'Lotax'

Anyone recently has been to the post office near kenyalang park? I was there 2 weeks back to renew my 'lotax' (road tax to be exact) and since I'm 'eligible' to go to school a little late on Tuesday morning therefore I decided to make full use of my Tuesday 2 weeks ago to do it. I woke up early as usual, and arrived at the post office by 8am not knowing the opening hours. Only then i found out that it opens at 8am till 4pm.

When i arrived, there were already a few aunties & uncles waiting there ahead of me!

Well, as usual, we were all quite impatient, waiting for the door to open. Somehow being punctual is a bad habit. They opened the door late!

Few months ago when i was there, with the renovation going on, the whole place was quite dusty but it looks quite different now.

One interesting fact about government offices is this; we always lots of counters but only 1 or 2 are operating. Sound familiar? See, there was only 1 counter serving us.

So how does the ticketing-counter looks like? It's quite 'cool'. It looks like this!

But maybe something that they can improve is the little notice that i found, right beside the machine. It says this:

Doesn't this reflect what a typical malaysian would normally do? Don't tell me you have never done this before; taking more than 1 q-ticket. Well, i must speak on behalf of many thousands & millions of malaysian here that normally the instruction is quite unclear; we really don't know which number should we take. So, to be safe, the more numbers we have, the merrier!

Thank God i only waited for 15 minutes before my turn. That's quite effective i thought. Now while queuing in the line before the office was open, i saw this 'tutup' sign being put up. When i left the place, it was still 'tutup'. i couldn't help but took this picture :@)

So yea, i finally got the 'lotax' renewed. Now, how many of you find it really tough to remove the old one before putting the new one up? That old thingy is SO sticky and for years i have been trying hard to rip it off whether is by force of gently, it would never come off completely!

Anyway, this is how mine looks like now. Pretty ugly, don't you think?

Is your 'lotax' expiring soon? Unsure? You better check mate!

Final LC!

'Leadership That Lasts' - our very 1st hOPE Leadership Conference organized by hOPE Kuching. My itchy fingers urged me to do a quick write-up here. Well, it was quite a different LC for many, including myself. Many felt that it was more like of a MNC kinda thing. The venue and the whole set up was rather different than many other LCs. I only managed to attend the evening sessions. It was really great. Great in the way that God spoke in different ways; as the whole body of Christ & also individually. It is always good to be still again and I know I needed that.

Other non-Kuching delegates must be so blessed too. They had the opportunity to learn more about the historical side of Kuching where many of us don't know much about (or maybe it is just me), they had lots of time spent fellowshipping wth one another; very balance indeed. I heard that the food was really good too. Man, I really missed the curry-puff in the Goodie Bag on the 1st day. It was SO nice, and huge hey! Anyone knows where they got it from?

Kuching International Airport was extremely busy since last Sunday till yesterday. While fetching the delegates at the arrival hall, no one realised that there was a banner right at the top of us! It was sitting there nicely but unfortunately many of us didn't realise its existence. Hehehe... maybe we were just too short.

Wanna take a guess who this is? Hehehe..the Hand 'Mimer' performed for the Opening on the 1st nite. Great job guys!

Wanna see how hard they have been practising? Here is the proof:

'O-chay' legs: they needed to 'kneel' most of the time. But I guess this make them more 'manly', so it's ok

Here is our dear KK. I didn't know he was there till the 2nd day.

Many might have missed seeing the glowing thingy in the Opening done by our dear bro. Alex. Who's fault huh? The LP's horrr..

The last LC's over and the 1st GC's coming in August 09' in Singapore. it's time to get back to the real world now and do something about it. See you all in the Combined Service tomorrow.
:@)

Terima Kasih Cikgu...

Many of us have most probably forgotten this day called Teacher's Day. My school celebrated Teacher's Day last Friday. Did we get a day off? Nope, the kids got half day off. The teachers had to stay back for staff development program. But we got our lunch catered for though. Thanks to the Parents Association thingy. We had a proper sit-down lunch in the school hall with waiters serving us. Though the ambiance was a little odd, it was generally quite nice; simple & simple.

Don't deceive by the picture. It's really nice!

