Gua Tempurung, Perak

On the 3rd day of Church Camp, about 40-50 of us went to Gua Tempurung. Originally, we wanted to take the 1.5 hours route but there wers just so many people and we were afraid that accident might happen. So we went for the 45 minute hike - which was really "so-so" only.

Gua Tempurung is an intricate system of caves forming into a tunnel of wondrous and endless rock formations that runs from west to east for nearly 2km under the limestone Hills of Gunung Tempurung and Gunung Gajah.

These caves are actually a breathtaking gallery of stalagmites and stalacities and rock structures which are superb speleogical wonders found only in this part of the world. A subteranean river flows underneath the caves providing visitors a unique experience of an underground journey through rock formations.

We had to climb a lot of steps. I didn't pant much thanks to the many hours of training for my Mt. Kinabalu climb for the past few months.

I expected it to be hot and humid and smelly but to my surprise, I enjoyed the entire journey - it was like going into the center of the earth. I perspired, of course, even though it was cooling inside. I think they must've cleared all the bats' droppings because there was no fowl smell when we entered the cave. In fact, I didn't see any bats at all.

We had a tour guide explaining the different sections of the cave. He stopped many times, point to one part of the cave and said, "Can you see the shape of an elephant there?" There were so many animals "living" in the cave ... including a turtle, a cat, a tiger. I didn't get to see all of them because I was too busy taking pictures.

Natural sunlight streaming in through the big hole.

Were they scared???? Nah! They are just good actors who immediately looked scared when Aunty Chris asked them to.

Some of the youths ..... having a fun time (I think)

We posed for a group picture in the middle of the cave.

Our 45 minute tour came to an end in such a short time. We went back the way we came in. Sigh! I was hoping that we would stumble upon some lost treasure while we were exploring the cave. Or maybe a distant moan of a kidnapped child echoing in the cave.... okok .. just my imagination running wild, or rather, all the Enid Blyton books I read in the past is all coming back to me :)

Ice-cream!!! Rajen spent everyone ice-cream :)

There was a playground nearby and Rajen upon sitting on the see saw, was immediately flocked by other youths, who wanted to test the strength of the see-saw.

Post-Climb Dinner

Related Post : Mount Kinabalu Revisited

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We had our post-climb dinner at my parents' place last night. Mum didn't cook all the dishes this time. It was pot-luck style.

Twelve out of eighteen of us turned up.

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After dinner, we had a gift-giving ceremony. KG and Eunice did a great job organising the Mt Kinabalu climb and we appreciate their effort and time spent by giving them a Sheaffer pen & mechanical pencil and Bible respectively.

We watched a power point presentation of the climb by Esther, looked through a scrapbook album done by Rachel and viewed Eunice's collection of the Mt Kinabalu pictures. Even though the climb seemed so long ago, we still remembered how much we panted and the joy that we felt upon reaching Low's Peak.

KG took the opportunity to ask us if we wanted to climb Mt K again next year.

"Mt K??", exclaimed Esther. "No way. We'll go to Kili instead"

That statement earned her a moment of silence as we stared at her, our mouths hung open in disbelief.

For me, the only Kili and Everest and what-have-you will mean other types of mountains that I have to conquer, be it spiritually, emotionally or mentally.

15 Cents Down

I received an SMS from my brother yesterday which goes something like this:- I think petrol prices would decrease by 15 cents.

Whoopee! Is it for real? This is the very first time in history (correct me if I'm wrong) - as far as Malaysia is concerned - that the price of petrol is reduced.

I didn't think much about it until evening, when I was driving back home.

It is indeed true. I checked the newspapers, and there it was, right on the front page, were the words "15 sen down".

For the past 2 months, since the announcment of the 41% raise in petrol prices, food and other consumables have become more expensive. Now that the government has reduced it, will there be price reduction in other sectors at all?

No Cell

What does one do when there is no cell meeting on a Friday night?

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Celebrate!

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I am not sure why there's no cell meeting today ... maybe because of church camp ... but when there is no cell, it calls for a night out with hubby dear.

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We went to Klana Resort (formerly known as Allson Klana Resort) for dinner. It's the month of August and there was this great promotion in all the restaurants and since I'm forking out the money (hehe!! once in a while must bodek dear hubby!!!) .... this deal sounded real good! :)

Church Camp 2008

Theme : His presence, My passion

This year's church camp was held in Kampar.

Where IS Kampar, you might ask? It's a small town in Perak, just after Tapah. We spent 3 nights and 4 days at the Grand Kampar Hotel and it's real value for $$. The numbers just didn't add up. Great food, nice accomodation (some described it this way : clean toilets and fluffy pillows), comfortable hall for our meetings... what more could we ask for?

About 150 of us signed up for camp and there were many who were first-timers.

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Rev. Irvin Rutherford (who is no stranger to us) was our camp speaker. He was simply amazing. He had so much energy even though he's in his 70s.

His messages, in a nutshell, can be summarised into one sentence - BE the presence of God. And the reason why we are not "being" the presence of God is because of our disobedience. Therefore, to be constantly in the presence of God, we need to obey Him.

