Day +1439 : Visiting Christian Book Exhibition

I am fine today.

My wife and I visited a Christian Book Exhibition at PGRM, Cheras yesterday evening together with some church members.

The temptation to purchase books is always great in a book exhibition like this. We spent about RM500 for books.

After visiting the book exhibition, we went for dinner somewhere nearby. And after that, Pastor Tan brought us to a back lane in Pudu for another meal :-) Every one of us was extremely full after the double meals.

The books that we purchased
First meal at Cheras






Second meal at Pudu


See you next post :-)

Day +1438 : Meals of the Conference

I am fine today.

In this concluding post about the musical conference, I would like to share with you what we normally had for our lunch and dinner.

We had almost the same thing everyday, cooked slightly differently; chicken, beef, lamb, broccoli or cauliflower...

It tasted nice the first meal but the taste degraded as more meals were eaten :-( I believe it was not because the dishes became less delicious but because we ate too much of the same things.

The next conference will be held in New Zealand, July 2012. You can start to save money if you would like to join the conference.

Queuing up for meal
So many people eating together
The food
My portion
My wife's portion
Our name tag
See you next post :-)

Day +1437 : Our MIDI class tutor

I am fine today.

As I mentioned in yesterday post, our MIDI class tutor was Professor David Yap (叶志明). He is 84 years old now but still very involved in Chinese church music composition and teaching.

He learned computer by the age of 70 and now has become a very experienced computer user; better than many young ones.

He is now able to compose and arrange music through the Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) software called CakeWalk which he mastered through self learning. To a person that doesn’t play piano, the software becomes very handy. One would be able to key in the musical notes to the software and then command the software to play back the composition immediately.

Professor Yap demonstrated to us one of his compositions that no one is able to play yet because it was so complicated.

He was very enthusiastic in showing us how useful is the MIDI software and he also shared with us a lot MIDI materials.

I enjoyed his class very much. It is not because that I learned a lot but to see how enthusiastic a 84 year-old man teaching computer to young peoples.

A group photo with some of the students - Professor David Yap is the fourth from the left
See you next post :-)

Day +1436 : An impromptu and private session

I am fine today.

Delegates of the musical conference were given opportunity to attend various interest groups and classes in the afternoon. I chose the advanced vocal and MIDI class.

The tutor of the advanced vocal class was Ching Yong (陈容) and for the MIDI class, the tutor was Professor David Yap (叶志明).

In the first advanced vocal class, Ching Yong explained the theoretical basis to raise the vocal scale (pitch) while maintaining a good voice quality. The class was very theoretical and putting the theory into practice without guidance could be a great challenge to us.

I find most of the tutors of the conference very friendly, approachable and enthusiastic. Yesterday afternoon, my wife and I were talking on the dining table to a tutor, Dr. Christine Chou Liu (周瑞芳博士), who taught the intermediate vocal class. We didn’t realize that she was tutor initially.

At some point in the conversation, I told her that it was difficult for me to sing now as my lung is restricted after the bone marrow transplant. She gave me an impromptu and private session on the breathing technique in the dining room immediately upon knowing that I have the problem:-)

I switched to her class (2^nd and 3^rd class) after that and also purchased her CD :-)

Day +1435 : Tears Naturale Free, the only one that my eyes accept

I am fine today.

I was not able to restock Tears Naturale Free – artificial tears that I couldn’t live without – during last follow-up in UH. The pharmacist told me that it was out of stock. Given that my next follow-up is four months away, I need about 30 boxes of Tears Naturale Free (4 months consumption) that cost RM32 each.

I was running out of the artificial this morning. I went to the pharmacy store in Puteri Mart to buy it but it was out of stock there too. In the end, I purchased a box of Refresh Plus manufactured by Allergan, hoping that it can be a replacement of Tears Naturale Free. Refresh Plus is also a preservative lubricant eye drops packaged in vials like Tears Naturale Free.

I was very soon to find out that Refresh Plus was not suitable as I felt pain in my eyes after applying it. In addition to this, my eyes also turned red with sticky mucus :-(

My wife and I had to skip the evening session of the musical conference so that we could be back to Puchong early enough to purchase Tears Naturale Free from another pharmacy store.

I believe Tears Naturale Free is the best artificial tears for my eyes. I wouldn’t try any other brand from now onwards. I don’t know what I should do with the remaining 24 vials of Refresh Plus. What a waste of money!

Just let me know if you need Refresh Plus. I will pass the remaining one to you free of charge :-)

Two types of artificial tears

See you next post :-)

Day +1434 : Free Concerts

I am fine today.

You are cordially invited to attend the following open concerts.

Venue: Holiday Villa Subang

Date: 8-11/6/2010

Time: 8:00pm - 9:30pm

Free Admission (Free will offering will be collected)

1. 8/6(Tue) - Appreciation & Thanksgiving Musical Night
2. 9/6/(Wed) - Saint Seen's Christmas Oratorio
3. 10/6/(Thur) - Intergeneration Worship

Further detail available in the poster below - click to have a larger view

See you next post :-)

Day +1433 : Attending the 20th WACCM 2010 Music Conference

I am fine today.

My wife and I registered for the 20th WACCM 2010 Music Conference (第20届圣乐大会) that is held at the Holiday Villa Subang starting from this afternoon to Friday.

Word Association for Chinese Church Music or WACCM (世界华人基督教圣乐促进会）organises this conference once every two years for the past forty years. This is an international conference with 500 delegates from 11 countries. Of course, the most delegates are from Malaysia.

We registered just before 5:00pm and waited there for the Welcoming Dinner and Opening Ceremony that started at 6:00pm. Our guest tonight includes Minister of Tourism, Dato' Sri Dr. Ng Yen Yen, who was speaking in the opening ceremony and at the same time also presented an allocation of RM30,000 to the organizing committee.

