Retreat 2009 at the Palace

Hi guys, it was a wonderful retreat...incidentally it was the first retreat that I went as an 'adult', meaning it had always been with the youth or young adult etc. So it was quite nice; no pressure to conform to 'cool' and 'happening' pack behavoir I had always been plagued by in my growing up years. Ha now you know my teenage angst.

Hehe but the company was nice. Good bonding we had. We (or I) didn't take many pictures. Here are some pictures of our recreation, courtesy of Samsung Pixon. All blurness and fault are my own =)

Grace and Vonne Vonne at the service. Looking great with minimal sleep eh.

This was taken during the final service on Friday morning. Sam 'I-hate-being-bald' Farina was concluding his series on Soloman, and if I'm not wrong, talking briefly about Ecclesiastes. This idea was quite cool-he placed three boards at the front of the hall, and invited people to come forward freely to pen down their greatest take-away from the Retreat as he preached. So here's a picture of someone doing that during the sermon, and the people kept coming, in drips and draps, but nevertheless, filling up the space. What I wrote was, 'That it is important to build up a strong core, and to surrender fully to God'.

This was the view from our room. Bro Jeffrey (for those old-timers who remember, he was our sunday school teacher from sec 1 who scolded some of us for drinking Shandy. Yvonne remembered she was scolded as well thought she didn't partake of it! hehhe. Jeffrey said he is glad that we remember at least that little bit of what he said to us) was kind enough to arrange for the four ponies side-by-side rooms, with a great view of the lake and the endless green lawn (which you can't see here). Incidentally, it was on that very same lawn that kung-fu Alice gave me the stretch of my life after our great-but-dangerous jog around the hotel's gold course. Notice the haze.

This is a funny picture. Yvonne is showing off one of her many cartoon collectibles tee shirts. Amazing. Should have taken a picture of the one with the Calvin and Hobbes comic strip at the back. Yeap, so we were actually oogling at her body (covered by comic strips). This tee shirt says 'Striped/stuffed/stupid', and I thought it was hilarious and wanted to take a picture of it. When Vonne started posing, I asked a calamitous but honest question..'should I include yo face in the picture??' Of course I kena lah. But yeah, no offense, I really am dense and silly sometimes. Bleah.

Wah, Alice should charge Milo for doing advertisement for them. On our final night, we wanted to go 'wild'..by ordering room service. Heh. I was so convinced Alice would order a glass of rum or something, when, to my intense amusement and surprise, she pointed with one long manicured nail, to the word "MILO" on the menu. It's like Alice in Wonderland looking at the magic cake which says 'EAT ME'. Talk about growing (old). The milo came in a pot. She was oversome with joy. Nice and natural shot with sex appeal. The perfect advert. hehehhe

Us in the same room opposite the Milo-high person enjoying room service as well. We were posing with Seafood Tom Yum soup, which I ate on the first night when we went to the restaurant after service. It was so good, I gotta eat it again before I go, and Vonne was convicted as well.

And introducing..Dr Fish. On our first free day, we went to Mid-Valley. Hey! We waited over one hour AT THE HOTEL for the cab ok!!!!!! And to think that the sermon for that morning was to embrace your irritations because they make pearls out of you. Our pearls were all very huge by the time one hour was up. So this is Kenko, which exists in Singapore as well. Good bargain. 90 RM for 1 1/2 hour worth of treatment. It includes painful foot reflexology, shoulder massage, and Dr Fish. It's really interesting. They have 3 sizes of fish-small, medium and large. We went from small straight to large (or in Vonne's case..quickly back to small). The small were normal..ticklish and all..we burst into uncontrollable giggles when we placed our feet in there, dispelling the therapeutic calmness of the area with our sharp peals of geese-like giggles. That was the first picture. People actually stopped to take pictures k..cos the tank is part of the shop setting for passers-by. We next went to the 'big' fish..and they are really big. Can eat man. So many of them menacingly waiting for our toes. You can feel and see their teeth. But it was quite interesting. One fish even tore the scab off my foot. You can't really see clearly, but it's the second picture. An experience man.

Partner and I at Kenko with our feet skin being decimated. Hey Vonne's feet is so clean no fish were eating off her k. But she kept kicking them away also. I illustrated her actions with the analogy of someone taking away your plate when you're eating.

Alice and Gracie at Kenko.