Remembering Valentine

Regular AZAIG readers will know that I spent my Valentine in London this year. I was seconded there for slightly more than 2 months. Me and Jules decided that we do not want to be ripped off by the fancy restaurants there which charge £££ so we decided to have dinner at our apartment. Actually, I don’t mind paying but Jules is an understanding wife, she doesn’t need to go out and eat just for the sake of Valentine.

And so, Zewt has to get into his cooking mode once again…


I’ve always enjoyed cooking. I cooked almost everyday when I was in London despite staying alone for about 3 weeks. Maybe I should open up a restaurant one day… what say you?


First dish on the menu during Valentine was self-mashed potatoes. Still remember how I did it when I was in Uni. Boil… mash… add milk… some salt… butter… some herbs… voila…


Next on the menu was the “Pan Fried Asparagus with Mushrooms and Garlic”. Fried with olive oil with a generous portion of butter will give you an excellent fragrance. The asparagus in London was so fresh, absolutely wonderful. One tip --- never wash the mushroom; you have to gently peel off the skin.


The main dish was “Roast Lamb” marinated with rosemary. Add a little bit of wine, gives you a nice aroma. But I have no idea how long I needed to roast it so…


There, all the food nicely placed on the table ready for a nice romantic dinner. The soup originated from a can so no point highlighting it. I think the whole thing caused me less than £35 if I am not mistaken. Not that bad for London prices if you ask me.


And this is how it looks like as Zewt attempted to professionally lay the food on a plate. I think it should look better than this… must be the camera… hehe…


And of course, dessert to end the evening…


Dessert was from Marks & Spencer though… hehe…

Live your best life

This year has been a real low as far as health is concern. First, it was the kidney and the next thing I know, I was also seeing a gastro and multiple visits to an ENT. 2 weeks ago, I went for a MRI and that adds up to the growing list of test and scans I have done this year which include CT Scan, Uroflow, Endoscopy, multiple ultrasound, multiple blood test, 24 hour urinalysis and the good ‘ol x-ray.

There are 2 reasons why people go for such things. The first being regular check ups or check ups for certain applications which of course, you wouldn’t feel fearful. The second is when the doctor suspected something and you are asked to go. Truth be told, it’s not a very nice feeling, not at all.

Amidst all these, I must say a very big thank you to God not only for granting me strength when I needed them most, but also for giving me a wife who has been there for me all these while, who refused to break down when I was at the verge of it. To fall right into this state so quick after our marriage is a test beyond all means.

I know I have said it many times in AZAIG but life is just so precious that you can't possibly imagine how fragile it is. We are just a few degrees away between sick and healthy, just a few cells away between normal and mutation and just a few milligrams away between normal and abnormal reading of whatever that is in your blood. How close is it between hope… and in need of hope.

Looking back, I think I am very ready to just lose it all and die a few years ago. Life was carefree then as I was living as though I don’t bother about anything, I just want to be who I am. I had no one beside myself. In away, I had nothing to lose.

But how things have changed. Right now, I am so fearful of death. Not because of death itself but what death can take away from me. I have got so much going on for me now that I just have got too much too lose. Do you have anything to lose?

And thus I will fight, I will speak life to myself, and I will hold on to the promises of the only One capable of keeping promises.
Don’t drink, don’t smoke, eat and live healthy… you’ll die too. In reply to that, I once said that it is not about death but the manner of death which is important. Now, may I add… the timing of your death is also crucial.

Life your best life!… whatever that means…

Who thou seeketh in thy sadness?

Jules often gets upset with me when I am too happy enjoying something good. She said I tend to forget about her when I enjoy good things. That is of course, not true as I share most of my happy moments and thoughts. Perhaps when I indulge in things, she just happens to slip off my mind… just for a while, nothing longer than that.

I am sure many of us have experiences where a friend of ours will only seek our companionship when they are down and out. When their happiness graph is on its way up, they tend to forget about us. I just spoke to someone like that not too long ago and this person is quite pissed at the situation.

It’s not a very nice feeling isn’t it? Friends who only talk to us when they are sad and when they are in a jolly mood, they just ditch us. I am sure you must be harbouring a tad bit of being betrayed kind of feeling. Am I right?

