Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Brunei trip

Down the memory lane months ago...While waiting for 'the day', hubby got this great idea to drive to & fro Brunei (BSB) from Sabah. Hubby arrived in Sabah from Canada on January 23rd.

On 24th, after church service at Likas SDA church, we went to see my ObGyn at SMC Luyang. As she said 'ok' to do the BSB trip, we started our trip that afternoon from SMC.

It took us at least 8 hours to drive from KK to BSB. If you would like to know the route, stops and 16 immigration posts along the way, just google "Driving from Kota Kinabalu to Brunei". I bet there are many website will tell you about that topic.

We stayed 1 nite only at Brunei Hotel. Nothing much to see in BSB anyway ;)

Here are some of our photos:







We wanted to go to Labuan from BSB, but we found out that there was still no ferry service (with car carriage service) from BSB to Labuan. So, needless to say just drove home via the same route on 26th Jan ;)

x'mas 2008 in sabah, malaysia

my second x'mas 2008 celebration was with my family in Malaysia. We didn't do big party but just a small one - good enough for our family members only. We have BBQ chicken wings & hot dogs, steam rice and vegie. My sister Mimi brought in fried noodle and 'ayam masak merah'.



After lunch, we have 'gift presentation" among the family members. What i got - a baby coat net from my sister LOL...




Sometime in the afternoon, while watching my brother Tilu doing the BBQ (well, the bbq goes on til nite), this funny conversation happened:

Haku (6 years old & 1 of my nephews): auntie, ko gumuk o sekarang!
Me: apa??
Haku: aiya, ko gumuk sikit saja bah, mama saya gumuk banyak!!


(in this photo: me, Haku on the left and Kenet on the right)

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

x'mas 2008

[it has been months since my last post on this blog. I feel like i'm rusted now in writing, suck to feel like this]

What happened for my x'mas 2008 celebration? Oh ya - i celebrated it twice at different countries. I left Canada on 17th December, so on 16th December - it was a last minute decision by me to organize a simple "x'mas party" at home in Chilliwack.

On morning 16th, Holly came and helped me to do some preparation then around 2pm, we went to Abbotsford for my last midwife appointment. I collected my midwife letter for flying purpose then did some shopping. Around 4.30 pm, we started the cooking session at my home.

What kind of menu i have that nite...i'm trying hard to recall it now. All i can remember just simple dishes, maybe not really - i got sweet & sour fried tilapia, fried rice, noodle, broussel sprout (from my frozen garden)and some desserts.

The party started around 7pm and ended around 11pm. There were more than 20 people came to our home that nite. These are some of the photos:





Just wanna share here a miracle which happened on that nite. I invited my Russian friend, Svitlana & family. She never came to my new home before and that nite almost all our outside lights were burned out. We don't have our home address right on the roadside, so i was thinking it must be hard for people to find our home.

Around 7.30 pm. it was really dark outside (what can we expect on dark winter nite lol), and we started our party by singing some X'mas songs. Svitlana & family weren't there yet. All of sudden while we're singing, we heard someone knocking the door, opened it and said "Hello"...

I quickly get up, went to the entrance and there i saw Svitlana at the door - she said "Jackie, hard to find your house. I was driving and driving around here. Then we stopped for a while outside and my daughter said 'listen, that singing sound like Jackie's voice'. so i came here just to check whether it is your house and i'm happy it is indeed yours!!!"

And i was stunned and we knew it was a miracle!! Or did i sang too loud, louder than anybody else???

I was happy Svitlana and family came that nite. She shared with me that she was so happy i invited them. You know why?? Her mother-in-law was visiting from Russia that time, her husband was away on duty. She don't know where to go to show her mother-in-law about different culture during x'mas in Canada.

That nite in my home, we have different people from different culture - i got my Russian friends, Canadian family members, China friends and also Haitian! See, how God's plan made perfect for us! :D

Below is the photo of my friend Svitlana and her daugther, Lidya: