Email Subject: Survival kit of for you

Author Unknown

Toothpick
Rubber band
Band aid
Pencil
Eraser
Chewing gum
Mint
Candy Kiss
Tea Bag

Here's why:

Toothpick - to remind you to pick out the good qualities in others...Matt 7:1

Rubber band - to remind you to be flexible, things might not always go the way you want, but it will work out...Romans 8:28

Band Aid - to remind you to heal hurt feelings, yours or someone else's...Col. 3:12-14

Pencil - To remind you to list your blessings everyday...Eph1: 3

Eraser - to remind you that everyone makes mistakes, and it's okay...Gen. 50:15-21

Chewing gum - to remind you to stick with it and you can accomplish anything ...Phil 4:13

Mint - to remind you that you are worth a mint to your heavenly father...John 3:16-17

Candy Kiss - to remind you that everyone needs a kiss or a hug everyday...1 John 4:7

Tea Bag - to remind you to relax daily and go over that list of God's blessings... 1 Thess 5:18

Cannae sleep

It's 0101hrs right now, early Sunday morning. I should be in bed really, but I can't seem to get myself into the 'sleeping mode' yet. Sigh... lots on my mind.

I came home from working adults cell group just over half an hour ago. It started late at 2030hrs and natually finished late too, especially since Arianna was sooo cute and we (Cat and I) spent a while playing with her and taking pics of her and with her. :) At the start of the cell she was quite distant with me, having not seen me or played with me for a few weeks. But by the end of the night I managed to get the hugs, the high-fives and the winks that I asked for. Hehe! Also, her high-fives are getting stronger, must be due to her arm muscles developing. Good stuff! She speaks a lot more not too. Praise God!

So tonight's cell started off with our outlook for 2009, what we hope to achieve this year and what mistakes from last year we'd like to avoid. One of the ones which we'd all like to avoid from last year would be neglecting God, not spending enough time with Him, our Maker. There are 168hrs in week. If we give back to God that 10%, like we tithe, that would be around 16.8hrs a week with God. Does anybody you know dedicate that amount of time to God? Or would we rather devote our time to other things? Like Facebook, the gym, cinema, (these are my top three) partying, clubbing (ok, these are not mine!). I said to Aaron, what if we keep these 16.8hrs for Sundays. Like Wake up in the morning then devote the 16.8hrs (or more) to God and go to church(es) and serve God etc. That was just an idea as a joke. We looked at the cost of following Christ and when Jesus calmed the storm, taken from Matthew 8:18-27. My take home point from the night is I was reminded that God is never sleeping. Though we might go through hardship, tough times, trying times in our lives (the storms), we shouldn't think that God is not present, is too busy elsewhere or is 'asleep'. God is omnipresent (everywhere) and omnipotent (all knowing). How can He not know what we are going through? I concluded and shared, that sometimes going through hardships can be good for us. Like a piece of gold, going through the burning furnace, being purified by the refiners fire. Obviously it will not like the heat, the intensity, but it comes out purified. It comes out sparkling and shiny and is worth lots lots lots! What does not kill you can only make you stronger, and you can live to tell the tale and use it to encourage those people around you :) Amen to that!

I'm feeling bit better right now. I thank God for his gracious love that carries me through all things. From all the disappointment of taking my Advanced Driving test to passing it last week and now as I face new challenges ahead with this last module Instructional Techniques, I have to work and study twice as hard. It is not gonna be an easy ride - I have already planned out regular trips to the library after work - but I know God is gonna be with me along the way. :)

So, the things on my mind huh? Complicated. Well, not really, but is kind of because I don't want to disclose that much online you see. I know my friends read this, but some folk may not be my friends and there is no need to let the whole world know. I'm not that important at the end of the day. But another reason I can't say that much is to protect the folk involved.

One of the hopes I have for 2009 is to be more like Jesus. Yes, that is a person 'aim'. And I think I have already been 'tested' on this point on a few things and on a few occasions. Been reading some interesting blogs, some emails and some books. And my, it really makes me wonder why certain things happen. I seek God and ask for His will to be carried out in my life. Also, why do certain people behave in certain ways towards certain people? Why is the discrimination in the world? Because of sin! I hear you all say. Yes, that's true, but why do some Christians discriminate so badly? Is it because of selfishness? It must be. It's so sad when it happens so closely around you. There's not much I can say. There is not much I can teach on. I can only pray that God's love can penetrate everyone's heart.

