Bali

The Chin family spent almost a week in Bali together with the How family.


Both stayed at Hard Rock Hotel.


I don't have all their pictures & stories yet... but from the little I heard... about Turtle Island lah... about Volcano lah... about Monkey Temple lah... about FOOD lah... sounds like a good trip.


Looks delicious... :P


Spooky! Looks like King Kong could still be roaming around here...


Yikes! IT IS!!!


I am sure the kids got a LOT of nice stories to share with their friends!

Sunday

Despite coming home quite late last night, this morning, we have a different "routine" as compared to my other Sunday. For me, I REALLY appreciate the fact that I could sleep "late" on Sunday.


This morning, by 7:30am we were already at the park near my house!


It was good to see so many folks up so early doing their morning exercises. The air was cool and fresh... the morning light was soft and warm...


Unfortunately, I also notice the pond water is getting really polluted. There was a film of greasy looking brownish "thing" floating on the water. It stretched the whole pond on one side. And I also notice all the fishes were on the "other" side away from the brownish grease... except this little one... :(


After 3 big rounds around the park, Jane already complained of "dizziness". So we headed to the "Open Day Sales" for the Sarawak Association for the Welfare of Intellectually Disabled Children. When we arrived, it was already VERY jam... and it was only 8:15am!!!


AiPing got some free coupons thanks to her "Headmaster".


The place was PACKED with stalls! Best of all, it was PACKED with people too. Good to see so many people supporting a worthy welfare cause. However, I noticed this particular "stall"... hmmm... not too sure if the adults are "intellectually disabled" or not for making it so HARD for a small kid to win something!!! And she gotta throw a HUGE coconut that must have weighted a few KILOs!!!


Guess what we bought with the coupons? ;)

Note: All photos above by my new SE K800i.

SonyEricsson K800i

This week, I decided to get a new phone to replace my "faithful but buggy" Motorola V3i. And the selection process basically goes down to either SE K800i or Nokia6300. I know they are "apple & orange" choices, but hey, thats part of life.

And in the end, I choose SE K800i. Main reasons: 1) price (K800i is "old" enough to become a great bargain. Almost 50% off from when it was first launched), 2) camera (still no competition here...), 3) 3G.

So far I really like the music player (better than my SE W810i) and the long battery life.

Greatest Gift of All

Last night, Chin's mom celebrated her HAPPIEST birthday yet. How come? Any guess? Well, for once she "finally" got a birthday cake! I was told Chin's dad NEVER EVER wanted to buy any birthday cake for any birthday... But that ain't the reason.


It is actually quite simple. For the past year, not just Chin's mom herself received Lord Jesus as her personal Lord & Saviour, but her son...daughter-in-law...AND her VERY husband received Jesus Christ as their Lord & Saviour. There is NO better gift than the Gift of Salvation. Purchased by the blood of Jesus.

Hallelujah!

Update @ 21/4: Chin's eldest sister has accepted the Lord!!! 2 more to go... ;)

Bethany Birthday

This evening we celebrate Bethany's 1yr old birthday (lunar calender). She was a bit cranky...


Tonite, we got VVVVVIP guests from Sibu. My beloved relatives from Sibu.


Usually Bethany won't allow Ah Hui to even "touch" her... but seems like things are improving...

Nikon D40 Review - Update

above pix from dpreview.com

After taking more than 1,000 shots for the past 2 weeks, below are my likes & dislikes:

1) Likes
- compact & lightweight. Compare to my old Nikon F4s this D40 is like a toy ;)
- more than enough resolution for me to work with. Even when u crop like crazy.
- excellent metering. So far I have yet to encounter any serious metering issues.
- buttons & dials are well placed. After a couple of hours, I can now basically change metering mode & exposure compensation WITHOUT taking my eyes off the viewfinder!
- excellent built-in flash.

2) Dislikes
- white balance. I encountered major wb issue (auto setting) during my Easter shooting. I need to PP almost half of the photos!
- SD card compartment door too easy to be opened accidentally.
- need MORE buttons & dials! I wished it has an ISO & a dedicated aperture dial (for manual shooting) or some programmable buttons for some preset setting.
- last but not least...


...ONLY 1 out of my 4 "old" Nikon lenses can autofocus :(

- after using autofocus for so many years, man, it was "hard work" to manual focus my 50mmf1.8 or 80-200mmf2.8 ED! I even get out-of-focus with my 16mmf2.8 FISHEYE! LOL! But praise God my favourite 17-35mmf2.8 ED still works like a charm. After all, I was well aware of the autofocusing issue b4 I decided to buy D40... Well, at least that gives me a "good excuse" to dream of D3??? ;)

- one last thing - smallish viewfinder. Compared to F4s or F100, man, the viewfinder for D40 is like peeping thru a pinhole!

Otherwise I am VERY happy with my D40.

Bao Bei

Have not seen Bethany for... 1 mth (?) and already she has grown "visibly"!


10pm... and still fully awake...

Feast Of First Fruits

Today is Easter Sunday, or to be more biblical, today is the day of Feast of First Fruits. A holy day given by God to Moses foretelling the eventual RESURRECTION of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We have a combined church service with the english & mandarin groups at Crown Plaza.


I arrived late. So there wasn't much time to do "socialising" photo shoots. But I did manage to get a few...


I almost dropped my lenses when I thought I saw Dr Dave Hunt, one of my MOST admired Bible teacher, in the midst! But obviously it was just an "optical" illusion. Sigh...


Once more we had a dynamic worship time led by our Holy Spirit filled musicians & singers.


