Between Phases

I'm in between life chapters right now. The whole fresh-grad thingee is over.The whole working in church thingee is (going to be) over. Now is the penniless-grad student phase.

Welcome Baby Tiffany!

A very warm welcome to baby Tiffany Kathryna Lee Hendricks, daughter and first child of Jeremy & Nic, who came into the world on Tuesday, Oct 30th 2006.
Congrats to the proud parents.

I was wondering.

Is it okay to complain to You when the burden gets too much?
Recently, some past rejections have come back to haunt me, and remind me once again how i had to struggle as a teenager for acceptance amongst some dissappointing friends.(I also wonder if they count as friends,)I guess nothing has changed in their camp-lar. Everyone has grown up, except them.

Yes. This is a kutuk-mengutuk entry.
I claim the right to it.
It's frustrating after being excluded from their events for like the 1000th and 1 time since i joined them. Suckers.
I just thought they'd learn how to behave themselves after all these years. Guess I'm wrong-lah
God, some people can be sooo peevish.
There, said it, now it's all out. what would You do?
You would forgive them, right?
so I realize, I have to do the same-lah.It's not going to be easy. Maybe I'll have to take some time. Is that okay?
God, this is so unfair. Unfair.How come they get to easily forget me, but I get to suffer when I remember them, then after suffering, I get to struggle with forgiving them.

That's why I was wondering, is it OK if I complain to you when the going gets tough?

Farhnees

I have a wisdon tooth growing out now that hurts like mad.People say laughter makes the pain go away.

Aaron G and Esther's Wedding

In the middle of last month, two of our TSF senior leaders, Aaron Gajain and Esther had the chance to get married(to each other-lah) in Penang , so the rest of the leaders also had a chance to go and lend them our (moral) support.
We gathered in FGA KL about 6.30am Saturday morning, all bleary eyed & misty headed, and had to make 3 stops before we actually left the klang Valley for good. First stop: Breakfast, Second stop: Petrol Station, Third Stop: Ps. Daniel's house because Flo Lee left her toiletries there.
After a boring 5 hour journey,with no sign of civilisation, we finally arrived at the Juru Toll (Morris of Kenya was driving part way, Jacky of KL the other part)

Me, Morris and Elder Chan.

Next, Melody and Lake, natives of Penang, came and lead us to lunch at Bukit Mertajam

The food was real good, just too bad that I wasn't a fan of piggy spare parts. Thank God there was Pasembor to save the day.Some people just stayed away from all that

and had Pork Mee instead.

This is esther ooi licking elder chan, everyone else got a free show(too bad got no pole).

After lunch, everyone went for cendol and then to jerome's house to chill.

Middle of the afternoon, we checked into Travel Lodge, Butterworth, which was just beside the wedding dinner hall. I got a bit of spare time to bathe, rest and watch Flo curl her hair with an electric heat roller. An hour and a half before the dinner, it was time to tie sarees.We made it a kampung gotong -royong thing with Eunice leaving her husband alone and coming to the girls' room to help us tie. Since there were no Indians around(Sally was still in the Island with Ps. Baii), we did it 'made in China' style, means we goreng with what we know. Eunice did her"Just- try-first-and-see" method. Thankfully it worked.Tying sarees is a headache for beginners.It took the whole hour and a half to tie mine.Fortunately, not all the girls wore saree, so we still made it on time to the dinner.

This is us with Esther the bride(in light blue saree), left to right are Charlene, Eunice(esther's sister and my amma), me, Xiao Wen, Melody, Sabrina and Esther Ooi.

This pix with Sally, Soon Yen,Qarlene and Florence(in a stunning dress) makes all the girls who were there in butterworth. Yee Leng and Amy couldn't make it as they were Convo-ing.

Also, not forgetting the guys(l-r) Judah(Youth pastor and Xiao's fiancee),YohenMorris, Lake, Jacky, Ps. Baii and Adrian.

-Marcus is taking the picture.