Just this morning, many of the teachers received 2 cupcakes + a card from a student. Immediately that became my breakfast this morning. I've never tasted cupcakes with coffee before. Indeed it was ichiban neh! What I like about the content of the card is this. It says 'Some things are just worth repeating'. Hehe... to certain extend, it does give dual meanings. Teacher can take it possitvely or the other way around. Hehe...

To all the teachers out there, whether you are the official ones or not, just wanna wish you all Happy Teacher's Day - and continue to impart the right values!

Back to Marketing!

My new housemate, Joseph, a.k.a Ah Khai the tall guy suggested cooking! Out of the blue, we decided to go to the Sg. Maong Market place yesterday morning, just before the WFL. Ooo... this really reminded me of doing marketing with mom when I was young; the floor was wet, the market smell, noise conversation of different Chinese dialects came from different direction, and so on. This is what we bought (the name of the food is in Foochow):

'La-kian-chai' for RM1. 'Mi-lian-guok' for RM1.

'Ba-yu' for RM2.

So, after marketing, we decided to have our breakfast up there. Ah Khai had his laksa for RM3 and my Mee Sua for Rm3.50. It wasn't bad at all. The Laksa was quite a huge portion but my Mee Sua was a little bitter. I'm not sure why. The shocking thing was that Ah Khai's Teh-Si-Peng only cost RM1.10! Shocking huh??? Since it was cheap, so I ordered my usual Kopi-peng, and it cost slight more; Rm1.20. Unbelievable. Now what about the quality? Anytime better than our Xiang Xiang man...

The Teh-si-peng & Kopi-peng.

Nice view huh? Taken from where we were sitting.

It's good to be 'normal' and go to some of these places sometimes :@)

Chill...watch a movie!

The Tetiary Swinburne Group watched a movie called 'The Guardian' as their CG activity last night. Awww... I still remember quite clearly that I first watched this in my 1st month in Cape Town. I was too bored then; no internet, no tv, basically nothing. I HAD to do something. It was indeed a good movie; highly recommended to all.

Back to the story about last night. We had great turn up and it was the 1st time for our dear Bro. Qian Jie leading high praise in CG. Not many people know that he is the brother of sis. Sia Ing. Yes, he is! Many years ago the Working Adult unit took Lundu Town as their mission town. That's how we met Qian Jie. He was SO quiet back then. Today, he can tell jokes, yes lame jokes and do other silly stuff.

Watch this!

Special 23rd Blast!

High intensity, focused - on the screen

What a celebration!!! It all started with the idea of sing-K with the SUT Core team a.k.a PUSH team. It was supposed to be last Monday but ended up we did it on Thursday since the next day was a holiday for all! Shawn's Birthday is on the 1st May, where the whole world is given a day off to 'celebrate' this day. 14 of us went to this place called Red Colosseum at Premier 101. The room was quite huge with comfortable sofas, etc. How much do we pay? RM28 per head and you are entitled to get any 2 drinks free. Those who drink a lot of beer will find this more worth it. Unfortunately / fortunately we are 'decent-inoocent' people who only take fruit juice. Hehehe... To cut the story short, after that night everybody comes to a conclusion of who deserve to 'K-King' title. Guess who? Our Lundu Boy, Alex Lai Qian Jie, brother of Lai Sia Ing. Wanna see how he looks like? Nah...

He was the 1st one to kick off the night! When he started to sing, we thought it was the ORI. Shockingly shocking...what a discovery!

The Birthday Boy - who is shy, pretend to be shy.

The party ended at about 2am, trying to make every second worth its value. I managed to knock off by 3am. Man... I haven't had such an 'early' night for a while now. It reminded me of THOSE days, in the beginning when I joined hOPE. For those who understand Foochow, this is what I'd sayL 'Jing jing li meh ho ka liew loh...jing jing xi lao low...' I had shepherding wth Ps Denis & Hai Eng on the next day, 9am at Jia Jia Court. Did I struggle to wake up? Well, those who know me, you should know by now that I will always wake up at about 7am, doesn't matter how late I sleep. Maybe those in my 'club' can identify with me? Hahaha... Lunch at Jia Jia Court together with the rest of the SUT gang was really 'fun'. Click to the link here to view the full story here: