It's time ...

The packing is almost all done. The half empty house looks eerie without the pens and papers strewn on the floor, without children's toys at the corners, or newspaper and books on the table top and chairs. The house feels empty without the smell of home cook meal, or the smell of the dog.

I am not sure if it was the flu, or just being tired after all the packing, cleaning, throwing away; but at the end of the day, we were all depressed.

Well, this is probably my last blog before I terminate the internet service tomorrow - until I reconnect at the other end.

Keep in touch.

PS. I still miss the dog ...

Hit by a rock

The last few days have been so busy - busy packing, busy closing, busy saying goodbyes. It didn't quite occur to me, at least, that we are truly saying "goodbye" to our best of friends; it didn't occur to me that we are actually leaving the place until we gave the dog away.

My son was very upset. I was upset for three days.

The place just didn't feel the same without the dog around. She is not here to share my breakfast in the morning. She is not there at the door to greet me when I am back. She is not here to go out with me every night when I throw out the rubbish.

We truly missed the dog. I truly miss her. Even writing about her now upsets me.

In contrast, I had to clear out my office and my house over the yesterday and today. I threw out 10 years of collection of journal articles, papers, goods, souveniers and many more things. I didn't even blink an eye. There was no sadness, no pain, no loss.

Although we spend our lives chasing after material gain, at the end of the day, it is the people - our friends, family, relatives, church friends that we miss the most. All the material wealth does not even compare to the dog that we have.

I shall miss all my friends. I shall miss my dog. Very very much.

Disaster

I was spending my whole night trying to off load some of the files from a laptop before returning it. So I transfered everything important to my new 500G portable hard drive. One of the last files I had to transfer over was a 4.02 G Knoppix DVD version. Unknowingly, my hard drive was using FAT32, which of course could not cope with file larger than 4G. What I did not know - which I should have, because this was not the first time it happened, the first time it wrecked my USB thumb drive - was that in attempting to transfer the file, I corrupted my hard drive FAT, so the whole hard drive crashed!

I could almost cry.

Well, to pick up the pieces, I have to reformat the hard drive - and of course this time I will reformat it to the NTFS, so that it can cope with large file in the future.

But what about all the files that I lost? I tried using PC Inspector to recover the files, but the stupid Window Vista refuses to let me install the programme, because I don't have administrator's right! What a stupid system! What does it mean that I don't have the right!

My temper flared, and I was on the verge of getting my hammer out to smash the laptop had it not been the fact that my kids were around, and that would not be such a good example.

Well, finally, at 2 am, I found this programme - undelete from:

http://www.officerecovery.com/freeundelete/



This small, simple, programme allows me to undelete all the files I deleted while transferring them to my doomed hard drive.

Next time, if you accidentally delete any important file, remember this nifty little programme.

PRAISE GOD!

The only thing left to do is to reformat my hard drive. And you can count how long it will take, all 500G. I think it will be a long, long night for me tonight, and I won't be sleeping ...

God is good

There were lots and lots and lots of worries when we wanted to go over.

First, we worry about the children's school. Which school should we send the kids to? Will the kids fit in? Will they enjoy their school there? Will we be able to afford the fees? Which, in turn depends on whether we could find a job.

So next on the worry list is jobs. Will my wife find a job there? Will I find a job there?

And my job depends on whether they will recognize my training and experience.

And then, church - will they fit in? Will we fit in?

And place to stay - a place near the children's school since we will not be able to fetch them to and fro from school anymore.

There were lots and lots of worries.

But thank God He has prepared everything for us. In a sense, He has gone before us and prepared the way for us.

The first good news was my wife found a job.

Then the school. Then the place to stay.

But the best news must be that the College recognizes my training and experience, and exempted from the exam if I can successfully complete one year of full time work under review.

And then, I had an offer of job.

All these happened in the final two weeks before we fly over.

Praise God for all his goodness.

Catch the moment ...