My wife and I attended the same conference about twenty years ago in Sibu, Sarawak. The fee of the conference at that time was very cheap. We had to pay an early bird rate of RM700 per head as an non staying delegate this time.

Many of the well known figures that were speaking in the conference twenty years ago still come to speak in this conference. Among them are the WACCM Honorary President, David Yeung (杨伯伦先生) and WACCM adviser, Dr. Yap (叶志明教授). David Yeung is a talented Chinese Christian song writer and composer who has produced quite a signification amount of high quality works. He is 80 years old now.

The food of the night was not really good but the presentation was fantastic. The choir presentation tonight was very nice. It has been a long time I haven't listened to such a good choir presentation. Apart from this, we had presentation from Cecilia Yap(叶洁芝) and Armando Ching Yong(陈容), and also cello solo from Robert Choi.

Again, I am so grateful to God that I am alive to attend such a nice conference. Glory be to God!

The theme of the conference : Sing Christ Story Through The Ages, Teach Church Music To All Ages (基督福音千秋颂、圣乐培训世代传)
A photo with my wife
A drum presentation practice
The dinner hall


The menu - click to have a larger view
Delegates waiting for the delicacies


Drum presentation
It came finally


This is not food. It is an impromptu choir presentation from Indonesian delegates half way through the dinner.
Let's continue the dinner




Another choir presentation - very strong
New friends - those who sat on the same table
See you next post :-)

Day +1432 : I witnessed an immigration enforcement

I am fine today.

We went to DG food court for dinner after the church management meeting last Tuesday. Half way through the dinner, immigration enforcement team raided the food court and rounded up all the foreign labours.

We saw a guy wearing white T-shirt and jean started to run suddenly in the food court and a group of 4 or 5 immigration enforcement officers swarmed over him, overpowered him and beat him with a chair even though there was not even a slight chance that he could stage an attack or escape.

The food court paralyzed after that as no one was left to sell drinks. The food court has to delay the operation hour to 3:00pm as of today, 5 days after the raid. We relied so much on the foreign labours and a lot of business can't go on without them. We went there for lunch today at about 2pm and discovered that very few stalls are opened for business because no one was selling drinks :-(

The episode of the night convinces us even more on the violation of human right of Malaysia's enforcement officers - beating and killing people unnecessarily. This is reflected in a few high profile cases. They dared to beat the suspect publicly with a chair even though he posed no danger to them at all, we can certainly imagine what would happen in private :-(

Rev. Lau, who worked in Australia for a few years before joining us said that this kind of beating would never happen in Australia. Another "Malaysia Boleh!", again, a shameful one :-(

See you next post :-)

Day +1431 : Shouting "I like you very much!"

I am fine today.

Adriel is still very expressive. I wrote about this on Day +1293 : “I like you so much!”.

She is the one among the children who says "I like you very much" the most. Daniel and Joseph never say this, and Aaron says it sometimes. Perhaps girls are more expressive than boys.

She didn't want to follow us to the cell group meeting tonight which was held at Richard's house.

"I don't want to go the cell group meeting but I still like you!" she told my wife.

When we were leaving for the cell group meeting, she shouted through the door, "Baba, I like you! I like you! Very much!"

"I like you very much!" I shouted back in the car.

Our neighbours might wonder what had happened :-)

See you next post :-)

Day +1430 : Lunch at Shogun, Sunway Pyramid

I am fine today.

I brought my sister and her family for a lunch at Shogun, Sunway Pyramid today. Her eldest son, Soon Hui, was not feeling very well, so he didn't join us.

A photo before the lunch. All of them visited Shogun for the fist time :-)
Some of the delicacies that we had

See you next post :-)

Day +1429 : Let God be in charge

I am fine today.

“We are in charge of sleeping at night. Principal in charge of kindergarten,” said Adriel on the way to kindergarten one morning.

What are you in charge of? Sleeping at night, your career, your relationship, your wealth or your life?

One of the important factors that dragged me through this Leukemia is to let God be in charge :-)

This gave me great strength to walk through the valley of death for when God is in charge, I can say “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.” Psalm 23:4.

My God bless you!

See you next post :-)

Day +1428 : I am 62kg now :-)

I am fine today.

I weight 62kg now. This was the weight before I was diagnosed with Leukaemia and even after the transplant.

But when the GVHD set in, coupled with regular cough and flu, my weight started to drop, to 53kg only at one point. Many people, including the doctor, were surprised to see how thin I was.
I didn’t gain much weight even though I eat a lot.

During the Chinese New Year this year, I stopped taking Penicillin for which I took everyday post bone marrow transplant since August 2006; almost 3 and half years. The purpose of taking Penicillin was to prevent the infection but it seemed that it didn’t work anymore as I got cough and flu very frequently. I caught flu and cough again during the Chinese New Year, and I went to see a traditional Chinese doctor. I stopped taking Penicillin while taking the Chinese traditional medicine but never resume taking it after that.

My weight maintained at 57kg for a very long time no matter how hard I ate. But I gained almost 3kg in one month after stop taking Penicillin. I posted this on Day +1360 : Gaining weight – a blessing :-)

I gained another 2kg, reaching 62kg, two months later :-)

I will continue to indulge myself with delicacies and only exercise control when my weight reaches 65kg :-)

See you next post :-)

Day +1427 : Pineapple tart recipe

I am fine today.

A reader of this blog is interested to know how the pineapple tarts were made. I post below the its recipe for your reference.

My wife told me that it is not that too difficult to make it. We purchased the filling from the bakery shop which simplified the process a lot :-)

Click the images below to get a larger view.

See you next post :-)