10pm Daylight

Post 240210

2010-03-09T16:45:00.000-08:00

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She posted a message on FB about a job interview she is looking forward to. As much as I wanted to wish her publicly, I hesitated. I clicked 'Like', think it wasn't a good idea since I suggested the 6 months clean cut, so I 'Unlike' it.
I truly wish she gets the job and am able to cope with her studies. I will be on a job soon and would have contributed financially should all these did not happen.

+ Dear Father, only You know her needs and desires. Reveal Yourself to her and be with her during the interview. May you bless her with sound mind and wisdom so she gain favours from the interviewer. In Jesus's gracious name, AMEN.

My first interview went well and I was asked to start work on the 22nd. I will be following HK public holidays and am responsible to upkeep the performance of 12 Canto and English speaking reps. Meanwhile, my project/work in OUTBAC should finish on the 21st. I needed to see my friends in PG before anything else and postponed it to the 29th. They got back to me and were ok on that date. So I have a job tentatively.

As all these are going on, I have already been drilled on the phone by the Singapore recruiter offering a job few days ago. We ended with an email for me to get back to them when I am ready. Since then, this has been in my mind constantly. I have to admit working in Spore to me is a little intimidating. A brand new environment, very sales driven but rewarding path. This change is drastic.

+ Dear Father, if I can make it, this would be the most financially rewarding job. That should mean a lot of money in a fairly short time. This also means a whole new environment, a brand new start, a big challenge in a strange land. What do You think? Would You please agree by showing me some confirmation? Should I leave home now that I have just came back?

At the same time, I attended another interview with a Japanese Search firm looking for IT Sales Consultant for their client. I had to give them my FB profile pic as I did not have any passport sized pics in softcopy. I should be hearing from their client soon if they are interested.

What caught me by a pleasant surprise was a call from the Training Director of a local conglomerate after the interview at around 1300hr. We talked and agreed to meet for further discussion on Thursday. This is something I look forward to.

Justin called. Talked about his new venture into his in-law's company. It would be great to be able to partner with him in any ways. Marketing, planning and dwelling over the business, a business of our own.

Things are looking interesting now. I wish she is here to share this with me. CY reminded me of Isa 43:18. To forget all memories and stop all the things I want to do for her, I should not even be sending her birthday gifts. I thought a big framed-up potrait of a shot I took for her will be nice as a gift along with an individualized letter from God taken off a website. I should not be communicating with her after all.

+ Dear Father, I commit all my thoughts and plans to Your hands. I know whatever happens is for my good as You have the best interest for me. It seems like you have blessed me with a few career options. Give me wisdom to view all of them in Your perspective so I can make the choice wisely. Please show me Your way.
I lift her up in Your hands. Please keep her safe and by Your side. Comfort her and reveal more of Yourself to her. The power of Your blood shield her from all harm and may Your angels watch over her. In Jesus's name, AMEN.

A day in Villa Matilde

2009-09-04T08:04:00.000-07:00

We are now in Villa Matilde, 20 minutes away from Andujar, in the region of Andalucia, south of Spain. A land known for it's Olive production in the world. It's hot and dry, so dry the wind picks up sand and dust on the ground as it weaves it's way through the hills.

This is our first HelpX host of the few more to come in the next few months that are spotted around Spain, Portugal and Italy. Following this will be our adventure to get to all these hosts in different countries in an attempt to experience life by working the land and living from it.

Villa Matilde, a typical Spanish villa in the province of Jaen. It's white washed walls are decorated with orangy yellow 'gathers'- as found in curtains, at the inner side of it's roof. There are plenty of rooms on ground level and below which I didn't bother keeping track. This 3 acre land is surrounded by old olive trees, dotted with many fig bearing trees, almond trees, mediterranean pine with it's cones the size of my feet, and many off season fruit trees such as the apricot, pear, and plums.

And of course, a Spanich villa without a pool especially in the South is never up to it's use. Therefore, this one comes with a the pool the swim length of my 4 full freestyle strokes and the width of Jenn's 3 katak puru (breastroke) stokes nicely situated right above the aula (Spanish for classroom).

This is a strange and interesting place to be especially when we were placed in a caravan left under the shade at the back end of the house. We loved sleeping in the caravan under the moonlit night that casts shadows from branches outside while the breeze soothe you to sleep in the cosy outdoor surrounding.