Pictures from Weekend

Ming's birthday: 9th Jan

Forgot to bring my camera out last Friday so didn't get any pictures from dinner. Used Scallop's camera but pictures were stored in the internal memory so couldn't copy any over. Fortunately Cat came out later for after dinner party so she brought my camera out for me. Thanks! :D


Ming with birthday cake

Getting ready for another round of Mafia

Sunday night's Games and dinner party: 11th Jan

Mum supervising me cook :p

Guys on PS3, Girls on Nintendo DS

Queueing up for food :9

Back to studying...

Six minutes until I finish off here and head down to local library. It's called the Dennistoun Library, just 5 mins walk from my office. Gonna start studying up stuff on basic controls of the car, so I can prepare for Saturday's meeting up with Ronnie. Library will close at 2000hrs, so I will get out about 1950hrs and be home for 2000hrs to have dinner and chill.

Not sure if I will watch TV or play PES tonight. Went online and played two games against some players around the world last night. Won the first match (friendly), but lost the second match (ranking match). So I am down from 500 points to 493 points. Ooohhh!

Potential weekly schedule from next week

Monday
Study at Mitchell Library

Tuesday
Study at Hillhead Library then Gym

Wednesday
AA Training OR Cineworld

Thursday
Study at Hillhead Library then Gym

Friday
Gym or Cineworld

Saturday
AA Training then Gym / Cineworld

Sunday
Church then chill out

All will be confirmed after Saturday's meeting with Ronnie.

Finally!

I am wearing a new shirt today. One of the two I bought at the Next Sale on Boxing Day. That was just over two weeks ago, but felt like much longer. After Christmas and New Year there hasn't been much to celebrate, especially since I went back to work as of 5th Jan. However, this weekend was grand! My weekend started from Friday as I took the day off. However, before I go into that, let me recall what happened on Thursday evening at the dinner with Marriott clients at the Grill at the Corner. Everything was on 50% off offer on the a la carte menu, besides the Kobe fillet and the lobster. Fortunately I had the Ostrich steak as back up. That wasn't great though. Let's not talk about the service and bad interpretation of set up of the menu (which resulted in lack of mash potatoes and honey-glazed carrots with my steak). There's something about eating birds. The meat tends to shrink when cooked. And the other steak orders all looked meat-ier and filling than my pitiful ostrich slice. I thought there were two slices but there was only one slice. The bottom half was dark and squigy and sweet. Caramelised onions. Too much caramelising I'm afraid. The sweetness and burnt-ness took away the taste of the meat unfort. At the end of it all, I was left unfulfilled and looking at the leftovers in other plates and questioning why some people would leave so much on their plate. What a waste! I'd happily swap my left out untouched splodge of caramelised onion for their meat or veg! Note to self - a free meal, don't complain too much. Another note to self - don't go for anything fancy in the future. Steaks are the way to go, man!

