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HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!! HAPPY 2009! Ha, I know it abit late now, given that it is already the 20th of January of 2009, furthermore Chinese New Year is just round the corner!! Yikes! but hey it’s better be late then never right?

So, Happy New Year again. so people how’s your New Year Eve spent, man? Did you went to a countdown party? or stay at home with your loved one? or went to someone’s place and created some havoc?

Ha, no matter how you spend your last day of 2008, I would just assumed it must be damned fun and happening!! As for mine, it was really great!! The day was spent with my group of closed friends from my secondary schools, and thanks to YX &KT for offering their home, my friend and I had a place to count down and spend the meaningful night away from the crowd and noise.

It was really a simple gathering and party that we had food and drinks, played some WII and Mahjong and had a chit-chat session of the great old days. What made it special was that, the way we created the countdown party. It was the first time in our 15 years of friendships that we gathered together and cooked a dinner for ourselves!! And what a feast it was!

As most of us were still working on the New Year Eve, we could only start the marketing for the ingredients around 5-6pm. Knowing that by the time we were done with the market, it would be pretty late, our spirit was not really dampen and even though we could only managed to lit the fire at about 8pm. We were still pretty much excited about it,  Ha!

So hit the stove we did, ha, with me being the main “Cook” of the day and together with my assistant DT, RY, YX, we managed to whip out quite a few dishes.

We had,Cream of Mixed Wild Mushroom Soup, Beef Loin-Steak with Black Pepper Sauce, Pork-chop with butter-Onions Sauce, BBQ Whole Chicken, Meat Balls, Steamed Potatoes, Stirred-Fry Broccoliwith carrots, Spaghetti with Veg-tomato sauce, salads and of cos Heineken beers!!!

Yeah! Yeah! It was really fun and enjoyable that night, we had lots of food and everyone really enjoyed the dinner. Beside the dinner and the great company, what made me happy and pleased was that, my friends enjoyed my cooking too. Although, the taste weren’t like world class, but hey it was still nice enough for them to sing some praise for me.

So my dear friends, I really glad-ed that all of you have enjoyed the food and thank you for trusting me in my ability to cook. For those who are not aware, it been at least 6 years since I cooked a meal for someone else, so for me to cook again, I was actually a little fearful.

Therefore, really from the bottom of my heart, Thank you for trusting me and for the past 15 years as well, thanks you all for being there for each other and I hoped my cooking will be just a small token to say thank you and good luck to all of us and of course, let all of us have a great 2009, ok!!

And in the future, if the chance and opportunities are there again, I will cook again for you all. (As long as all chip in money to buy the ingredients lah, hahaha)

Last Night of the year 2008 

Ah… time really flies man, and soon in less than 10 days, it will be Chirstmas Eve! Yeah!  Sing with me!! “We wish you a MERRY CHRISTMAS,  We wish you a MERRY CHRISTMAS, We wish you a MERRY CHRISTMAS and a HAPPY NEW YEAR!!” ha!

Hmmm well, to be honest, Christmas to me is just another Holiday to me, I don’t really celebrate Christmas. Never really have the habit to do so. I mean I do go to Christmas Party and stuff, but it’s more for a gathering and having fun rather than really really celebrating Christmas. Nevertheless, I still like this season as we can see that everyone is more or less in a relaxing mood, wanting to be at ease and enjoy the holiday period and of course another ”PLUS” point I like about Christmas is that I  get to receive presents!! HA!

Well,  received a gift, I did. The first Christmas gift I received really came from an unexpected source. Ha just last week, when I was still busy with work, I received a call from a  number unknown to me.  Without thinking much, I answered the phone, and from the other end it said” Hello!, are you Jones?” “Ya” I replied,”HELLO JONES!!! IS US! CHOPSTICKS HERE!!! Do you still remember us!!” 

HA! Chopsticks! Of course I remembered them. Chopsticks were a group of my participants in a Overseas leadership camp that I was facilitating in. I was their facilitator for 4 days 3 nights and that was more than a month ago. It had been like about 30 plus days ago since I heard from them. In that period, our company had a policy that we were not allowed to exchange any form of personal contacts be it email or phone. The purpose was to prevent any emotional attachment between the facilitator and the participants straight after a training, 30 days was deems long enough for that attachment to die down and if after 30 days, they still want to contact, means it is cleared that they understand that it is because of sincerity and respect that the participants want to contact us and is not based on emotional attachment. Hence I was touched that the students upheld the rule and then made the effort to contact me after 30 days.

The phone call from them was to ask me out for a gathering on, Saturday(yesterday) which I happily agreed. It was great fun meeting up with them, we had Sakea Sushi for lunch and went to catch a movie.

It was really great to see this batch of teens behaving so differently since the first day I saw them. They are full of energy, hope and their sense of bonding was so strong, that you couldn’t help but to feel happy for them. It was pleasing to hear from them of how well they were coping school and family as well as listen to their plans about the new year. They have so much to look forward to ha. They were totally behaving like a sensible young adults that ready to take the world on.

So the gathering went on and we were all chatting and laughing and it was soon to say goodbye, and I thanked them for organising the gathering and that was when they stopped me, and said “No need to thanks us, CurryPuff(oh that’s was my nickname in the camp), is us that we want to thank you, thanking for being our facilitator and letting us learnt so much from you, this is a gift from us, hope you like it and Merry Christmas!” 

Ha, and guessed what, that last statement from them was one of the sweetest thing I ever heard, and after so long(closed to 40days), they still remembered me and I do feel honoured and pleased that I had played a part in their growing process.

And maybe that’s what kept me going on to do the work that I’m doing and I am not talking about the words or gift that I received but the purpose and the mission to make a positive difference to another person’s life.

Last but not least, Yes, I do Like the gift, so Thank you, Chopsticks!!