Category: the otnaicus daily

Okay, okay… I know the cobwebs abound on this blog so I’m here to give it a good spring cleaning. And I’m back with some nice pictures of places I visited just this past weekend.

The picture you see above is a nice little mountainside town known as 九分 (Jiu Fen). It has wonderful views of a harbour below (you can find panoramas of the view here) and a pretty long shopping street filled with knick-knacks and good food (see picture above). Made the trip up with a colleague and her friend, who’s visiting Taiwan.

The trip up was long. We took almost 3 hours just to get up there. Firstly, an hour’s train out of Taipei to Keelung followed by another 40 minutes by bus up the mountain. Of course, we took our time eating lunch at Keelung and hence the almost 3-hour journey. Aside from the view, the weather up there is fantastic. If you’ve been to Genting Highlands, you’ll know what I’m talking about.

And of course, the food was very good as well. Check out the stick of potato chips I have on the right. It’s not exactly chips. Rather, it’s a continuous spiral of potato. And you eat it by breaking off piece by piece. Interesting isn’t it?

So much for 九分. The next day, the three of us headed to æ·¡æ°´. It’s a township just outside of Taipei and it’s about an hour’s journey by the MRT. The main attraction there: 淡水老街 and the Fisherman’s Wharf. The former is a night market just next to the æ·¡æ°´ MRT station and the latter is a quick bus ride away.

Fisherman’s Wharf is a wharf situated at the mouth of æ·¡æ°´æ²³. According to what I’ve heard, the views of sunset from there are pretty fantastic. But alas, the day we went, it was overcast skies and light rain. And we took a boat out on a guided tour of the river. Wasn’t too bad, except for the very choppy water and rain. And not to mention a very strong wind too. The wind was strong enough to sway a bridge (see picture at right) by a very tiny bit.

It was good to go out and take in some sights around Taipei. All work and no play makes Jack, or in this case, Suci, a dull boy. Let’s see when I’ll have to motivation to go out on another round of sightseeing.

An update on life. Second week in Taipei. Time is flying by rather quickly and have been busy for most days. I’ve also managed to accumulate enough miles to do a free upgrade to business class for my trip back to Singapore on 2 November. Just too bad that I ain’t flying Singapore Airlines. The last time I flew Business Class on SIA was ages ago.

Quite glad that Debbie made the switch from the Sunday team to the Saturday team. I’m going to sound a bit selfish here to my CHCTV mates from the Sunday team but I’m really glad that we can serve in the same team again. And that means I can spend a bit more time with her on Sunday when I’m back in town. To all the Sunday team crew: I’m sorry but I just have to be selfish this time round… Hahaha….. :p

Pray that the rest of my time here will swing by quickly. I’m off to relax and stretch out on my bed while watching a bit of TV. Until the next time, cheers… :Þ

Here comes the end of another week. Time well spent with friends and Debbie. Time well spent with God at church and cell group. Time well spent fellowshipping with the CHCTV Saturday Crew. But time that has never failed to fly pass in such a hurry. And it’s almost time for me to head back once again to the foreign land of Taipei.

Found out this week that the launch date of the project that I’m working on has been pushed back to 31 January. That means an extra month in Taipei. And a lot of features that are supposed to be included in this project has been taken out and shifted to phase 2 of the project. And the phase 2 is what is getting me worried.

Worried? Yes. Not because the task at hand is superbly difficult. But rather the prospect of spending another 6 months away long term is difficult to come to terms with. And although Debbie has been patient and God has been good in granting us grace to keep this relationship strong, it is beginning to feel like a long distance relationship. And that is the part that I’m most worried about. I guess there comes a point in time where I need to be ready to talk to my boss about this.

Okay, enough about that for the moment. I’m flying back into a typhoon this Sunday. And apparently it’s a strong and big one. Hopefully the worst of it will be over by the time the flight makes landfall over Taiwan. I’m not exactly excited about arriving at home with a luggage and having to lug it into my apartment with heavy rain all around.