Friday 9th January
Important day for me this was. Woke up at 0830am, washed, had breakfast, then made my way up to Tesco for a quick car wash, then along to the Baillieston Test Centre. Yes, this was the day for my final attempt at ADI Part Two examination - Advanced Driving Test. Time of test was 1030hrs. I arrived at 1025hrs. The car park was busy, with few cars practicing on it. I reversed parked first time. Good start. Quick word of meditation to God and I went inside to wait for my examiner. Same guy as last few times!! Duncan!!! =D (No, I was not that excited to see him, but me and him do go waaaaay back! Telling me my brake light failed. Failing me for the motorway incident. Telling me my test was cancelled due to ice etc etc). After I signed the declaration we went outside for the eyesight test (no problem). Next was the Show Me/ Tell Me questions. One under the bonnet (engine oil), Four inside the car (indicator lights, handbrake, headrest on seat and tyres tread depth) The test began and funnily enough, I found myself quite enjoying it. I wasn't nervous one bit and even made small talk with the examiner just to ease the tension whilst waiting at the lights etc. Reminded myself to just think of him as a friend whom I'm giving a lift home, that he isn't marking my skills but just directing me left and right to his house. Praise God after 1hr and 10mins I reached the test centre and he told me pull up, turn engine off and relax. Then he asked for a minute for him to finish filling in the test report. Boy was that a long wait. For each scribble of his pen I imagined a mark or score of the faults he witnessed, or even a written explanation of why I failed. Then he said, "Gordon, I'm happy to tell you you have passed this time." I was like, "Yes!!" (and raised both fists up in joy) then muttered "Thank God" as he continued to say, "You did get one driving fault. Would you like to me to tell you what it was for?" I was all ears in listening to that one fault, because in my mind I thought I had scored a few. It was for Use of Speed, when I when around a corner after a low bridge just a bit too fast. Yes, I do remember that. That was one of the roads I have never practiced or driven on. In fact, throughout the test, there were numerous stretches of roads which I had never seen before, but praise God I managed to keep up my discipline and finally I have passed my second test and can move on to my third module - learning how to teach!! That is gonna be the fun part!

So after collecting my pass notes, I texted folk, called folk, drove home to shave and change. Met Mel for lunch, then went shopping for a birthday present, looked around town for Buzz! the TV quiz (special edition) but was disappointed. Had coffee in Costa and sat for a while before meeting Dilane and Roxane to go to Ming's birthday dinner at The Village, curry house.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MING!! Ma bro is a wee 22 years old.
Had a good laugh at dinner. Lots of curry and lots of naan bread. So much meat. I ended up being the only one eating whilst the waiters were clearing the table! Hahaha! We headed to Ming's place to watch some TV and then played a few disconnected games of Mafia. It doesn't quite run as smooth as playing it with the Singaporeans for some reason. We seemed to have lots of hiccups and stuff. Hmm... must look to improve it for the BBC's. I went home "early" as I had the gym the next day.


Saturday 10th January
Woke up at 1100hrs, arrived at the gym around 1245hrs and left at 1650hrs. Dunno how I ended up staying for so long. I guess it was cos I wanted to catch up on what I missed on Thusday. So I worked on biceps, triceps, forearms, as well well shoulders, legs and abs. Even did over 30mins of cardio before heading for the showers. Felt great though. Spent rest of the evening tidying and rearranging my PS3 and Home Theatre system. Managed to connect my PS3 to the dvd system so I have better sound when playing Pro Evolution Soccer and when watching any Blu-Rays. Went to bed before midnight.

One thing is for sure. Going through what I went through to get this pass in Advanced Driving. It really has reminded me how much God is in control. How great He really is! If you read back to how I sat the tests so many times. How I was disappointed with a small fail, a brake light, another fail, then icy conditions. Let down after let down. And even two nights before I sat the test, last Wed, I went out for drive practice, only it to be cut short because of heavy fog. I felt all was against me. But when God says you CAN, then you CAN! We as humans can use all our intelligence, all our skills to achieve the things we want. But if it ain't in God's time, it will not come to fruition. It will be in vain. But when God decides it is time, when He gives the go-ahead, it will happen, even if there is fog and lack of practice! Amen, people!! Hallelujah!

I just hope I can wait upon Him so diligently with regards my love life too.

Good relations

On lunch break at work right now so thought I'd catch up with filling in my diary.

Monday 5th Jan
Felt very tired after work. Went home for dinner and had hoped to go out for some drive practice, then come home to prepare Sunday School lesson and iron. In the end I had dinner, did ironing, played a bit of Pro Evo Soccer then went to bed. Slept for almost ten hours until the next day...