I have read somewhere though that when someone in down, the very first person that comes to that victim’s mind is often an important person. That is to say, if your friend comes seeking comfort and emotional support from you when he or she is down, it actually means you’re important to him or her.

I find that to be very true. When I am down and out, when I am worried about things, the very first person I want to talk to is Jules. That is after I have prayed to God. Think about it, when you are drowned in sorrow, the very first person you want to speak to… is it someone you want to betray and abuse? Or is it someone whom you long for? I think it’s more of the latter?

Why then so many of us feel used and betrayed because your friend tend to forget about you when they on the high? Well… perhaps you weren’t the first person who popped up in the victim’s mind… perhaps you were just… a substitute? And you’re substituting again… and again… and again…

I have been plagiarised!

I have encountered several times where my writings have been copied in the net. Some are ethical enough to link the articles back to AZAIG. For those who weren’t ethical, I will usually leave a note that within a day or two, the said article will mysteriously disappear.

But there is this guy who really got to my nerve, whom I felt he has absolutely no respect to the meaning of copyright and originality. He has made plagiarism the way of his life.

Thanks to narrowband, I found out about this particular blogger who has copied not one but several of my entries and made it sound as though they are his. He even copy the pictures as well and did not even have the creativity to change the title of the entries. I am not going to give him a link so you will have to key in his url which is "funkie-renegade(dot)blogspot(dot)com".

Things he has copied might mysteriously disappear but I leave it for you to check out all these screenshots. Click to enlarge.

In the post "Wrong and again I was wrong", he even put on what I believe is the picture of his actual Uni. Anyone formerly from MMU know this guy?

A candle epic

Have you ever had a slip of the tongue? Sometimes, such situation can make you blush almost immediately. I have had such moments before but no, I am not going to talk about myself today.

My cell members are really lovely people and they took me out for a birthday lunch after church 2 weeks ago. We were also celebrating the birthday of another guy whose birthday was 2 weeks after mine. Oh, by the way, cell here means a group of Christians who meet on a weekly basis, not the 12ft x 12ft cell.

After we had our meal, came the cake cutting and birthday song ceremony. So the cake was brought up and we, the birthday boys were asked to sit at one end of the table while the rest of the people moved to the other end and people began to take pictures.

They placed 2 candles on the cake for both of us. So after the birthday song has been sung, the other birthday boy told me that I am to blow only one candle and leave the other for him. Let me tell you one thing, I am just not good at this blowing act. So when you have 2 candles lit closely together, how am I going to only blow off one?

Naturally, I blew off both the candles. A loud ‘sigh’ of disappointment came from the other end of the table and just as that happened… one girl shouted across the table… and I mean shouted… across the table…
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“Ok now you two can blow each other”

Wrong and again I was wrong

When I was in standard 6, I thought getting anything less than straight As in UPSR would spell the end of the world for me. I got straight As and entered into a random class in Form 1. I reckon I would have been who I am today even if I got all Bs. I guess I was wrong about the end of the world.

When I was in Form 3, I thought getting anything less than straight As in PMR would spell the end of the world for me. I was wrong… Though I got all As except for 1 subject, my life didn’t end. I still managed to do what I want in Form 4 and Form 5. I guess I was wrong about the end of the world…

When I was in Form 5, I came into realisation that results are not everything so I only targeted several distinctions in SPM. True enough, I got the distinctions in exactly the subjects I wanted. I was very happy. But I think I would have felt the same if my results were something else. Of course, I don’t expect to fail.

When I was in college, I thought getting into a recognised university is all that matters. Getting into a crappy one would spell the end of the world for me. I got into a rather crappy university due to financial restrictions. I thought I would lose out to those who entered into prestigious university. Looking at myself now, I don’t see me anything less than some of those who were fortunate enough to enter top grade universities. I guess I was wrong… again.
When I was in university, I thought getting anything less than a second-upper-class honours would spell the end of the world for me. I did get my second-upper-class honours. But at the same time, I see some of my friends who didn’t do as well while in university but ended up doing much better than me now. I guess I was wrong… again.