Finally got my work laptop fixed. Sent it in for servicing and they replaced the lid of the laptop for me. The plastic around the hinge of the screen began to crack when I was in Taipei. Couple that with a frequently crashing computer while it starts up. But because of that I had to transfer all my data into a new, albeit temporary, laptop while my own was in the service centre. Wasn’t that bad when I thought the service would take quite long and I would get to keep this new laptop for at least a month. But I managed to get my laptop back within a day and now I have to transfer everything back again. Sigh… Time waster… But bo pian lah..

That’s about the updates I have for now. I shall blog from Taipei when I get there. Until then, cheers… :Þ

Had a fantastic time at cell group this week. Pastor really shared a word in season. The sermon was about servanthood and he branched off and started talking to us leaders about servanthood. This is something that has been in my heart and I’ve questioned silently about how things are done. Often times, leaders see themselves as just that: leaders. And to a lot of people, being a leader means having authority, if not absolute authority, over the people that come under them. And often times, leaders fail to remember Jesus’ teachings in the Bible. That to be at the top, we must be willing to come down to the lowest. Leaders can be so engrossed in exercising their authority that they begin to lose sight of what their actual purpose is, which is to serve those that come under his care.

To serve? Doesn’t that go against common sense? Shouldn’t a leader be served? Well, think of it in this way: if the Prime Minister of a country lived to be served, then wouldn’t the country go to pieces? The prime minister, or president, is there to serve the best interest of the people. A CEO is there to serve the best interest of his company and the consumers.

Similarly, a leader in church is there to serve those under his/her care; to be there to meet the needs of those under him, to make sure that the person under his/her care has room to grow spiritually. And leaders wonder why their flock begin to dwindle. They start pointing fingers at other reasons but when more often than not, it’s the leader himself that needs an attitude check. What has the leader done to get into the lives of his members? What right does the leader have to intrude and command if the leader has never won the respect of his members? What has the leader done to help and influence the growth of the members?
What Pastor Aries shared really touched my cell group members and myself. As leaders, we really have to keep our attitude in check. As leaders, we must always be ready to humble ourselves and serve those around us. A cell group member pointed out: “Am I ready to be like Jesus? To wash the feet of those that are under me?” That is what it means to serve. No matter what the circumstance, whether the member is a contributor to the group or a slower person who needs more time, care and concern.

I really believe that one of the marks of a true leader is the leader’s attitude of servanthood. It’s true that nobody is perfect, but we have the grace of God. Even I still have a lot to learn about being a leader. Leaders want to be the best at what they do and by God’s grace, we will become strong and mighty leaders, ready to influence the people within our circle of influence.

Time to brush the cobwebs off the face of this blog. It’s been such a long time since I last posted an entry that my browser’s auto-complete entry for my blog’s administration page has been removed automatically. I even missed my customary entry from Taoyuan International Airport just before I boarded the plane. Anyhow, for those of you who still don’t know where I am, please go read the title of this post.

Got back last Friday, 28 September. And since my parents were in town for the night, we went on a frenzied shopping trip to Sim Lim Square, Takashimaya, Apple Store at Wheelock and Tampines Mall. All that on top of a lack of sleep because of the early rise in the morning to catch a plane. And had an not-too-embarrassing experience at the Apple Store. More about that later. Had a pretty fruitful day actually, although I reached home feeling quite tired. And had to wake up early next morning again to accompany my parents to the airport. Yeah, so by early Saturday morning, a super duper lack of sleep.

About that not-too-embarrassing experience at Apple Store. Well, my dad wanted to purchase the iPod Classic for my sister. So we went there and found out that UOB card members had 10% discount. And since these kinds of promotions also applied to debit cardholders from the same bank, we got Debbie to come down as she had a UOB debit card. Lo and behold, the promotion was strictly for CREDIT cardholders only. And I had actually started filling out a form for purchasing the iPod and then I had to tell the salesperson sorry but don’t want already. All because of the 10% discount. But then a 10% discount of $428 is quite a lot lah… Oh well….