Tuesday 6th Jan
Felt great in the morning. Fully charged battery. Arrived at work earlier than usual. Work was fine. Not as taxing as Monday. Felt a little drained by 5pm. Then felt more awake after a telephone conversation on the way to the gym. Started a new workout regime: chest, backs forearms and abs on a Tuesday now. On the way home I popped by Konaki Greek restaurant to say Hi to Mel, Kenneth, XiaoLing, Dilane and Ling. Went home to have dinner and was really hungry! Praise God for lovely food and a lovely mum to cook it :)

Wednesday 7th Jan
Played Pro Evo Soccer till 1am the night before so felt quite tired in the morning. Thick fog arrived in the early morning and sat for a few hours until the afternoon. After work I had dinner at Costco before going for drive practice. Was welcomed by the fog in the Hamilton and Motherwell area. Couldn't see much ahead of me. Drove back to the Baillieston Test centre in East End, wasn't any better there. Felt it was a waste of time. Ran over some pot-holes too as I couldn't see much ahead. Came home hungry and frustrated. Had leftovers, bathed, prepared Sunday School lesson for next Sunday then played Pro Evolution Soccer till just before midnight.

Thursday 8th Jan (today)
Alarm was set for 0720hrs, but I silenced it and slept in till 0740hrs before getting up to wash my hair and shave and prepare today's lunch. May not have made so much effort if it weren't for some important people visiting out office today. Visiting my team in fact. We're gonna have dinner at 'the Grill on the Corner' (formerly Est Est Est) on Bothwell Street. Fortunately it will be paid through company expenses otherwise I would not be going as I can't afford to eat out so much this month until pay day. In any case, it ain't all about the money. Thursdays are gym nights for me. If I were to choose between gym or eating out I'd choose gym first. But hey, will show face tonight as it's good for relations etc. Can't go to the gym after dinner because gym still shuts at the earlier time of 2120hrs this week, returning to 2250hrs from next week. So I'll go home to sleep instead. Oh dammit... just remembered I don't have any spare change for parking on Bothwell Street between 5:30pm-6pm. Hmm... hopefully a colleague would have. I'm sure the parking machines don't take notes.

So right now I have to decide what to eat for dinner. I love steak and only found out this morning they serve Wagyu "Kobe" Fillet steak here. And Wagyu beef is the best steak in the world apparently. Orginally from the Japanese breed which is reared on a beer diet and massaged from birth. This is option one, at £50. Option two is Ostrich steak, naturally low in cholesterol with characteristics of beef fillet with a full flavour. £16.95 for that. Have never had Ostrich steak before, but then again how often do you come across the world's best steak?

Hmm... decisions, decisions!!

First weekend of 2009

First weekend of 2009 was also my last weekend of freedom, before going back to work today. I woke up on Saturday morning to discover a thick envelope lying by my front door. My long-awaited Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 finally arrived! Was quite excited! Had breakfast and played a few matches. The first one being Man Utd vs Scotland when I won 3-2 as Man Utd. Close game really as the gameplay is much harder compared to the first Pro Evolution Soccer which I had for the Playstation 2 all those years ago. The beautiful HD graphics alone were enough to distract me! Hehe! After gaming I dropped some stuff off at the our local Salvation Army store before heading to the gym. The gym was quite quiet. Spent over half an hour in the cardio suite, saw Carol Xie well. Then spent just over half an hour in the strength suite. Due to time constraints I could not work out properly, so just worked on chest, shoulders, biceps, did some deadlifts then left to shower and meet James.

We came back to my place to try out the new game and to show James the picture quality of Blu-ray on PS3. Even the trailers I downloaded for Casino Royale and Kung Fu Panda were breath-taking! We spent a few hours playing the game and were also joined by Alan Chan who came up after helping Cat with IKEA shopping. James and I left just after 1900hrs to go to Mings place for hotpot dinner.

Delayed start due to a "technical issue", but after a call made by Sin Hung we were on our way cooking. Well, "we" being used for Ting, Yvonne, Sim and Hung Hung who cooked all night. The rest of us just ate. =P Ming was busy as the host of the party and Ling was absolutely knackered she collapsed on a mattress in the middle of the living room. Lol!! We played two games of Mafia after we tidied up. They were very short games as the mafia, the police and the doctor already took up three positions amongst the 8 of us (Iain joined the party earlier on but Ling was still sleeping, so it was still just 8 people. =P)