Worship was a blast! The youths and young adults took over most (if not all) of the worship sessions. For the first time in so many years, we didn't have a drummer. PTL! Worship was still great. We could really feel God's presence moving among us. There were many words of exhortations and of encouragement. Awesome!

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We had water baptism up at the roof-top swimming pool. Three people were baptised and one of them was FC - we were thoroughly shocked because we didn't know that he wasn't baptised prior to this. He was under the water a few seconds longer than the others :)

GAMES

Orange & Gold Teams

Blue & Red Teams

Green & Pink Teams

We were divided into 6 groups of which one group has about 15-16 people. Mine was the Orange Team.

For the 1st hour, we were given two sets of questionaires where we had to answer all of it based on the clues given. Some of it were common sense and Bible questions, while others required us to walk around to look for clues. There were "trick" questions too.

We weren't certain of one or two answers and asked the other team if they were willing to "trade" answers. We gave them a good (correct) answer but when they told us one of their answer, we were positive they were wrong!!!! What an unfair trade.

Ping Pong game. The adults had to bounce the ball on a ping pong bat.. which actually looks easy, but it certainly wasn't. The glare of the sun light streaming through the bay windows and glass doors didn't help either. The children just had to make sure the ping pong ball didn't fall off to the ground.

For this game, we need to blow and tie 5 balloons. Each person has to carry (without using their fingers) 5 balloons. We were smart enough to put one or two under our t-shirts.

Drinking water! How difficult can it get? Well, you don't know how difficult it was to finish one cup of water. The games coordinators later told us that we're actually drinking water through a straw that was pierced with at least 13 small holes. No wonder!

By the time we played this game, we were down to about 9 or 10 people in a team. This watermelon game was kinda messy. The first person had to slice the melon into 9 pieces using a "butter" knife!!!! It was difficult, especially if you do not have the strength.

While the rest of the team gobbled their share of watermelon, AndrewT took his own sweet time finishing his portion before sauntering back. Eddy gave Edwin and I a tip. It's not to finish "Eating" the watermelon... all you had to do is finish it! So when Edwin went there, he ate .. but didn't swallow any watermelon. Most of it went to the ground.

I was last person in my team to eat the watermelon. I did the same as Edwin... and the only difference was that I tried to at least eat a little of the watermelon - which I did. Esther took a movie clip of my "gross" eating habit and showed it to all campers (!!!)

Catch the water balloon! Andrew, the catcher, got so wet because the pail was filled with water.

We had all three meals in the hotel and the food was first class.

On Monday night, Aunty Chris invited Qing and some of the youths for supper at a nearby Mamak store. Qing then invited me to go along, which I did.

On the prize-giving night, there were still other games to be played. For the game above, 7 adults were chosen. The game is... you have to use a pair of chopsticks and pick up as many marbles (in soaped water). Su-Ann got the most!

One parent, one child. Parent to dress their child with toilet toll to see who can come out with the best wrapped mumy.

Drinking one 500ml bottle of Pepsi should not be a problem. The only problem is to finish it in record time!



Wife to feed the husband coffee in a milk bottle!!!



Well, don't you think that from the above pictures, camp was GREAT?

Tagged

Instructions: Remove 1 question from below, and add in your personal question, make it a total of 20 questions, then tag 8 people in your list, list them out at the end of this post. Notify them in their chat box that he/she has been tagged.

1. At what age do you wish to marry?

I’m already married.

2. What is your most favourite thing to do?
Travel around the world

3. If you have a close close close friend since childhood who loves to take away whatever you like, including guys/girls, and he/she always wins, will you still consider him/her your friend?
Of course not! Don't be silly. I believe that in any friendship/relationship, being considerate is one of the many important factors that would help build closer ties.

4. What would you give up in return to eat all you want in the world and not get fat ?
Nothing, of course. Can't imagine myself a glutton.... like "some"people who could just eat and eat and eat and remain skinny.

5. If you can have 1 dream to come true, what would it be?

I'd like to be an author or several books some day.

6. Do you believe you can survive without money?
No.... unless we are all in Heaven

7. What are you afraid to lose the most?

Loved ones

8. What do you feel like doing, right now?
Hmmm.... finish my Mt K scrapbook.

9. If you can get out of your current life circumstance, would you?
Nope. Life is great at the moment. My philosophy in life is to look at the positive side of things in every situation. It's difficult sometimes, but it can be done.

10. List out 3 good points of the person who tagged you.
SK is a knowledgeable leader who loves to "give back" what she has learned. OH man! This is difficult. I can't think of anything else (LOL)

11. What are the requirements that you wish from your other half?
That he loves God.

12. If you like someone, would you tell him/her?
Yep.

13. What is one of your goals in life?
To visit every state in the United States of America.

14. Is anyone really perfect?

Nope. Only God is.

15. If you had a choice to be rich or happy, which one would you pick ?
Happy. No point in being rich and sad, right?

16. If you had a chance, which part of your character you would like to change?

I tend to judge people sometimes and well... I am still working on seeing the good side of people whom I know or meet.