My Canon camera just died on me. First it was my Twinhead; then my car engine; now my camera.



So we bought a new camera. Now my daughter just dropped her mobile phone into a swimming pool. I thought if we were to buy a new camera, we would need to get one that is shock proof and water proof. So we got a Panasonic Lumix DMC FT1. Honestly the quality of the picture was not as good as my previous Canon. But we need a camera. We need a camera to capture the laughters that are slipping pass our hand, the tears that are drying, the sights that are fleeing, the friendship that will "move on" and "move away", and the moments that become more and more blur in our memory by the second.

We need a camera to capture the last few days we spend here before we move on; we need a camera to seize the warmth of friendship, the appreciation of our friends and colleagues, the prayer of our brothers and sisters from the church, the jokes of our usual coffee-shop kaki's, ....

There is so much to catch up with before we move on, so much to capture before it vanishes in the depths of our memory; so much to savour before it fades away, and so much to praise and thank God for before we forget.

And prayerfully, when we see these same pictures, the laughters will ring back from yesteryear to flood our eyes with tears again; the joy will spill out to cheer us again, the friendship will be rekindled to warm our hearts again, and the praises will ring out from our mouths to our God once again.

Yes, to praise God for friends, for family, for relatives, for our colleagues, for our brothers and sisters in church.

And most of all, to praise God for leading us on this journey of the last 15 years.

Yes, thank God for this 15 years.

How to make a child into a delinquent - 10 easy rules

My wife drew my attention to this page in the June - July issue o Asian Beacon. This is in turn quoted from A Box of Delight, compiled by J John & Mark Stibbe.

1. Begin at infancy to give the child everything he wants. In this way he will grow up to believe the world owes him a living.

2. When she picks up bad language, laugh at her. This will make her think she is cute.

3. Never give him any spiritual training. Wait until he is 21, and then let him "decide for himself".

4. Avoid the use of the word "wrong". It may develop a guilt complex.

5. Pick up everything she leaves lying around - books, shoes, clothes. Do everything for her so that she will be experienced in throwing all responsibility on others.

6. Let him read any printed matter he can get his hands on (nowadays internet material). Be careful that the silverware and glasses are sterilized, but let his mind feed on rubbish.

7. Quarrel frequently in the presence of your children. In this way they will not be too shocked when the home is broken up.

8. Give a child all the spending money she wants. Never let her earn her own. Why should she have things as tough as you had them?

9. Satisfy his craving for food and drink and comfort. See that every sensual desire is gratified. Denial may lead to harmful frustration.

10. Take her part against neighbours, teachers, policemen. They are prejudiced against your child.

(Copyright (R) J John and Mark Stibbe 2001. Monarch Books, Mill Hill, London & Grand Rapids, Michigan. First published in the UK in 2001 by Monarch Books, Concorde House, Grenville Place, Mill Hill, London NW7 3SA)

Cycle of Coming and Going

We went back to our home town about three weeks ago, and Belinda dug out some of our old photos - photos of our farewell when we left Melbourne back in 1994.





And then the picture we took when we first returned to Malaysia.



Ironic, isn't it? The day we left Melbourne to return to Malaysia does not seem too long ago. Now we are leaving Malaysia and going back to Melbourne.

Thing is, of course, life has moved on for the friends that we left behind back in 1994. Some of them returned, some of them stayed on; but all of them have moved on with their lives.

Then, there was another farewell picture - this time when we left Negeri Sembilan. Life has moved on for them, too.



That is the price we pay when we move from one place to another.

And in our lives, we have moved a few times. From our home towns to Melbourne, from Melbourne to Pahang, from Pahang to Negeri Sembilan, from Negeri Sembilan to where we are now. And now it is a full cycle back to Melbourne.

My good friend and ex-colleague, Vimalan, has a wise saying. Well, he has more than a wise saying; but this is one of them. There are cycles in life - one of the cycles is this, the cycle of life, of birth and death, of coming and going ...