Yesterday I played guitar with Dilane as Kerry lead worship. Gordon Cheung spoke about being like ants. Now it's a new year and many people make promises, make resolutions, set themselves high goals for the year. Some are achieved, but some also result in failure. In terms of our Christian walk, we should not strive to show God that we love Him, or show people who good a Christian we are by doing something spectacular or something amazing as a one off. It would be nice if these things happened, but these one-off things don't really show you are or what something means to you. The example that Gordon gave for this was that he loves his wife very much. And his wife knows that. However, he does not express his love to her through buying her a diamond ring, though she has hinted at it before. He expresses his love for her continuously / daily through cooking, cleaning up, other chores and also playing with their children. It should be the same way for our relationship with God. We shouldn't think we'll display our love for God through a single big act, but our daily actions and our daily lives should be reflective of how much He means to us. You geddit? Yeah. I did anyway and it's a point worth noting down. I think the same applies for not only spiritual life, but also in relationships and families as well. Like, one should not only display their love and affection for another person on Valentine's Day alone. What about the other 364 days? Why show you love them or that they are special to you on 14th Feb (do something grand like serenade them or take them on a quick holiday etc) and think that should be enough to last till the next year? Nah, this expression of love and affection should be continuous. Daily contact, listen to them, care for them, be there for them are the things that can be done continuously to let them know how much they mean to you. :)

Ling (aka Scallop) came back from HK on the 2nd of Jan. She brought back three keyrings for herself, Ming and I. So as you can see the three keyrings are for Ming, Ling and Wing. Hehe! They join together to form our siblinghood. =D Thanks, Scallop!!

Jackie's birthday dinner

After church a bunch of us went over to Jackie's house to have dinner and celebrate her forthcoming birthday, which is on Tuesday. We ordered Chinese and Indian takeaway from local places and played the Wii. Had a great laugh watching people play the games whilst grunting, screaming, heavily steering a steering wheel and throwing plungers. Lol! We still had lots of food leftover which her family couldn't help us finish. Took lots of pics and played with Jackie's dog Max(ine). =P More pics on Facebook!! We thank Jackie and her family for having us over and we wish you a great year ahead!! =D God bless!

Eventful start

Hogmanay at Ming's new flat.

Finished work at 3pm on Hogmanay, went home to rest and change before going out to meet Oswald for dinner at Rumours and movie at Cineworld. I had Lemongrass pork chops with rice for the first time. Was quite nice. Oz tried some and liked it too. Was good to catch up a bit but time was kinda short as we had to catch 'Australia' at 1900hrs. The film was a bit long really. I knew it would be more Pearl Harbour (love story) than Moulin Rouge (musical), but although the story was made interesting with history on the life of the aborigines in Australia during war times, it was just a bit too long. A big shout out to Yeun Wah (元華) for his comedic lines as Nicole Kidman's butler. He spoke Cantonese as well! Haha!

Dropped Oz off home, picked up Mel and Nicholas and a tv and went over to Ming's flat for the birthday surprise for Vic. There was no tv at the flat, so we looked at our mobile phones for the time to countdown. The fireworks we saw outside the window confirmed we had entered into 2009!! Yay!! After a moment of sharing our hopes and dreams for the year and praying for each other we headed home. In my car I took Mel, Nic, Vic, Roxane and Snoopy.





New Year's at Chung household.

James' family invited my family over for dinner at Kilmarnock. I met James' cousin Stephen who is a qualified and working driving instructor. Spoke to him about my career plans etc. He reckoned I should work as an independent driving school instead of taking a franchise. This would depend on the capital of course. We exchanged numbers and I will contact him to discuss more once I get this upcoming test out of the way. Dinner at pretty early at 4pm. There was sooo much food on the table I didn't know where to start and I definitely could not finish. There was entertainment in the forms of Nintendo DS, PS2 Singstar, playing cards, the internet, Chinese karaoke (adults only! lol!) and continous supply for food and drink: juice, pepsi, chocolates, Chinese cakes, noodles and not to forget Jessica's birthday cake which was huuuuge and very yummy! =9 I don't think I have continuously eaten so much in one day before. Haha! After eating noodles at 2300hrs I really had to call it a night and drove back to Glasgow as I had an early start the next day.