Today we have Pastor Steve Harris with us. When my Senior Pastor first introduced Ps Steve, we were told Ps Steve used to be a VERY FAMOUS ROCK SINGER! For a moment I was wondering... could it be... the Steve Harris from Iron Maiden (?!!!)


Ps Steve Harris has got the MOST INCREDIBLY POWERFUL testimonies. I promise I will try to blog some of them soon. But I must also praise God for sister Belinda, the faithful translator, cuz for a couple of times, I couldn't understand Ps Steve until sister Belinda translated!!!


Today is an AWESOME day. Today God has FULFILLED YET AGAIN His promise & His words. For today, my bro-in-law's dad is SAVED! O Hallelujah!!!

For the past few years, it had been on Chin's heart for his "unsaved" loved ones. All of them were deemed - "impossible". All of them were die-hard idol worshipers. He only got God's word to hang onto:

So they said, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household." (Acts 16:31)

Praise God for His grace & mercy, for one by one, God worked His miracles on the HARDEST one first. LOL. And today it was Chin's "VERY HARD" father. O PRAISE THE LORD!

Over the years, the Lord had sent forth so many people to share the gospel with his father. And today is HARVEST time. (I know my dad who is in heaven now must be jumping with joy)

I must also mention about the FIRST person who answered Ps Steve's altar call. I believe God used this young lady to encourage the MANY MANY others who were "too shy" to come up. Cuz right after she came up, a WHOLE bunch of people came up too! Praise God for her friend too!

Hallelujah!


With so many souls saved today, the look on my Senior Pastor's face says it all... (must had been tears mixing with super joy)


Ps Steve & some of our church leaders continued to pray for many more...


Then it was MAKAN time!

To see MORE photos pls CLICK HERE.

My CareGroup

Wouldn't it be nice?

Dino Trek!

Today is Good Friday! So that means it is a public HOLIDAY!

This morning, we went to the BIGGEST happening in town - the DinoTrek! Boy, I gotta tell u, there were SO MANY people showing up at the museum. When we arrived, there were at least a few hundred people lining up already! (and u never quite know who else was there...)


I have NEVER seen such a HUGE line in Kuching before. Not at 9:30am!!! U would have thought some HUGE Hollywood movie is in town. We only got our tickets after queuing for about 1 hr. And our tickets were only good for admission 2 1/2 hours LATER!


So we got 2 1/2 hours to kill.

This ice-cream seller is a rarity nowadays. U don't see them anymore. Funny we found one today next to a museum... Tough way to make a living, but sure bring lots of joy & hope to many young ones. I sure got lots of fond memories about mobile ice-cream sellers. Especially hearing those bells ringing...


Then we visited the nearby aquarium... Some enjoyed it, some... hmmm....


We also checked out this very OLD eatery place near to the museum serving FABULOUS rojak & "Jun-lok".


Everything here is prepared the "OLD FASHION WAY". No shortcuts. Well, may be the ice grinder is now electrically powered... but thats about ALL! I love the rojak here.


Before long we were back to the old Sarawak Museum... just loitering around... then I noticed this mural on the wall... hmmm.... something doesn't seem to fit... ;)

Only kidding!!!


With one MORE hour to go we decided to head back to the other museum where the DinoTrek is been held.


One surprise of the day was the accidental discovery of the Islamic museum. Didn't realise it was located right behind the Tun Abdul Razak Hall. Too bad I ddin't have time to check it out. Will sure be back there soon.


In the end, praise God for His love & mercy. They allowed us in BEFORE the alloted time. Hallelujah!

Well, I must say, the DinoTrek exhibition is satisfactory. I wish they could have installed more BIGGER, BADDER robotic models, but the current 3 will do just fine... My favourite of course is this T-Rex!


This is another robotic one. I love this nest. The babies actually move!


Very creative way for people to "interact" with the T-Rex. Great fun for every one.

Bless the Lord for this wonderful day.

Cicak

(thanks to my buddy, CW)

sob sob!

DiGi Fu-Yoh? FOOL-U?

Last month I bought a DiGi prepaid with the intention of checking out how useful is the FnF Plus. Was glad it was "FREE" for a while until March 31st.

Before the deadline, I received an SMS teaching me how to unsubscribe the FnF Plus...


After much thought, I decided to unsubscribe before the deadline. But much to my dismay I wasn't able to do an "UNDO"!!! As the deadline loomed, I just couldn't unsubscribe the service despite following the instruction on the SMS!

Then came April 1st... and like it or not, I was CHARGED RM3 :(

Well, fate would have it that on April 1st, I also decided to check out the new "FREE" Fu-Yoh package... Boy, what a MISTAKE!

First, my FnF Plus disappeared! (After paying RM3 for just 1 day)

Second, thinking it was some kind of mistake, I re-subscribe the FnF Plus service, then Fu-Yoh DISAPPEARED!!! And worst yet, I was CHARGED ANOTHER RM3!!!


WHAT A NIGHTMARE!

Only much later, after MUCH reading from the DiGi website, did I realise I could ONLY subscribe to ONE plan at a time... Of course u gotta read all the tiny fine prints in order to find that out...

So I thought may be DiGi should have posted a BIG message on their web informing newbie subscribers of such "danger"... as per my sample above...


Knowing it was my own mistake for not taking hours upon hours to check out all the T&C of an RM8.50 product of which I "lost" RM6 within 2 days... I lodged my complain to DiGi.

So to all the newbies and unsuspecting subscribers out there - BEWARE!

Update (4/4): DiGi replied within 2 days and will rebate me back RM3.


Update (5/4): RM3 credited! Wow!