The Wedding dinner was revolutionary, firstly because some dunno-wat band hired to entertain sang "why does the sun go on shining, why does the sea rush to shore, Don't they know it's the end of the world, cos you dun love me anymore......." as their opening song.After that, it was a medley of Pre-war Tamil songs and badly sung chinese songs. The PA was so loud, nobody could communicate.
We tried to get away from the wedding dinner asap............so that we could go to Penang Island by Ferry. (of course we changed out of the formal wear first-lah, duh!)

Batu Feringgi was the next stop, and it was faster to go over water than the bridge.

This was my first ferry ride,

Unfortunately for me, the whole front of the ferry had ppl(read: xiao and judah) doing titanic stunts, so didn't get a real good view of anything.Had to constantly peep over ppl's(read: xiao and judah) heads.

After Batu Feringghi, next stop was supper.

On the right is my current boss, Ps Baii Daniel Singh. Yes, He's usually this scary, sometimes worse.

By the time we got back to the hotel, it was 2.00am, so we slept until 10 the next morning.

Aaron G took us to this really fantastic place selling asam gravy chicken rice for lunch before we left.

On the journey back, we convinced Jacky to stop at the Tapah rest area so that we could get seedless guava. That place is happening , so I bought some Dunkin Donuts as well.

This is the end of Michelle's report. All piccies courtesy of Morris the Kenyan.

P/s-Congrats to Florence Toh, Amy and YeeLeng "curly Long" who graduated around the time of this wedding.

How I Spent Merdeka Day

Aha, Public holiday, Cun-ted,
During public holidays, Malaysians are divided into 2 categories: those who go to Mid-valley Megamall, and those who don't.So, during the recent Merdeka day, it was high time to fall into the former category...........

.........with ai lyn, chili chung and siew leng(all Maths people who can't count money) 


First stop: Chili's for lunch

Everything is bigger in Texas. Tortillas, chicken salad and triple play.(sounds like a porno movie)

After the food, there was some minor shopping, I bought a saree (with blouse and underskirt)from Kamdar for velly-belly cheap.

Next: Baskin-Robbins , where a paranoid/freaky aunty tried to grab a chair from us for her kids.You wouldn't believe the amount of ppl there. More ppl than stuff .After ice-cream, went to TESCO to get raw chicken for ai lyn..........
........to cook dinner. At this time, Oscar joined us.Mostly, we were half dead, but ai lyn pushed through anyway, and produced chicken curry with broccoli side dish.

Selamat Hari Merdeka.Kepada Tuan-tuan dan Puan-Puan Sekalian.

Sekian, terlima-kaseeh.Kam-sia.dan sebagainya.

What the............

This is the official portrait of the FGA tertiary students' fellowship UPM cell group graduating batch of 2006. Standing from left to right: Rabacca(English Literature), Elizebeth Mah(Microbiology), Florence Toh(BA English), Erin Lim(Microb), James Low(Pertanian), Eugene Tan Lye Song(Human Development), Gloria "Mongolia/aha aha" Jane Kelios(English-exec), Me ( Microb),Jasmine "Spiky Hair" Ng(English), Wendy "Pocahontas" Tan(Accountancy) and Melody Wan (Music). Sitting left to right: Amy-the-Lamy Yong (Food studies) , Joseph Raj "appa" , Eunice Yeap-Raj "Amma" and Siow Yee Leng "curly Long" (TESL)

The digital version of this pix didn't turn out as nice as when it's printed out on canvas. Such a disappointment. Everything looks so red, like gong xi-raya like dat.

Trivia:

- Portrait has been heavily edited by photoshop. Everyone's pimples/blemishes/ unruly hair is gone.Say goodbye to bad skin.

- Lamy wanted to wear her RM4 bathroom slippers to take photo,until appa screamed at her.

-Studio space was actually quiet small, with us standing wall to wall, the backdrop is again the wonders of modern technology.

-Elizebeth is wearing Jeans and t-shirt under her robe.

 

Convocation ,Convocation!

Hi peeps,

Piccies of my convo day.Yayayaya............