[p.s. mum sang karaoke for the first time EVER!! tonight. Teresa Teng's Moonlight Represents My Heart]


Friday 2nd Jan with Ming (annual leave)

Woke up at 8am and met up with Ming to hire a van from Enterprise at 9am. Would usually have been given a Ford Transit, but they didn't have any available at the time so they gave me a Vauxhall Vivaro, which was an automatic. Have never driven an automatic before. The thought of not really being in control of the car's speed and gears was a little daunting and exciting at the same time. However, a prayer before we set off was all that was needed to help me see the 'shift stick' had an A/M option, which I assumed allowed me to switch it to semi-manual. So instead of just using brake and gas all day I got to control the six gears (yes, SIX gears!!) by pushing the shift stick to + to go up a gear and - to go down a gear. Even tried out the full automatic function as well before handing the van back in the afternoon. So we covered quite a lot of Kilmarnock in our day out: Ming's house, Morrison's Comet, Curry's. Then over to IKEA, then Ming's flat to offload, then Comet in Parkhead area, pick up Nic, back to Ming's and then back to Enterprise by 2:30pm!

Headed straight to worship practice with Dilane and Kerry at 3pm. Felt quite tired by the end of the night. Went to bed hoping I would get Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 for my PS3 the next morning, as Royal Mail in Scotland were still on New Year's holiday...

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to all my readers. I hope everyone had a good time welcoming the new year, no matter if you spent it yourself, or with friends, with family or even slept through it - welcome to 2009! =D

As I prayed with a few brothers and sisters after the stroke the midnight, I gave thanks to God for bringing us through the past year. A year of ups and downs. We should be grateful for the good stuff He gave us, the happy times. And not to forget be grateful to God for helping us through the bad times too, the dire times of worry, of negativity or sense of doom. No matter what we have gone through, God had always been there and always will be there. He is the same yesterday, today and forevermore! =)

So on this cheerful note: let me jot down my hopes/ dreams/ aspirations for the year 2009. Last night when we went round the table sharing our hopes and dreams, my answers were:

'to progress with career whether it's in driving instruction or not. and to save up for buy a house.'

So allow me to elaborate on these points, but back in the main areas of my life which are important to me, as written down in the prelude post.

Career - I want to get this advanced test taken, over and done with soon so I can progress with my third module in driving instruction. Learning to teach people. It is my desire to be a driving instructor. Having been through the rollercoaster ride with my previous test attempts, I have learnt to submit everything to God. I trust that He has a plan for me, in driving instruction or in another area altogether.

Love - I would like to explore the possibilities of developing something nice with a special someone. We need to keep God involved in this, guiding us, speaking to us individually and whilst we pray together. Patience is the key to this. The matters of the heart is not something to play about with.

Property - I want to work hard and save hard towards a good deposit to go towards a property of my own. Though the house prices have dropped due to the credit crunch, it is also the credit crunch which has pushed up the banks' demand for a higher amount of deposit to be paid. Ideally I'd like to get something in 2010 and will start looking at the housing market as the year goes on. But if God provides something before then, I am willing to accept.

Health - I will continue with gym workouts, training and building muscle and power. I want to be content with what I have at the same time.

Family - The pressures of being the man of the house, and the son of the family does get to me sometimes. But I thank God for helping me through all these years. He will be the same this year too. I hope our family unit will continue to grow stronger together with Christ as the head of our household.

Films - Yes, this is one area I want to make a change in. After watching 'Zack & Miri Make a Porno' a few weeks ago I was appalled at the graphic nature of certain scenes. I felt very uncomfortable watching such scenes. As I grow closer to God, I shall be more aware of my movie choices and avoid situations where I may grieve the Holy Spirit in me. May my eyes be clean for God this year and beyond!

World events - This is less personal, but I hope there are no more wars, bombings, air strikes, floods, credit crunches. That we are all able to appreciate each other for what we're worth and see each and everyone as Jesus would see us. If we all value each other's lives we would not be hurting each other so much.

Ok, I'm gonna get ready to make lunch soon. Will be heading over to Kilmarnock with family to have dinner with James' family. Have not been there since Christmas a good few years ago, so this should be great fun as we've all grown up so much now. Victoria was only 8 the last time we were there, so she recalls. Hehe! Peace out!