Retreat 2009 at the Palace - The Saga Continues

Yup yup... it brought back many memories of my last retreat at the same place more than 10 years ago! Boy are we getting old... and yes, i survived 4 nights with my beloved roomie! Pebbles didn't karate chop me this time (she did that back in 1999 i think)... haha... Go Pebbles!

The 4 sluggers... for some reason (prob due to age), we were always dragging out feet...

Move over guys... horses are just much more attractive... =P

Pebbles trying very hard to pose for a Nescafe shot... I had 3 coffee drinkers with me loh! And poor Grace had gastrits coz' she had too much coffee! *strokes finger* nyek nyek nyek... =)

Alice looking forlornly at Grace's 5th plate of scrambled eggs and toast...

At the exotic fruit hideout where Grace fluttered her eyelids to get a free apple... while Pebbles and Alice had to pay RM10 for their fruit juice...


Oh yeah! We beat the youths to A&W! Indeed the first shall be the last and the last shall be the first... buahahaha! And Pebbles had her first taste of FRIED CHICKEN!

Guess who's the boss? No wonder Ben calls her "dai-kor-dai"... =)

Photo taken in the coach on the way home... and nope, the 2 pretty ladies behind the prettier ladies are not praying, neither are they meditating nor pondering over what was taught at the retreat... they were... (see below) :

Well, all in all... it was a great experience =) Just to share a couple of things I've learnt : (i) The battle belongs to the Lord! Sometimes we get so caught up trying to fight our own battles, using our own strength that we forget that it's ultimately the Lord's battle that we're fighting for... the Lord will grant us victory if only we obey (2 Chron 20:15-17 - fav verse for the retreat!); (ii) Irritants of all kinds will only make you a bigger pearl (think of the long long long wait we had at the hotel lobby for a taxi); and (iii) the responses of David, Mehibosheth and Shimei - how we should respond positively... it was interesting as I've never read them in that light before.

Okie doks, that's all for now... it's way past my bedtime... haha...have a blessed week ahead! =)

~ yVoNnE

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.

Jade and ZL B'Day

Bday celebration at Aston Specialties @ The Cathay.

After MUCH queuing, we managed to get into Astons and gotten ourselves the alfresco seating. Blessing in disguise as the it wasn't that hot and humid outside and as Alice pointed out, the air-con area was full of the grilled/fried smell which would have make us stink.

And on top of that, our seats were illuminated by the Cathay signboard which changes colour periodically. That added much colour to our photos, literally. LOL.

See Yvonne and Mike demostrate.

Foodwise, we have beef, fish and chicken on our table =D

After Astons was the next highlight of the night - Ben & Jerry. But as usual, our focus was more of taking photos. LOL.

Bday boy and GF (Yiting)

Smiling Alice

The only grp photo that night (but a nice one)

Lastly, Mike and his new Samsung Omnia. Putting the camera to test =D

Arthur's Birthday

yeah , our first bday celebration! arthur's birthday at minds cafe princep street. =)

cake aflame!

birthday boy..

shuai bah?

woo hoo!

3 saboteurs..

3 sweet ladies..

yeah bond girls..

batam trip 2

Here u go.. more pics from my camera!! hahaha . once again. thanks to jade and candy who planned the batam trip.. wonderful job..=)

Flyaway hair!!

act cool ..oops i mean super cool dudes hahah

Praying session?? or amazed by the sea.. =p

loads of sidedishes. but something we 'love' wat candy call small birds cooked in a 1001 ways.

Our massage session!

Bible study / cell time in batam in the hotel.. =)

the wait for our seafood dinner

the fantastic band that caught all our hearts =)

pics pics =)

yeah...=) need to dig cable for my camera first hehe

meanwhile... here's candy's summary of the trip together with invitation for cny event =)

Hey guys,

it was a fantastic getaway that we have had! Cheap rooms, contorting massages and whitening scrubs (for one particular male who finally unconvered his REAL skin color..hehe) , great live acoustics, and interesting fellowship.. for e.g, now we know Jade's confusing full name, the FULL extent of Kevin's one obsession (other, or more than Grace), and the touching extent that men will go to to woo the fair lady (e.g go to sierra leone to dig for diamonds and the lugging of gigantic pink teddy bears in public as a macho show of affection), amongst others. We have also realised that the quest for good food is elusive and intangible, and in certain instances, it ends in the guise of many small birds cooked in 1001 ways. Please do refer to the cell blog for photo updates, which Benson will relate to us when he has finished uploading them. For those who could not make it, WE MISSED YOU!!

which now makes it almost impossible for you to avoid our ardent Adoration (usually reserved for prayer and God..remember the lesson!) for you this coming chinese new year. It will be held at Benson's place at Jurong West Kampong. We will be entertained by the interesting characters mentioned above who will once again make their appearances, (except maybe Mr Pink Teddy Bear), and the live background music provided by our dear host and perhaps the Lady in Red (read: cell leader) who will finally sing for us. Steamboat soup will be prepared by Drummer Boy and we will assemble at his place on 7th Feb Sat afternoon for Wii Round 2 (read: Cooking game and Golf). Lady in Red may grace us with her stir-fry noodles again. DB Benson will give us more details soon regarding exact address and time to meet.

There will also be a tentaive programme and sharing session on CNY and what it means to Christians. There may also be silly mindless table games before and after food followed by humiliating penalties involving strangers.

Please do keep that day free and bring your partners and friends and pets.

Adios.
Pebbles.


The world has room to make a bear feel free;
The universe seems cramped to you and me.
Man acts more like the poor bear in the cage
That all day fights a nervous inward rage

Batam 2009

And we are back from 2D1N Batam adventure. We saw no Ginko Lizards, Esteemed Owls or Beetles. But we did had some great fun. Here are some pictures to share :)

Our adventure begins with a bumpy ferry ride.
It was a salty affair for those out on the open deck.



Candida - cool eh?

Guess who?

Authentic Local Food
It's too authentic that we can't appreciate :(



Our official drink - Avaocado Drink (with choco syrup)



Seafood night - Kevin controlling his hunger



Ladies loves to self-portrait



Lazy afternoon in Arcade after meal



Smilez :)

More photos coming your way... (eh Alice, ur turn to post now)