20 YEARS DOWN THE ROAD

What a happy photo of us, the Tan family at our 'holiday' in Majestic Hotel, Melaka in January 2010. Life as husband and wife this year will reach 20 years in the making! Time really has flown by! Blink an eye and we've been Mr & Mrs Tan for 20 years and parents to our daughter for 6 of those 20 years!

Our marriage has withstood many hard knocks and the biggest was when we lost our firstborn, Patricia in 2001. Nay sayers  gave us 6 months to a year when we signed our marriage papers.  However, the good Lord has blessed us with much more love for each other and a deep love for our daughters.

Fast forward to present.....my greatest prayer has been heard! I prayed  for my darling to consider the Rites of Catholic Initiation for Adults (RCIA) course at my local parish some years ago but he was not at all receptive! Then this year he decided to give the Alpha course held at the church a go, just to see what the hype was all about. He loved it and thoroughly enjoyed the talks by Reverend Nicky Gumbel. The next course of action as our dear friends Jerry and Mimi put it was for Ed to go through RCIA and complete the full journey of transforming our family into a Catholic family.  I was not sure if it would come about but praise the Lord and thanks to all our friends, (you know who you are) Ed signed up for RCIA and this is the photo to prove it!

 I am so happy but also know that the journey will be a long one for the whole family with the final culmination on 23rd April 2011 at the Easter Virgil mass. My heart sings with joy for Ed has opened his mind to fully explore and journey towards a baptism into the holy Catholic faith and church. 

We are even prouder of our 6 year old who can recite the main prayers like the Our Father, Hail Mary, the I believe as well as the Novena to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. My heart swells with love and pride when I see hubby and daughter praying with me as a family; going to church is much sweeter as we now go as a family fully participating in the whole Mass. I can't help but smile and sing out even louder when I see my darling hubby singing the hymns as well.

God is great and my hubby is fantastic! I love him and my baby girls and I pray the good Lord and Holy Mother Mary will be with us as we journey towards 23rd April 2011. Please pray for us. Thanks! 

Ed my love and my life, happy 20th anniversary! I find that I love you even more as the years go by. I am sure that the love that beats in this heart of mine will still beat as strong when I am breathing my last. How did I get so blessed to have you as my partner, hubby, lover, friend and everything we do, it's MAGIC. I love you darling 20 years down the road and I will love you still till all eternity. 

Thank you Lord God the Father, God the Son and the Holy Spirit for this wonderful marriage, good hubby and best father as well as my lovely daughters. Praise you Lord Jesus for all the blessings, trials, tribulations that have strengthened us as a couple and as a family. 

Amen.

What is happenning to me?

Chinese New Year has come and it is now the 13th day of the festival. This year I seem to be in no mood for any festive making.....heck! Guess this feeling has been with me since the economic crash last year badly affected my livelihood. I am under tremendous pressure these days. There just seems no way out of this mess so far.

 

Many well meaning family members and friends have asked me to be patient and to pray for divine intervention. Thank you to you all who have been by my side to keep my flagging spirits up. I just am so glad that at least through this all, my true family members and friends have given me hope. 

My greatest worry is for my daughter's daily needs to be taken care of. She's only 6 this year. Her dad and I are fast approaching old age (he's 52 and I will be 49 soon) and if things don't look up, we may end up losing even this roof over our heads.

The Alpha Weekend Away is just a week away and I am just too bogged down with personal issues to even raise an ounce of enthusiasm for the Alpha Misnistry that I love so much. I find myself withdrawing further into myself and just no desire to go out and meet up with anyone. 

So if I seem aloof or cold where I was once warm and happy, I apologise. I need to deal with these situations and find a better solution bfore I am even fit for human co-relations.

The Majestic Hotel, Melaka-A free holiday stay!

This is the Majestic Hotel Melaka. I was very blessed to have won a 3 day 2 nights stay with all 3 meals included in the package for 3 persons when I attended the Alpha Fund Raising Dinner on 27th October 2009 at the JW Marriot Hotel in Kuala Lumpur. Thank you Andrew and Christine Lim for giving me the opportunity to attend the dinner! We (hubby and I lah!) decided that we would use the gift of this holiday on 12th January 2010 immediately after Alpha 2010 was launched on 11th January 2010 at the Assumption Church Petaling Jaya.  So off we went after lunch with our mischievious 5 year old daughter all excited. As the miles separated us further from Kuala Lumpur and nearer towards Melaka, our mood eased into light heartedness and relaxation. Reaching Majestic, we were tickled pink to be faced with this picture of the hotel entrance...old school and well preserved. For me it was even more poignant as I recognised the location as the very place where my favourite Media Corp Singapore drama series, 'The Little Nyonya' was filmed.

Our room was fantastic! Daughter and me were delirious with joy to find a huge claw footed bath tub in the room! The shower and toilet were separated so that made showering or soaking in the bath tub easier and saved us a load of time in the morning! There were soft and fluffy bath robes, huge soft towels and all in all, luxury all round! This hotel is after all part of the Small Luxury Hotel group and opulence was the main theme!

 Dinner on the first night was truly a luxurious experience for common people like us. It was a 3 course meal and started with Appetisers, Soups and main course for us on the first night as we were hungry having had a very light lunch! By the time we finished our dinner, we were so satiated that we decided to have an early night. This photo is the Fillet Mignon I had on the second night! Yummy!

Needless to say, we had a great time in the 3 days we were there. I have no complaints about the place and the staff (made up of people from all over South East Asia) were friendly efficient and went out of their way  to make sure we had a good time! Thanks again to YTL hotels for sponsoring this prize; to the staff of Majestic Hotel Melaka who went out of their way to pamper my naughty 5 year old and us! 

Our first trip food hunting for 2010

1st January 2010 dawned bright and sunny with white clouds and clear blue skies. My husband and I decided to go on our very first foodie hunt for 2010! Knowing that both my daughter and I loved the 'ngap thui meen' from Pun Chun Restaurant (more like coffee shop!) in Bidor, hubby decided the first stop would be to Bidor! So off we went and upon reaching Bidor, we made a beeline for said eatery, ordered 2 bowls (I shared with my daughter) and tucked in with bliss as we were ravenous! Here's a photo of the said noodle!

After we had finished our meal, we went on to buy the seedless guava which is good for lowering blood sugar of diabetics like me. Only disappointment in our Bidor trip was the fact that the 'kok kuih' vendor we always buy from in Bidor was not open.

From Bidor we proceeded to Teluk Intan, my birthplace. As usual, we went to the 'heong paeng' shop and managed to get my daughter's Chinese New Year dress for RM17.00! In Kuala Lumpur we would be paying something like double the price! As all Malaysians know, Italy has it's leaning tower in Pisa...well here in Malaysia...we have the leaning clock Tower of Teluk Intan! We managed to find the 'chee cheong fun' that is unique and only found in Teluk Intan! Suffice to say, we ordered and ate! 

We then left Teluk Intan and started our long drive home to Bukit Beruntung, Rawang via the coastal way. In Sabak Bernam, we came across green padi fields that left me breathless! All that beauty Mother Earth endowed on us can still be found in remote areas. I pray that the pristine loveliness will never make way for more concrete jungles!

We decided to stop at Batang Kali for dinner and as you can see from the photo, we had our usual order of 'loh meen' (with dark vinegar and caramel soy sauce), fish cakes and a generous serving of 'choy sum'  in oyster sauce from our regular eatery in Batang Kali. 

All in all, it was a great start to a funtastic day and I hope a good new year, new beginnings and hopefully the economy will be much better this year!

Happy New Year all! God bless!