 

I'm actually wearing T-shirt and bermudas under the whole robe thing. This was at night after the ceremony over .

With Sam and Mum outside the hall just after ceremony ends.

 Before the ceremony, with the roses Mum bought .

With joseph and Eunice, aka appa and amma.

 

 

 

 

Funny, Nutty, Wooly -Booly.

Dear all,
I am very happy.hepi.harpy,nutty.Have been working in church office for over a month now. Never a monotonous season in my job. Hectic, crazy, but never boring, espcially if you have a boss known as Pastor baii(Punjabi word meaning 'Punjabi guy'). He calls 'ah chee'. Uncle David from Finance thinks it sounds like a name 4 the cleaner aunty. I'm getting on well at the office. Most of the time buried under a mound of paperwork.
The new semester begins today, but since I'm only starting masters next semester, I get a break. Met a dozen new juniors(lost ,hungry,tired,alone) last week during Operation Day one by the TSF UPM CG. Made friends with them, and they started calling for help almost immediately. After Operation Day one last week-end, I spent 7 glorious days in FGA hospitality house with the remnant 2nd years who couldn't check into college yet and some stray alumnis like Jasmine & Amy.
I learned one thing from my stay there: the girls can cook better than Jamie 'i'm-a-celebrity-so i-can-be-messy' Oliver. Especially Yune's & Eugenie's butter prawns, curried fried chicken , etc
Throughout my stay there, every dinner was exotic, either the girls cooked(I washed dishes), or we went to Kajang satay, or Indian food.
Another thing i learned: Hwei Sue can get drunk by drinking sea coconut during supper time.
The last 2 night we went out and got durians.
Agony for Sue who cannot tahan the smell.
Eugenie has the talent of falling asleep during sermon and standing up suddenly when someone elbows her. happened during prayer meeting too, just that nobody elbowed her.

This Sunday, the rest of the Project Day one team and I are going to the MV Doulos. A treat from Appa for all our hard work.Going to get a private tour as well.

So far, where masters is concerned , Got a supervisor( Dr. Wong Mui Yun, Plant protection dept.,Agriculture faculty) butI'm yet to pick a topic. It's between Palm Oil pathology/immunology or banana wilt prevention.Praying 'bout it.

Umm...guess that's all.
Oh, yar ..almost forgot. Convo is on 31st July, the Monday after TSF camp.God answered my prayers to let me go to camp as well as convocate.Hallelujah! I dun have to miss camp.
Current registration: 173 people.

Signing off,
Michelle Chee

Yes. It's been a looong, loooong time.
Here's some briefs:
-Graduated. Dunno when is convo.
-Still in Serdangland
-Talking to the Dean, prof. Khaty about prospective Masters slots in either Medic/Vet/Biotech faculty on monday June 12th.planning to start inDec after stint in church office finishes.
- Now in FGA church office.Working.Typing from here too.Assisting Ps Daniel Singh, who I like to call 'boss', but he'll kill me if I say it to his face.Will be here till December.
-One week ago went to Taiping(land of Jasmine 'Spiky-hair' Ng & L-Amy Long) for TSF leaders' retreat.Found out many things.Esther ooi and Xiao are super-duper-nutcases and Morris is no longer a virgin.Taiping lake Gardens and Zoo(night safari) was visited. Food is tres cheap. Mee rebus RM2.

Thats it about me.Here's something 'bout some friends who graduated with me.
Caroline Manikam: Currently in Dr. Muhajir's lab as a Research asst. until July/Aug. Staying in k14 UPM
Amy Yong: Studied Food science but wants to be a student counsellor.Cool.Now shuttling between taiping & KL. Anybody got any openings for her?
Jasmine Ng: Just came to KL today. TV3 has called her for an interview. Hair has lost its green colour and has gone back to brown.
Florence Toh:Back in Bintulu.Pretty quiet.Speak to me Flo....
Erin lim: Has got a job as research asst. in the Medic Faculty.UPM.Starting in July.
Beth Mah:Has got lots of interviews going on.Latest one in Shah Alam.
James: Doing Practical as a plantation supervisor in the outback of Kedah.
The rest are lepaking at home-lah.