Enough about that experience. On to a happier one. I purchased my first-ever piece of clothing from Timberland. A nice little jacket to tide me over the colder months in Taipei and it’s courtesy of the company. Has an inner-lining that can be separated from the outer shell and each of it can be worn individually. So all in all, a very nice jacket and I very proud of it. Haha…

Headed back to Taipei again this Sunday. Sigh… I really don’t want to go but then again, at this point in time, I don’t really have a choice. Shall not and don’t want to dwell on it.

Off to work… Until the next time, cheers… :Þ

The long weekend has started here in Taiwan. Next Tuesday, 25 September 2007, is the Mid-Autumn Festival. Here in Taiwan, it’s a public holiday. And just because it’s a Tuesday, the government declares the Monday a holiday, thus making it an ultra long weekend. But then again, that doesn’t mean much to me as I, along with my colleagues, follow the Singapore calendar. So we will continue to work from home. Sigh…

I’m off to Kaohsiung tomorrow. A new city to explore. Hopefully the weather will hold and we’ll get to explore some nice places over there. Taipei is becoming a bit stale for me so a visit to another city is a good change, even though it’s only for two days and a night.

It’s been a pretty good week. Scored a little personal victory by making a program that actually works after all the sweat and blood that I’ve poured into it. Now to test the actual product and hope it works as I hope it would.  I guess the lethargy that I’ve been having the whole of last week has been dispelled. And I pray that it doesn’t come back as I go into my final week here in Taipei.

Looking forward to the trip home. Miss church, miss the ministry, miss my cell group and most of all, I miss Debbie. Seems like I say the same thing every time but every time I say it, it’s from the bottom of my heart. I guess my heart is still very much where my home is. And home, at the moment, is Singapore. Definitely going to make use of the time back there properly and cherish every moment of it.

Don’t expect pictures from Kaohsiung too soon though as I only have film camera with me. Yes, it’s not a typo. I only have a FILM camera with me. So I’ll post them when I can, or rather if I can. You see, the camera belongs to my parents and not me. It’s possible that I won’t get to see the pictures until I next return to Penang.

I’ll sign off here first. Got some testing (a.k.a. work) before I head to bed. Until the next time, cheers… :Þ

It’s been a week since I updated. This entry is going to sound a bit random. Been having a pretty unproductive week for most of the week at work. Trying hard to code and get stuff done but I end up just not doing anything much. Frustrating indeed. Only today that I picked up the pace a bit and the weekend rolls around. Haha…

Well, parents are coming in tomorrow to spend the remainder of my stay here in Taipei. So I should be busy “entertaining” them and going out with them the whole two weeks. Next weekend, we’re headed down to Kaoshiung for a night. Going to travel down by the local bullet train. And because of the perfect timing of our planning, we planned to go down there on a long weekend. And because of the long weekend, people flock back to their hometowns. And because of that, I had to go to the train station at 6am to queue for tickets. Thank God I got the tickets after about an hour of queuing.

Last Sunday was the Taiwan School of Theology graduation. They graduated the charter class and there were 298 graduates. A few people from CHC were around to help in the running of the graduation ceremony. Rev. Ulf Ekman was also around to preach in service on Saturday night and to deliver the commencement address on the graduation evening.

Boy, did I feel stressed during those two evenings. Felt like a big day back in Singapore. Set up was longer than usual on Saturday because of the extra overflow areas that we had to cater for. And I did camera for the first time in New Life Church. Handheld camera some more. Felt stressed as I haven’t done handheld in a very long time. But it was a good service. And the New Life TV Ministry now has wired intercoms. Praise the Lord for that. And on Sunday, took almost 600 photographs during the graduation ceremony. Basically just standing there and clicking away. Arms and feet and eyelid cramped after the entire thing.

Glad the weekend is here. Going to try to catch up on some sleep. Whole week have been feeling very lethargic so I hope these two days can be used to catch up on some sleep. I’m going to sign off here first. Will blog soon. Until the next time, cheers… Þ