After graduating, I thought getting into the Big 4 (then Big 5) accounting firm would guarantee me a bright future. I got into one of them, only to find out that life was hell. But I persevered, as I still believed then that it would do me good. Am I reaping the reward and am I in the bright future I thought I would be now? Perhaps… perhaps not. But since some of my friends are doing much better than me though they didn’t slog it through the Big 4, I guess I could have been wrong… again…

I spent my 20s building my career believing that career is what will guarantee me a good life. But once I hit 30, I realised health is the utmost important thing in life. Without health, good life is virtually impossible. Again, I was wrong…

Someone once told me that any man at his dying bed would never wish that he had spent more time at his work-desk. But most of the time, that dying man tends to have spent too much time at his work and too little time with his family. I hope I won’t be saying “I am wrong once again” in heaven…

On hindsight, the dying man in question must be anyone but Chinese.

Have you been wrong before?

5 reasons we won't be nuke-d

Some readers made some very interesting point about power plants in my previous entry. I must say some of the facts mentioned there are news to me. I guess they are right, we should not let poor governance limits the opportunity of our brightest talents rising to the occasion and fulfil their potential.
But then again, I wonder how many Malaysian talents will return to contribute to a nuclear plant. Any takers?

Anyway, I think we don’t really have to worry about the reactor coming into reality. For all you know, it might just be one of those Malaysian thing, know what I mean? Here are 5 reasons why the reactor might not happen even if we choose to build it…

Number 5…
At the end of the construction deadline (which has been extended for God knows how many times), the roof leaks and there is no budget to fix it.

Number 4…
The state in which the reactor is situated fell to opposition and the big boss pulled the funding…

Number 3…
Rising material cost halted the project and then discontinued…

Number 2…
The reactor was actually only used to cook ‘roti canai’ and for engineers to play ‘batu seremban’ and ‘gasing’ under radiated environment…

Number 1…
The next PM stopped the project citing mud sale issues…

We just can't do it

We build highways… landslides…
We build bridge… bridges collapse…
We build govt complexes and courts… the roof leaks…
We build condos… condo came tumbling down (remember Highland Towers?)
We put up electric signboards… they break down in a week…
… and the list go on…

What happened above have cost us a lot of money. And if these funds were to be channelled to proper channel, you and I could have been taking buses to work instead of getting stuck in the jam everyday. And yes, maybe some of the above have cost some lives but being the selfish people we are, we don’t really care, don’t we?

Anyway, the news today kind of took the pick. We have mentioned this before and during that time; we weren’t that serious. But with the increase in fuel price and judging by the look of things, there is a possibility that our beloved country wants to go nuke.

With Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand making plans to have nuclear reactors of their own, I believe our country’s they-have-it-so-we-must-also-have-it mentality is going to jump into the bandwagon. By the way, Singapore has got no plans to go nuke? Wonder why…
For all intends and purposes, this is really something we ought to look at seriously. And I really mean seriously. Going nuclear has got no room for errors and I just think our country does not have the cut to reach error free environment. Heck, I wonder if we can even manage a 20% error rate.

This is not about wasting money, this is not about pride, this is not about providing an alternative energy source. This is about a situation where the boleh-ness culture will send us all to kingdom come, and it ain’t funny!

No matter how much they reassure us, I just don’t think Malaysia has got what it takes to properly manage a nuclear reactor. We, as Malaysians should really think seriously about this and voice out our concerns. We can afford to have water leaking from the roof but not radiation leaking from the nuclear reactor. Worse, when leakages happen, we just sweep everything under the carpet and declare everything is safe.

Our boleh culture just don’t have what it takes!

On hindsight, knowing our competence; we might just spend billions of Ringgit and then end up with an empty factory… who knows?

Tahap yang mana?

Saya percaya bahawa ramai di antara kita yang suka bergurau-senda sesama kawan-kawan kita. Misalnya, kita panggil kawan kita botak, pendek, kurus atau nama kelakar yang lain. Jika kita adalah kawan yang rapat, pasti tidak rasa tersinggung.

