Bye Bye 2009!

2009 is a year that everyone talks about economy up and down everyday. It is an unusual year, world economy hits its 11 years low in March.  Bush is gone, Obama is up.  US is down, China is up.  West is down, East is up.  Jo's tiring working life is down, new spirit is up.

2009 to me is a transition year, the year I finally make an important and courageful decision to make a change to my life.  Now I look back, it should be a right decision. At least I am happy now.

Many said it's a difficult year.  To me, it only marks an ending to my 12 years working life, and the beginning of a new journey.  I didn't suffer much financially due to the downturn.  It's more like a relief instead, that the oil price and inflation finally stop shooting up as crazy as before.  Good's prices are now more 'decent' and people are now more cautious about spending.  It is good in many ways, reset and start from zero, let the nature calls all to order.  Thanks to the greatness of the law of universe.

When there are downturns, there are opportunities.  We should prepare ourselves well to grab the opportunities that come around.  Otherwise, we will always be just living an average life, lacking of surprises.

2009 learnings:

1. It's important to make sure we live a happy life.  Don't just live the days, working hard without thinking much.
2. Sometimes it is good to give up something and start brand new, then we will know what we really want and need.
3. Life is full of possibilities.
4. It's not that difficult to survive, do our best and leave the rest to God.  God will provide.
5. Listen to our heart sometimes, don't just follow our mind.

I am not sure how many more of these years will I experience in my lifetime.  Overall, 2009 is an interesting milestone year to me.  I say goodbye to it with a humble, happy heart.

For 2010, I wish there are more new starts to me in a good way,  doing what I enjoy and doing them well.  May God bless me and guide me everyday!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL !!

Hmm... God is taking care of me...

I have been chasing for refund from Income Tax monthssss ago, they owe me almost RM2k.  On the other hand, early this year I switched my phone package, in which the old package needs to refund $$ for my registration last time.  I have been calling Celcom in Apr, Jul, Sep to follow up on this but nothing happened.

Just when I almost forgot about it, suddenly I received both refunds from Income Tax and Celcom.  I was thinking 'cool'...eventually I got my $$ back, especially now that I have stopped receiving my monthly pay check. 

However good things don't just stop there.  I also received a letter from Genting offering two nights free hotel stay plus some rebates on air tickets by Genting points earned.  Then again, I was thinking to myself... 'cool'.

This month, I received my electricity bill, guess what.... it shows a surplus of RM2k+ to my account instead of the usual auto monthly deduction.  The unit calculation shows 28956 KWH on previous total accumulated usage and 22126 KWH on current total accumulated usage, which means there is a -6830 KWH that SESCO owes me.  Hey now, how did that happen?? 

I feel strange.  This means instead of paying my electricity bill, I earn RM2k+ this month from SESCO.  I was talking to Pig Pig that instead of splitting the bill payment between Pig and I as we do every month, this month we should actually be splitting the 'PROFIT EARNING'... hahahaha... that was such a joke-of-the-day that made both of us laughed till our tears came out.

I was telling Pig Pig that may be God thinks I have been behaving well, so HE is taking good care of me, especially now that I am on my own. 

Let's see, what surprises are coming next then... may be my credit card bill will give me a surprise free cash to spend for the next few months??... or my life/car insurance companies will offer me few years free coverage??... or ASTRO offerring me free cable tv to watch??.... hahahaha... DREAM ON!!  GET REAL, JO!!!

Kuching-1-day-trip

Today I woke up at 7 a.m. and went out for a whole day.  Basically I went to 'n' number of places and did 'n' number of things.  My main goals are to do the survey for two club projects this month - Walk-a-Payung (to be held on this Sunday) and Touch-a-Life (to be held on next Sunday), as well as to bring club members' vests for embroidery.

These were the places that I went today:

1. Went to Airport to pick up a friend.

2. Went grocery shopping at Stutong market, and surveyed the price of banana for Walk-a-Payung project.

3. Went home to unload grocery.

4. Went for blood test at Gribbles at Jalan Keretapi.

5. Went to a sport shop at 3rd miles to enquire about embroidery cost for club vest.

6. Had brunch at Shanghai restaurant at Jalan Keretapi.

7. Went to Saberkas.

8. Went to Public Mutual.

9. Went to Hopoh to enquire about embroidery (they also don't want to do it).

10. Went to Hospital.

11. Again went to another embroidery shop next to Borneo Hotel (finally this one is willing to do it).

12. Checked out packaging shop at Carpenter Street, try to find a suitable bag for the Walk-a-Payung project.

13. Checked out packaging shop at Petanak.

14. Went to 4th miles Mdm. Chong’s house to collect Walk-a-Payung T-shirts for club members.

15. Went to Super Save at 4th miles to check out bag options.

16. Went to MJC to check out the prices for 13-14 food items for Touch-a-Life project.

17. Went for dinner with Jenny & Emily at Little Hong Kong restaurant @ 4th miles.

18. Back home.

Basically, this is what happen when you are not working... you will be assigned with 'n' number of tasks by the club, and to do grocery shopping/house cleaning/cooking... x 'n' tasks, by your housemate... slavery sigh...

So in short, today I travelled around the whole Kuching like this...

Btw, can club pay for my petrol bill??

SpongeBob SquarePants

Remember I made a 'Thomas the Train' for cake deco one month ago?  Here goes my second trial on a new character... SpongeBob SquarePants.

Cute?  This thing is not easy to make, it took me 3-4 hours to complete, but there are heaps of satisfaction to see the end result.

Jo's cooking (2)

Jou commented that my cooking's pix were not clear enough, so I took another series of my cooking yesterday.

Dinner Menu:
1. Chicken Curry
2. Asparagus
3. Creamy Corn Soup

I think the pix were still not so well taken, need to use higher ISO setting and try different angles.  Wait lah, I will continue to improve my photography as well as my cooking skill.