Interesting story;
past 2 nights was spent in Doreen's(and Mel's) place. Dong is doing practical in Selangor turf club.One evening she came back splattered in blood. Vely the geli-fying.Apparently one race horse died mysteriously, and Dong had to perform an autopsy.At night she asked me whether I wanna smell her hand or not, apparently it still smelled of blood. I declined.

In One Month....

I will graduate.
Even as I type the final few chapters of my thesis, I am not unsure, I am full of confidence. I've always thought that after I grad, it will be a time of uncertainty, but there is not a trace of uncertainty now, not one.
When I serve the True and Living God,there is not a moment of worry.He literally drops things into my lap, things I don't even know I want.El-shaddai is the provider of my needs.
What do I mean:
In a season when most of my friends are typing resumes and signing up for interviews, I have not witten one word.
Jesus knows the desires of my heart. It is to continue studying.
So this is what He does-
He , through my TSF FGA pastor offers me a 6 month internship in the church office.*Yay*So I start in June of this year, and end in November.Why is this so unique, so timely?
1)Because Rancangan Malaysia 9 just got announced this morning.Thus far, almost none of my lecturers can take any post-grad students because their previous grants have run out(they're broke).They need to wait for R.M.9 to be announced, send in their project proposals,get approval, get the money, then they can take in students.This will take until the end of this year.
Which is when I'll end my internship in church, and get back to uni life.Probably in the end of December or January.
2)The internship lets me stay in Serdang, I'll be near UPM, which will allow me to settle any convo issues, AND more importantly, keep in contact with my potential supervisor who'll help me prepare a project proposal that I have to hand in as part of my post-grad application.
3) I've always wanted to give my first few months post degree doing something for the Lord.Here it is.

And I still haven't written a single word of resume.

Some Photos from Faculty Night

Pictures from My Faculty Night at dePalma Hotel, Ampang on the 19th of March.

Asilah and me. These pics come from her camera.

Akmal, Asi, Me and Caroline

Me and some coursemates including Dayah(Peach outfit) & Hani(kneeling beside Dayah)

Heart, We will forget him.

Heart! We will forget him!
You and I -- tonight!
You may forget the warmth he gave --
I will forget the light!

When you have done, pray tell me
That I may straight begin!
Haste! lest while you're lagging
I remember him!
-Emily Dickinson

Heart, does thou hear?It is like she says. Let us begin now, even though it will only bring temporary relief to the reignited memories. Let us start, you and I , so that our agony be released.

Currently reading: The Birth of Europe by Gerald Simons

The Heart Asks Pleasure First

The heart asks pleasure first,
And then, excuse from pain;
And then, those little anodynes
That deaden suffering,

And then, to go to sleep;
And then, if it should be
The will of its Inquisitor,
The liberty to die.
-Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson is one of my favourite poets, mainly because I seem to relate to most of the things she writes. She is most comfortable in the subjects of death and loneliness, and pain.She write them not with a sense of depression, but with melancholy.Observe... melancholy without depression. Emily Dickinson captures this element with powerful grace and fluidity.She writes about death as if it were the genial old lady next door, in whose presence she could relax and be herself, yet whom she also holds with awe and respect.So she neither embraces suffering, not welcomes it. She is neither distant from it nor too close. She is just....comfortable that its there. During her lifetime, she lived in total physical seclusion from the world, her only contacts were letters and the occasional visitors.Ironically , many of us today are not physically secluded from other people, but we feel the same loneliness.

Currently listening to: Jane Champion's "The Piano" OST (by Michael Nyman)
Favourite song: The Heart Asks pleasure first.

To hear a sample,click this entry's title(purple) and scroll down until you see a list of songs, then click on the song.