Sungguhpun begitu, kita boleh bergurau tentang apa jua tetapi kita tidak menyentuh hal-hal kaum. Isu perkauman merupakan satu isu yang amat sensitf di negara kita. Oleh itu, kita jarang bergurau-senda dengan memperolahkan kaum yang lain. Ini akan menyinggung perasaan kaum yang lain.

Sungguhpun begitu, kita sebagai generasi rakyat Malaysia yang baru ingin mecapai satu tahap di mana kita tidak lagi dipecah-belahkan kerana berlainan kaum. Kita berharap agar rakyat dari kaum-kaum yang berlainan dapat bersama-sama berganding bahu untuk membangunkan tanahair.

Dengan ini, saya tertanya-tanya… apakah tahap yang kita ingin capai di mana kita sebagai rakyat yang berbilang kaum dapat hidup bersama-sama dan kita tidak lagi rasa tersinggung apabila terdengar lawak jenaka mengenai kaum kita.

Apakah tahap yang kita ingini adalah…

Kita hormat kaum yang lain dan kita langsung tidak bergurau tentang kaum orang lain. Kita tidak memperolahkan kaum orang lain kerana kita hendak menyinggung perasaan kaum yang lain.

Ataupun…

Kita boleh sampai ke satu tahap dimana kita tidak lagi rasa tersinggung apabila terdengar kaum yang lain bergurau tentang kaum kita. Kita boleh duduk bersama dengan semua kaum yang lain dan kita boleh bergurau and ketawa sesama kaum kita tanpa rasa tersinggung.

Apakah yang dikatakan kita sudah matang? Kita hormat dan tidak bergurau, ataupun kita langsung tidak rasa tersinggung apabila orang lain bergurau tentang kaum kita?

Counselling at the mamak

It is not easy to go for counselling. One needs not only make time for it, but one must also bring down one’s ego and admit that one needs help. It is a humbling act.

I was supposed to attend a counselling session last week due to various happenings in my life but couldn’t make it. Things sort of settled down this week and I thought maybe I don’t really need counselling anymore. I am glad I did not fall into that over-self-esteem trap.

I have never met Rig, the counsellor before. We have only spoken on the phone twice and he sounded like someone who is very old and wise. When I arrived at the mamak, I was greeted by a man who was totally opposite of what I had in mind. With his very typical Chinese uncle look (no offence to anyone), curry-puff styled gelled hair, short sleeve shirt and dark pants, he looked more like a typical Chinese taxi driver or Chinese triad more like a Christian counsellor. Of course, this is only my impression.

I ordered my drink and went to get my lunch and as I sat down, he asked me about my medical appointment and I gave a brief history about what has happened in the last few months. He went on to order his ‘maggi goreng’ and for about 40 – 45 minutes, he just kept asking me questions.

My condition in the last few months…
My worries and what have been affecting me…
How is my family like…
My siblings…
Relationship with my parents…
Childhood heartaches and moments of joy…
Disappointments…
Basically running through my history as detailed as I intend to review…

All the while, he was going like a broken record… “yes… yes… hmm… hmm… ya ya ya… hmm…hmmm… yes, ya, yes, ya…” I know this is an act to show that one is listening but I was doing so much talking, I wondered if he really listened and manage to register everything I said as all the while he was only going “ya ya ya…” and focusing on his ‘maggi goreng’.

After about 40 – 45 minutes, Rig took out his handkerchief, wiped his mouth and from that moment on, he showed me why is he a counsellor. For the next hour or so, he was the one doing the talking.

He reviewed to me the medical, psychological and social side of things and then he is able to wrap all of them from the Christian spiritual perspective. The way he spoke is totally opposite what his physical appearance projects. This is like a slap of don’t-judge-a-book-by-it’s-cover right on my face.

One may wonder that he has made this kind of speech many times but no, he was picking up all the things I have said earlier. He identified things that I have mentioned earlier during the question and answer session and explained them from a medical, psychological, social and spiritual perspective. I was totally amazed as some of the things he picked up, even I myself has forgotten that I have reviewed it to him earlier.

I was totally in awe and I felt like I was being hit by a heavy dose of wisdom. You know how when you speak to people and sometimes you tend to pause in the middle and go ‘ahhh… when you are ahhh… ahhh… tense… ahhh….”…that kind of figure of speech… it’s non-existent with Rig. Every sentence completes without any pause in the middle and there was not a moment that he ran out of words. And the amazing thing is that it was all about me and the connection between my current situation and my past.

I came out of it feeling refresh and burdens lifted from me. Sometimes, we refused to do certain things because we think we are too great for it or we feel we are too high up there to do it. But I thank God that I humbled myself and made time to attend the counselling session. I did not let my ego over-rule me.

It was a very enlightening experience and I believe it is was a time ordained by Him and I truly want to give Him thanks and praise for that.

From my heart

Jesus, I need Thy comfort tonight
And Thy peace to see next daylight
Remind me of Your great love
Let me not sway
Let me see You everyday

I shall feed on Your word of life
And righteousness I shall strive
And I shall not die
But live
And live to proclaim Thy goodness

The arrest and losing my premier virginity

After months of not touching the ‘forbidden’ issue, I have to make a slight switch today.

Just in case you don’t know, the so-called de-facto leader of the opposition has been arrested today due to sodomy charges. I have to say the manner of the arrest is pretty incredible. According to MalaysiaKini, the authorities went with 15 patrol cars and some SWAT team-like commandos to arrest him. Wow… is Anwar magneto or something? Not like he can fly and you need to shoot him down, can he?
I have quite a number of friends who do not really trust this I-will-lower-petrol-price dude. Many claimed he is a dangerous person but at the same time, they can't really explain why he is dangerous. Whatever it is, I have to say many support him simply because they don’t support the other. It’s a matter of either or.

And looks like they are going to lock up the seemingly infallible Raja Petra Kamaruddin tomorrow. Looks like the power-to-be is trying to clean up all the obstruction on the road. I wonder who will be next.

Looking at the trend of things, it is certainly not very wise to blog about such things anymore… better change topic…

Hmmm… Oh yeah, I attended a movie premier yesterday at Gardens thanks to Suanie who was kind enough to offer me a ticket despite me submitting rather crappy entry in her haiku competition. As bloggers, the sponsors, Nokia, even threw in a dinner. It’s cool to be a blogger I must say.

It was my first so there goes my movie-premier virginity.

Anyway, I didn’t know they have to employ Rela personnel as guards and they actually used metal detectors to check us. Gee… we are just a bunch of bloggers and Nokia personnel and from what I can observe, most of us are actually teenagers and I do not recall anyone of us looking like terrorist. Also, I didn’t see any VIPs watching with us.

Oh, the premier was for The Dark Knight. It was a cool movie I must say though the visual effects towards the end were a bit too far fetched. Well, when you see it, you will know what I mean. Hats off to Heath Ledger for an excellent effort in portraying Joker. Personally I think he absolutely bulldozed past Christian Bale in terms of performance.

Now I am looking forward to Red Cliff and The Mummy (Tomb of the Dragon Emperor). I hope the streets will be safe and no riot or emergency or anything of that sort when the movies are out. Don’t do anything stupid ok!

Rich-ology

--For this notion, rich means rich in the monetary sense--

How much can you buy with RM50 nowadays?

Half a tank of petrol?
A fun-filled lunch outing with your friends?
A decent dinner in a mid-range restaurant?
A blouse?
A quick and instant escape route for running the lights?

Do you know why the 50 bucks you spent in whatever ways possible is worth… 50 bucks?

From a non-monetary point of view, the 50 bucks you have in your wallet right now is worth 50 bucks simply because there are a lot of people out there who don’t have 50 bucks and quite a majority of them is willing to do just about anything to get that 50 bucks from you.

Imagine if there are only 10 people in this world and everyone is a billionaire with a net worth of 1 billion, do you think 1 billion will worth… 1 billion? The answer is actually … yes, it’s still worth 1 billion.

But this same 1 billion will worth even more if out of the 10 people, 2 or 3 of them only have of half a billion. And… if out of the 10 people, 2 people have 4.5 billion each and the remainder 1 billion is shared among the rest of the 8. In such case, 1 billion will really worth… a lot!
I know some of you are a bit confused with the millions and billions or maybe some of you are dreaming of making it now. What I am trying to say here is that whatever amount of money you have right now is worth that amount simply because a lot of people out there don’t have that amount of money and they are willing work hard for it.

Accordingly, you believe that a specific amount of money is worth that specific amount because you don’t have it, be it a million or 10 million. And you are probably willing to do quite a number of things to get it.

We say the rich gets richer while the poor gets poorer. Similary… the rich are rich simply because there are those who are poor. If everyone is equally rich, would they consider themselves rich?

If you are able to understand all of the above, then think about this…

If you are rich and want to remain rich, would you want to make everyone else rich?… Or you would you want at least a sizeable number of people out there to remain poor? What do you see in this world today?

Gym tales – female version

“If you do not have an open mind and is easily offended, you may not want to read this.”

Many of you have heard my traumatising encounters in the male changing room of my gym. Indeed, many things happen in the male changing room which can be quite…errr… freaky if you have not lost a sense of ‘direction’.

Well anyway… have you ever wondered what happen in the female changing room then? Do you think it is equally traumatising in the female changing room?

One day, I saw a friend who put up the message ‘Nightmare in the gym’ as her G-Talk message. Feeling curious, I messaged her asking what happened to her in the gym. Her reply was…

“I saw someone naked in the gym!”

Now, many of you would have thought that the sight of a woman in the gym is no big deal to which I would probably agree. But my friend went on to say…

“She was really flabby!” (No offence to anyone here ok, these are not my words).

I told her that I do hear about female walking around totally naked in the female changing room. This is something very rare in the male changing room I must say though many in the male changing room in my gym are … those who have ‘lost a sense of direction’. Maybe that is the reason… maybe walking around naked to them is akin to … “jao gong”.

Anyway, I told my friends that since girls like to roam around naked in the female changing room, good for her since girls like to stare at hot babes. Yes, in case you don’t know, many female friends have told me that they enjoy looking at pretty girls as much as guys.

It was then that my friend made 2 resounding revelations in terms of female baring it all in the female changing room…

That only the ‘not so pretty’ will bare it all…

That those who are pretty and bare it all tends to have a ‘not so pretty’… a really ‘not so pretty body’…

“They flaunt because they have nothing to lose or they don’t have a face to flaunt lah…” My friend said…

So… anyone flaunting yourself lately?

Male changing room series:
A gym sighting

Locker room trauma

Locker tale

Teens raised dead baby in Guatemala

This story was was shared by the Pastor last Sunday at church and a quick search in the internet led me to the testimony of the person during the miracle. While we can never authenticate the story, I choose to believe in faith that the power of God is really sweeping across the land. And like one missionary once said in a sermon... miracles always happen but not around us... because God choose to be with those living on the edge... we who live in comfort.........

Anyway, I invite you to read this amazing story which have been reproduced below. The original news can be found here.


My name is Abby. I am 14 years old. I live in western North Carolina. During the summer of 2008, I went on a ministry trip to Guatemala. During part of the trip, we divided up into small ministry teams (5 to 7 people) and visited different villages in the San Pedro La Laguna area. We traveled from village to village telling the Indian people about Jesus. On one particular day, we were visiting in the home of a young woman. She lived in a small village of about 14 or 15 houses. We were trying to lead the young lady to Christ, but it was not going very well. After awhile, we decided to move on. Before leaving, we asked the woman if we could pray with her about anything in her life. She told us that just the day before, she had given birth to a stillborn baby and that we could pray with her about that.