Jueves the psychologically disturbed male donkey, beats the rooster by faithfully waking us up every morning at 7.30am just when dawn breaks. And looking out on our left would be Ross, the foal fooling around with his mum, Plata. Besides these equins,

We now moved in to a room in the villa due to the heat in the afternoon and our work starts from 8.30am in the morning after breakfast in the vegetable garden weeding and preparing the beds for seeding or cleaning the pool for me. Today, Roland got us to give him a hand to fill a trailer load full of Jueves's manure. Boy was that tough work! Imagine scooping and gathering in a cloud of crispy dry donkey's shit dust. We emptied bucket loads of partly decomposed shit one at a time and each time walking up the steep slop in the donkey's kandang. What great cardio! We then hooked up the trailer onto Roland's Korean 4x4 with it's French diesel powerplant and drove to another part of the property to have the manure emptied and spread out as fertilizers. All in all, we got ourselves covered in donkey's dry pooh and began to glimpse the physical work involved in a farm.
By the time we got back to the vegetable farm to continue our weeding, the sun is already flexing it's muscle and we only lasted 3o minutes trying to get rid of more stubborn roots before we head into the shade to continue picking seeds of Parsley, Cellery and Carrots we collected the day before. All these while, waiting for lunch to come as our 3 halves of french loaves and coffee we had for breakfast was long gone by then.
Lunch today was Sardines, homemade loaf, leftover pastas from 2 days ago, some beef chunks from god knows when and more cheese. But we had a stomach full and went straight to wash off our dirt before returning to siesta off the afternoon heat.

Positivity to the fire!

2008-09-11T03:42:00.000-07:00

Well well well...,

No directions and faith sinks and breaks a man,
To bring the state of the mind to positivity summons impossibilities.
When nothing is left in the head, the soul yearns to be used,
It knows no logic or rationals, nothing out of the ordinary,
But it knows what is REAL and TRUE.

Faith is an assurance of things hoped for, the convictions of things not seen.
What then is a man to hope when he knows that all things are temporary while he lives and breathe the temporary?
What is he to do with this constant conflict that disrupts thought of progressions?

The man is in search for answers.

Simon's graduation

2008-06-27T13:25:00.000-07:00

Durham is a beautiful place.

It's old, wisely old, so much character, absolutely authentic and a great blend of modernity. If there is one graduation ceremony I want to go to, it would be this one by Durham University in the Durham Cathedral. A thousand years old of history! It was a fantastic place.

We first arrived at St. Aidan's College (Simon's college where he will be the president the following year to organized programs and activities for students living in) of Durham University. This is one of the very few university that has the collegial system in England. We booked in to the hostel rooms that are emptied out to be rented to family and friends of graduates. And check out their hostel rooms!

This is the twin sharing room. The max allowed.

It gets as good as a regular hotel if not better comes ready with towels and toiletries.

Well layed out study table.

And a fridge by the window with proper heating from the radiator for the winter.

And each a proper wardrobe and a wash-basin in it. I can't help but compare to the place I used to live in UNIMAS. More like a shack to this really.

This is a pre-graduation dinner held in the college's room.

And the rest of it, I will just let the pictures do the talking. The atmosphere was truly very very different from the way I had my graduation ceremony back home. The air is filled with education, literature, art, history, knowledge, achievements and the ceremony in the thousand years old cathedral just took it to a different level of greatness.

And here's the very very much celebrated sunshine at the end of a wonderful experience along the street of Durham.

New land

2008-06-22T14:14:00.000-07:00

Here we are in England, in a North Western town call Southport. An hour drive away from Manchester and 40 minutes of train ride from Liverpool.

That's 三姑's Nissan Micra which she says it's everybody's car. I wouldn't be driving anytime soon as I am not insured to drive eventhough a Malaysian dirving license allows us to drive for 6 months.

Un. Jo traded in his brand new Jazz for this Civic. It is a nice spacious model never seen on the Malaysian roads.

Here's 三姑's backgarden. It's totally different from the winter when I was here the last time as they didn't seems to be coming alive back then. We were all out in the garden eventhough it is still very chilly outside. That's the plum tree right behind 三姑 along the wooden fence. That's where she makes all her plum jam from.

This is the lunch (It's called dinner here. There is no such thing as lunch. Wondering where did the word came from if the English didn't first started using it.) we had the first day.

And that's Trifle, a desert made of a layer of sponge cake at the bottom, fruits, jelly, custard and cream at the top.

This blog entry should have been up the second day we arrived but I didn't post it. We just got back from Durham for Simon's graduation today. I will post the pictures in the next entry.