17. Who is the person that you can share all your problems with?
God - most of the time.

18. How do you see yourself in 10 years time?

Hopefully still as fit (although currently I am not that fit), spiritually stronger, physically smaller, financially free .....

19. What is the one thing you love about yourself?
I love everything about myself.

20. If you were to get involved in a Charity Organisation, which one would it be and why?
Orphanages .... it's easier to impress children than adults.

I'm tagging:-


1- Ruth Liew
2- Heidi Lampert
3- Su-Ann
4- Esther Lee
5- Camy
6 - Keong Jian
7- Seok Qing
8- Eric H.

Being A Teenager

Listening to the daily Lite Breakfast show with PK and Sarah (used to be Simon and Caroline) on Lite FM (104.6) is one of the highlights of my morning. I don't get to hear the whole talk show, just bits and pieces of it on my way to work. While the actual show stops at 10am, for me, it stops when I arrive at my office ....... and to be precise, at 8.52am.

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Today's talk show is on whether we'd gone through a difficult patch during our teenage years. Here are some answers I managed to catch just now:-

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Caller # 1 - Yes, I went through a difficult time. I was on the plump side and think that nobody, not even my parents, love me. I felt insecure and as a result, I was not sociable. I kept to myself. But when I was in my 20's, I built my self confidence and realised that I'm actually lovable.

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Caller # 2 - I rebelled a lot during my teenage years. I felt that my parents just didn't understand me. I just wanted my independance.

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There were a few others but I can't remember them. Anyway, for me, I would say that I enjoyed my teenage years. Why? Here's a number of reasons:-

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1. Getting involved with church activitives helped me gain confidence. I started song leading when I was 11 years old and was involved in a Children's Musical when I was 12. The following years saw me getting involved in more musicals and youth activities. I was a pretty confident person indeed. Church also means having more friends, mixing with both older and younger people.

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2. In school, I played volleyball and got into the school team when I was 14 years old. That boosted my confidence where sports is concerned. When I was in my fifth form, I was one of the three people who had to lead in the National Anthem, State Song and School Song. That meant standing in front of more than 1000 people - gulp! I always tremble when I had to speak in front of so many people. What was worse is the fact that I had to speak in Malay. Nevertheless, I managed to always sound calm up in front.

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3. I wouldn't say I was the most popular person in school but I certainly was quite well-known in school - NOT because I was naughty. Maybe it's because I am a twin and other people tend to gawk at my sister and I - even though we don't look alike. Those days, having twins in school is pretty rare.

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4. Boys! Ah! Well...... when I was 13 years old, this guy liked me. Only when I was 16 years old did he gather his guts to let me know his feelings. By then, several guys approached me but I was smart enough to say "no". I felt that I was not ready yet. I wanted my freedom.

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5. I guess being a twin helped a lot. I always had someone around and even though we fought a lot, we don't get angry with each other for long.

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6. I never had a curfew. My parents told us this once, that if we were going to be late, all we had to do is to call them and let them know 3 things - where we are, whom we are with and when we will be back. Most of the time, we were out with church members and I guess that made things easier for my parents.

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7. I was always the happy-go-lucky kind who'd never worry about what would happen the next day. I have the "do-now-and-think-about-it-later" attitude, which seemed to make my twin frustrated because she'd normally do the worrying for me :)

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8. I had pen-friends and the very fact that I was able to make friends easily from around the world made me realise that I'm a friendly person.

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9. God played a very important role in all my years of knowing Him. When everyone failed me, He was (still is) there for me. Whenever I lacked confidence, God reminded me that He is there to help me. That made a world of difference because if God's on my side, who can be against me?

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10. I have great parents who do not shout or degrade me. Whenever I made a mistake, we'd talk it through and see what could be done to rectify it. No harsh words were screamed at me nor was I abused in any other way.

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Well.... yeah, for these 10 facts, I must say that I look back at my teenage years with fondness. I wouldn't change a thing if I was given a chance to live it again. :)

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Having said all these, I think that at the end of the day, it's all up to you. What you want out of life and how you react to any situation, helps in forming your character and personality. If you can just get something positive out of a negative situation, believe me, you'll breeze through your teenage years... and of course, your working adult life, too. :)

Latest Fashion

Guess what is it?

Nope, it's not a notebook

Nor is it a Children's Story Book on Bugs

Read on, to find out

Yesterday, I accompanied Eunice to Salvation Bookstore because she wanted to purchase a Bible. I came across so many cute looking Bibles.... and I'm really a sucker for fashionable packaging.

I have many Bibles at home. The one I'm currently using is a slim line version and I bought it at RM29.90 in 1993. I saw this same Bible yesterday and it now cost RM119.00. WOW!! Even Bibles appreciate in value.

And when I saw this "Bug" Bible which really looks so cool (well, to tell you frankly, I half expected to see cartoons on the pages) and modern - unlike the ones I owned ... which covers are mostly black or dark coloured - it was love at first sight.

I'm now the proud owner of this Bible :)