Merdeka!

This year, I celebrated Merdeka with my family. We went to Johor Bahru, where my brother is currently studying. It has been 3 years since I last stepped foot in JB. This place used to be where I studied too. Now, my lil bro is taking over my place. I visited JB in 2006, two years after I graduated, to meet up with some friends. Such a memorable place, where I spent 4 years of my life!

As usual, just like any family trip, we spent our time shopping, sightseeing and most of all….eating! And of all the days, my dad kena gout! I guess it’s because of all the eating sessions we had! Thank God, he’s back on his feet after taking ubat.

On Saturday afternoon, we went for a youth service held by the City Harvest Church. This is where my bro, Vin worships and he is involved with the music ministry, playing the bass. I was a bit anxious on how my parents would respond to the style of worship as they are very much used to the traditional way of worshiping…hymns and all. So, it’s something that I would like to see…heehee. And to my surprise, they were clapping away & trying their best to catch up with the songs…hehe...lagu rancak bah. The sermon, was preached by Pastor Chee Kiang from Singapore. He’s very fashionable…he wears this leather jacket, jeans and has spiky hair. But underneath all that rocker outlook that he portrays, his voice is gentle and has that affectionate tone. J During Holy Communion, we were given unleavened bread. Very interesting indeed...my first time eating unleavened bread! They’re somewhat like those Jacob’s crackers, you know!

And in commemoration of the coming Merdeka Day….we sang the Merdeka song while waving our lil’ Malaysian flags. Patriotism’s in the air.

After the service, we got to know some of Vin’s friends. One of them, Berlina, turned out to be related to us, which we found out after a bit of “bertusut” session that we had! She is from the Kadazan side of our family. Small world indeed!

On Sunday, Vin & I went to Singapore. My main mission to Singapore was to go to this craft shop, Made with Love & oh… also to meet up with my friend, Prakash. Hehe. Well, I came across the blog of this craft store and was mesmerized by the pictures of the store. They have so much crafts stuffs sold there and it was mentioned in their blog, that it’s the biggest craft store in South East Asia! So I imagined that it would be verrry big. Waaaah…! But………when we reached the store….it was not as big as I imagined that it would. Oh well… But I did have fun browsing through the craft stuffs & got some stuff for myself & Sue. I couldn’t help but multiply 2.4 to all the prices of the things. Vin & Prakash became my calculator…haha! Poor boys....they had to wait quite sometime for me to be done in that store. Hahah…!

After JB & Singapore, I spent a night at Kuching…Home sweet home! And after that it’s back to Miri & work work work…bluaargh.. :p However, am just glad that I had the time to “Merdeka”, literally (haha) from my daily routine…just unwind & spend time with my family. A very good breather for me, indeed!