In Guatemalan culture, there is great shame and condemnation on mothers who give birth to deformed or stillborn children. We prayed a simple prayer that everything would go well with the funeral and burial of the baby and that the mother would be spared the shame and condemnation associated with having given birth to a stillborn child. As we were praying this simple prayer, my friend and fellow ministry team member, Julia (age 17), told me that we needed to pray over the baby's body. I thought she was crazy to suggest this and that it was not a good idea. Julia was persistent. She said again that we really needed to pray over the baby's body. She told me to ask the mother if she still had the baby's body. When I asked, the mother told us the baby's body was wrapped up in a burial cloth in the back room. I asked her if we could pray over the body. The mother hesitantly said, yes. We went into the backroom and saw the baby's body wrapped up in a bundle on the bed. Julia poked her head out of the back room and asked if she could unwrap the baby's head. The mother said, yes, if we wrapped it back correctly when we were done. Julia picked up the body and unwrapped the head. The baby's head was tiny and pale. The baby was stillborn and had been dead outside the womb for 27 hours. Her skin had turned shades of purple. Our entire ministry team, five of us, began crying and praying over this baby.

We prayed for thirty to forty minutes. At the end of that time, Julia screamed out to God, telling Him that she believed with all of her heart that this baby could be raised from the dead. After Julia screamed out, everyone was silent. We were quietly interceding and praying. Within a few minutes, the baby started moving. Then the baby coughed and began crying. The mother came rushing into the room. She was screaming, what is going on? No one could answer her. We were just staring at the baby, who had come back to life. The mother asked us again, what is going on? She began crying as she saw that her baby was alive. She ran out of the house and banged on every door in the village, telling all of the people that God is real because her baby was alive. Within about thirty minutes, the baby's skin tone and movements had become completely normal.
The other villagers came to the house to see this amazing miracle. They asked us which of the Indian gods we had prayed to for such a miracle to happen. We told them we had prayed to the biggest God ever and we began to explain to them about Jesus. Soon, we realized we would not have time to minister salvation to each person individually. So, we gathered all the villagers together, turned on our little sound system and explained the way of salvation. Everyone in the village, 80 to 90 people, prayed to receive Jesus. Each of them was baptized in the Holy Spirit and began speaking in tongues. Many would fall to the ground as the power of the Holy Spirit came on them.

Five days later, we returned to the village to check in on the mother and the baby. The village had prepared a big dinner in honor of our team. We enjoyed a wonderful time of fellowship together. The baby, whom they named Julia, was perfectly healthy and had gained weight. Even after five days, the mother was still shaking from the impact of God on her life through the resurrection of her child. Two days after our follow-up visit, the mother brought baby Julia to church. The mother was still shaking from the power of God on her life following this astounding miracle.

All glory be unto God.

A change in dominant language

I was sitting on the ground recuperating from my game the other day during my badminton session. While looking around and trying to give my shoulder and neck muscle a good stretch, I saw a shuttlecock nearby. I picked it up and started scrutinising it, a rather random decision. In an equally random decision, I started to count the number of feathers of the shuttlecock…

“One… two… three… four… five… six… seven… eight… nine… ten… eleven… twelve… … … … sixteen”

A shuttlecock requires 16 feathers to be made.

It was then that it suddenly occurred me… something has changed. In fact, something has changed for quite some time already.

Ya’ know… my parents are illiterate… I grew up in a very Chinese family... I never speak a word of English in my home… when I was in standard 3, a classmate found out that I didn’t know the meaning of ‘thirsty’ and he laughed at me and till today, I still remember his expression when he laughed at me… when I go out with my school friends now, I generally speak Cantonese…

So… when I picked up that shuttlecock and started to count… it should be… “yat…yi… sam… sei… em… lok… chat (need to be pronounced properly)… pat… gao… … … … … sap-lok”

That should be the way!!! Just like how you call the boss to come and “kira” after your mamak session and he will go “une… ren-ne… mu-le… na-le… umpede…” That is what usually happens. Or if you eat at a Malay store and when the boss “kira”… he will go “satu… dua… tiga… tujuh… sepuluh...” This should be the way!!

Even if you go to the famous Stevens’ Corner mamak where the boss speaks perfect Cantonese… you will still hear him whisper…. “une… na-le… sap-de… umpede… ….”… and then he will tell you “sap-lok kau pat” (RM16.80). Right?

Or if you go to a Chinese restaurant and you ask the ‘tau-keh’ for the bill, he will surely go “yat… em… lok… sap-yi… sap-pat… ahhh… twenty-tlee prease” That is what will happen. You will never hear the ‘tau-keh’ go… “wan… tlee… sez… elewang… sexteen… ahhhh… yah-sam kau” (RM23). It’s just bizarre isn’t it?

And certainly, the ‘tau-keh’ will not go “satu… empat… enlam… lujuh… sapuloh… samilam-bras… ahhh….. yah-sam kau” (RM23). Just won’t happen isn’t it?
So why do I, a true breed Chinese and when I start to count… I go “one… two… three… four… five” instead of “yat… yi… sam… sei… em…”? Why?

Truly, the dominant language in me has changed. I may be able to speak Cantonese fluently amongst my friends but deep in the root of my sub-conscious brain… if possible, I will tend to speak English first before Cantonese.

So how do you count? One two three? Or yat yi sam? Or satu dua tiga? Or une ren-ne mu-le? What is your dominant language?

5 things I failed to fathom

Number 5
I fail to fathom why some people go online on chat programme and activate the ‘busy’ status. If you are truly busy, why go online? Worse if it’s DND.

Number 4
I fail to fathom why some idiot need to show his ass (covered by underwear nonetheless) in a supposedly peaceful protest rally. Heck, why should there be a concert in the first place?

Number 3
I fail to fathom those people who read the forwarded mail about how Malaysians’ average income is USD5,000 per annum and then complain about petrol being expensive. With an average income of USD5,000 per annum, should you even be buying a car?

Number 2
I fail to fathom why a bunch of ang-moh wannabe artists were asked to sing the Malaysia My Home song and the true blue Malaysian artist called Namawee was not invited. By the way, do you still remember him?

Number 1
I fail to fathom why some Christians can stand up against the devil himself… able to call upon the name of Jesus to cast out demons but they never dare to even shake their head in front of their boss.

Do you have a sweaty chest?

I was having lunch with my colleagues when a colleague of mine was talking about her experience in the gym. She is rather plum fleshy and she said that when she works out in the gym, she always sweat a lot in her tummy.

I was a bit puzzled because biologically speaking, your stomach is the first organ to shut down in order to provide more blood to parts of your body which are working out, e.g. hands and legs. If you don’t believe me, try placing your hand on your tummy just bellow your belly button after a good work-out, it’s ice cold as there is no more blood there.

So made my point but she still insisted that her sweat mostly concentrates on her tummy. For me, I generally start to sweat from the chest area and again I made my point. That’s when she gave all of us in the lunch group a very profound statement…

“Aiya, if you sweat at your chest means you’re flat!”

That statement drew a big stare from another colleague… hmmm… I presume she sweats a lot at the chest are during her work out.

To test authenticity of that theory, a bunch of us decided to go to gym a few days later for a good work out and while I can't really confirm whether only the flat ones sweat at the chest… the… well… bumpy ones surely ended up with dry chest… very dry chest.

Further lunch discussions suggest another reason why the bumpy ones are able to maintain a dry chest during work out. That is… it must be due to a very good central irrigation system. And probably that is why my colleague said she only sweats in her tummy.

So… do you have a sweaty chest? Or sweaty tummy?

A time travelling twist

I remember when I used to stay up in the middle of the night studying for SPM ages ago, I used to leave the radio on to keep me company. My favourite station then was the good ‘ol Radio 4, probably the hottest English radio station at that time. And on one of the night, the DJ was getting listeners to call in and talk about the question of the day.

The question of the day then was… “If you have the chance to travel back in time and allowed to change one thing in your life, what would it be?”

This is quite a normal question to ask, and probably something that always crop up in our mind, particularly in time of reflection. Have you ever thought of one thing that you intend to change?

Anyway, in true zewt fashion, I would like to twist the question and ponder on a similar yet different manner. And the zewtinised scenario of a similar notion is…

If one day, you bump into yourself returning from the future and telling you to take a certain course of action, would you do it?

Yes, you’re not the one travelling back in time but you’re the one whom your future travelled back to. Would you alter your future based on… your future?

P/S: A new domain has been bought and may spring into action real soon. Get ready to alter your links… Oh… anyone keen to design me a new banner? Hehe…