Another Boring Post

Yeah.Nothing remotely interesting ever happens in my life, primarily because:
Love life = Drama/Emo-ness
No love life = No Drama.
Anyway, in the past few weeks, I turned 23, fell sick from a sress-induced infection, experienced the true meaning of overwork and FINALLY completed my project all in a span of 5 days.
I just completed a test about 2 hours ago, and another one in the morning before that.Morning was Virology with Prof. Khaty, a semi open book test.Made a few mistakes. Apparently shingles is a complication of Chicken Pox NOT measles.The night paper was Lipid metabolism. Almost fell asleep completing the 80 objective questions Prof. Noraini set.

Things to look forward to:
1) What: Faculty night
When: Sunday 19th March 2006
Where: DePalma Hotel
Why: Get to hang out with my close friends and see Caroline in a Saree.Also get a ubiquitous award.Everybody seems to be getting one.

2) What: Korean Movie Screening
When: 12 march, Sunday
Where: Jung Sen Saeng Nim's TaeKwonDO centre.
Why: Bref, c'est un film de Korea quoi!

3) What : Extreme Saturday
When: 18th March, Saturday
Where: Full Gospel Assembly, KL.
Why: Closing of the True Love Waits campaign that started with Valentine's night banquet. Altered Frequency performing.

Currently listening to: DiDo's Life for Rent
Favourite song: Sand in my shoes.

Note: Symbols of the French culture includes le coq( the cock, symbolizing the french people's colourful and daring personality), le TGV(Train a Grande Vitesse, like LRT),houte couture(literally high fashion), Marianne(like the statue of Liberty, mother of France and her ideology),le croissant,le vin(wine is cheaper than water in France), la tour Eiffel,le baguette, le champagne et le camembert.

Aidez-moi, Signeur.

Aidez-moi, Signeur.
Je suis tres fatiguee.
Je veux reposer dans Votre bras.
Dans Votre bras d'amour.
Mais,j'ai trop de souci.
Trop de problemes.
Aidez- moi, Signeur.
Aidez-moi.

I'm on the Right Track

You Should Learn French

C'est super! You appreciate the finer things in life... wine, art, cheese, love affairs. You are definitely a Parisian at heart. You just need your tongue to catch up...

What Language Should You Learn?

Vous etes vrai, c'est super.
At least I'm doing SOMETHING right.

You Are Pumpkin Pie

You're the perfect combo of uniqueness and quality Those who like you are looking for something (someone!) special

What Kind of Pie Are You?

Call me Pumpkin Pie!

My Lab Was Robbed

Dear Lord,
Two days ago my lab got robbed, but of course You already know that.The person who did it must have been pretty deperate.Why do I say this? because who in their right mind wants to rob a laboratory? What can you steal-lah? Sodium Permanganate?Potato Dextrose Agar? NaOH?
But Lord, I must thank You that not too much was was stolen(only Sabil's not too new handphone and Emma's bagpack which contained only her matric card). Too bad I wasn't there to witness it.
Thanks for making French mid-sem quite okay. I knew Madame would set some bombastic-worded passage for comprehension. I just thank you that this time it wasn't so bad. But I still dunno why Lucie was "stupefait". Was it because her friend gave her "deux bissous" or because the appartement was too small?
I think I also screwed up the matching answer-quetion one. I didn't know that << Pourquoi est-ce que vous etes jete vote montre?>> meant "Why did you throw your watch away?". I thought it meant why is the party so cheap? hahaha.Anyway the correct answer was "Parce que elle n'est pas marchait", "Because It's not running."
You know the dilemma I'm in now.I put my future in Your hands. I know that if I do Your will, I'll always end up exactly where You want me to be, doing exactly what You want me to do.This is part of the proof:

Your Career Type: Investigative

You are precise, scientific, and intellectual. Your talents lie in understanding and solving math and science problems. You would make an excellent: Architect - Biologist - Chemist Dentist - Electrical Technician - Mathematician Medical Technician - Meteorologist - Pharmacist Physician - Surveyor - Veterinarian The worst career options for your are enterprising careers, like lawyer or real estate agent.

What's Your Ideal Career?