green)which at first glance reminds you of Christmas. Last but not least, Pink Panthers(black & pink) which is also my team....is the winning team for cheerleading last year. Go Panthers! I heard they did some cheerleading stunts that bowled the judges over last year. I wasn't around then...so no comments on that :) ...

White sandy beaches, clear blue skies, water so clear you can see the bottom…sounds like a taste of paradise isn’t it? Yup, I had a taste of paradise during the weekend at Pulau Redang as part of my company trip. And like my friend, we didn’t want to go back home. It was so much fun just swimming at the clear shallow waters, lazing around, snorkelling, more snorkelling and did I mention snorkelling? The excitement started on Thursday night when I boarded the coach which will take us all the way to Marang Jetty. We reached the jetty at about 6am on Friday morning and dozed off while waiting for the first boat to depart which was around 9.30am. The trip on the ferry to Redang took us about 45 minutes so we looked at the beautiful scenery outside through the little port hole windows. When we finally arrived at the Laguna Redang Island Resort where we were staying, we registered at the lobby and while waiting, the first thing we did was to explore the beach. My roommate and I were s...

"E06? What's that?" I had people asking me this question when I told them I am going for a conference at SIB KL. I actually not sure what the "E" stands for so I actually asked Ps. Lee Choo and she said it stands for 'exist'...which has a long history behind it. That's another story.... I nearly didn't go because the people who were supposed to go, all pulled out and I was the only one confirmed going. I had some trouble with finding transport as well, but I felt that God wanted me to be there and He provided me with all my transport needs...God is so good! "So how was e06?" This was the second most asked question to me when I came back from the conference. So to save time...and breath I decided to answer all these questions refering them to my blog. Smart eh?!! Hehe...I am excited to share with everyone what I've learned at the conference so I 'm going to share about each session. I will try, I said TRY to keep it sh...

After "Take the Lead", here comes another one of those dance movies that just makes me want to get up and dance. The latest buzz that everyone seems to be talking about is "Step Up"...not the Bloom conference, but the movie. I can't wait to see the movie...but when will it appear on our Malaysian cinema screens, that is the question. In the mean time, to whet your appetites, I've put some of the movie clips and music videos...and they are so cool! The dance moves are like a fusion of Hip Hop and Ballet....hmmm, seems a bit like the Funky Jazz I do in my gym. But anyway...the female lead, Jenna Dewan, also happens to be one of the actress in "Take the Lead" where she did the "threesome" at the dance competition. Now is her turn to be the female lead in this movie. To give you a glimpse of what is in store, here's a brief synopsis of the movie. Enjoy! Everyone deserves a chance to follow their dreams, but some people only get one...

I think most people might not believe this but today was the first time I actually went to Sunway Lagoon Dry and Wet Park after living in Subang for 6 years. My dance 'kaki' had 2 free tickets to spare so she, me and another dance 'kaki' all went to have a day of fun courtesy of her boss. The first thing we saw was the 'hooking the floating ducks' stall. The big prize was all those giant soft toys attracting everyone's attention. We wanted to try but finally found out that it wasn't that easy cos we had to hook the duck with a no. 1 written under it...which naturally you can't see. And to add to that, out of all the many ducks there, there is only one no. 1 duck. So what are the chances? You calculate yourself. No prizes for the right answer! We saw the cage with a few tigers lazing around and they looked quite cute and cuddly...when they are in this docile mood of course. We explored further into the limestone exhibition site where they high...

Oooh...isn't he cute??!! Probably being naughty and sticking his nose between the fence panels. This is just one of my colleague's golden retriever...the naughtiest one actually. His name is Sheriff and supposed to be the "beauty king" of the lot. Got the looks but not the brains...just like humans. The rest of the gang ...she's got THREE okay...are below. On the left is Muffin and the right is Hunter. Both of them got the brains but not the looks...haha. Hunter and Sheriff was bought back from the shop but Muffin was picked up from the streets. They advertised for a month and since nobody came to claim her, she decided to keep the dog. Well, Muffin didn't look that good when she picked her up...but just look what a little TLC can do :) And now for the group photo! Ain't they just adorable...how I wish I could keep one. Sigh...Goldren Retrievers are one of my favourites in the DOGdom. And my colleague is just lucky she gets to spend her time with all diffe...

It was right after the Unboxed Event that I encountered this temptation…the temptation to know my FUTURE!!! One of the diploma students was doing some tarot cards reading with some lecturers and students right outside the courtyard where we had our event. So as the saying goes, “Curiosity killed the cat”… well, I was curious enough to stand there and listen as one by one sat down to have their “fortunes read”. And sure enough one thing led to another, I ended up in front of the girl too, wanting to know what my “fortune held for me”. After hearing all the spicy details that my students and colleagues had in their “fortunes”, I was hoping to hear some spicy details about mine too. When the cards were finally shuffled and laid out to be read, all she said was, “Nothing major is happening in your life right now. Everything’s under control. There are minor problems here and there but that’s part of life.” I was like, “That’s it? Gosh my life is so boring!” She gave me a look and s...