Countdown 2008

It's gonna to be party time and hot, hot countdown tonight. And, if you have not yet geared up to it, I suggest you perk up and join in the boogie and cheers!

As a kick-off, you may rejoice with your family at Premier Hotel with our New Year's Eve Family Buffet Dinner where a magnificent potpurri of popular flavours is served.

For the late party goers and the early 2008 birds, tempt yourself to our Festive Season's Oriental Set Porridge.

Certainly you are not quite over with it yet - our New Year's Eve Party Time Big Big Bang Countdown at Bamboo House is going to be an extravaganza, promising to take you through the night with fun and explosive celebrations.

Don't miss it if you are looking for something really hot and fabulous!

If exhaustion has not set in and you have got that extra energy to burst, just move over to Sibu Town Square where Countdown 2008 is going to keep you lively and fun-filled, making you absolutely amused as you cheer with the crowds.

As the fireworks glitter the beautiful sky of Sibu and the crowds count down to 2008, we are all there to usher in a new year - a year of hope amidst challenge.

Let's all embrace 2008 with local passions and global vision.

It was tea-party time at Meng Lei's office this afternoon - we counted down as we sipped the aromatic tea.

It's all ready at Sibu Town Square for Countdown 2008- you are going to usher in the new year with cheers!

MAF of Sibu East District - Hand-over of Duties

This afternoon , MAF of Sibu East District held its final meeting for the out-going committee and the maiden meeting for the in-coming committee at The Masland Methodist Church. During the meeting, duties were handed over to the new guards in the gracious name of our God.

During the three-year tenure of chairmanship, I was blessed with the heartfelt guidance of DS Rev. Kong and Rev. Wong Tuong Toh. The committee members who walked hand- in- hand with me had been most unfailing in shouldering all aspects of duties, making the running smooth and steady. I truly owe a word of gratitude to them. Not forgetting, of course, is to praise God for taking us through these years.

In the name of our God, I hope the new line-up would take MAF of Sibu East District to a greater height in 2008.

The above is a snapshot of the out-going committee with DS Rev. Kong - together we served Lord!

The new line-up for 2008 with DS Rev. Kong and Rev. Lau Hui Tat - they are standing close to each other to face a challenging year ahead.

Sarawak Chess Open Championship In Sibu

Presently ongoing in Sibu at Premier Hotel and scheduled to be from Dec. 29 to Jan. 1, Sarawak Chess Open Championship is here for the second time.

The championship draws in more than 80 participants from Singapore, Brunei and Malaysia. When compared to the maiden challenge held in Sibu 6 years ago at Civic Centre, the present one is definitely a better show..

George Ha, the Sibu co-ordinator, is happy with the turnout and arrangement. "With this encouraging response, we hope to come back in 3-4 years' time,' he beamed when he shared with me.

Sometimes called Western Chess or International Chess to distinguish it from predecessors amd other chess variants, chess is one of the world's most popular games nowadays.

Besides promoting the noble value of chess as a game, the Open Championship also has spin-off effect on tourism for Sibu.

The horizontal banner in front of Premier Hotel - the championship has spin-off effect on tourism.

The competition in progress - the championship draws in more than 80 participants.
It requires great concentration to play well!

Delta Mall's Soft Opening

Delta Mall adds shopping experience to Sibu. It projects itself to be brand and frachisee-oriented, making it unique in Sibu. As such, it has potential to make a mark here, providing shoppers with a difference.

On Dec. 29 at 9:30am, the mall was soft-opened to the public, apparently in time for a run-up to the countdown to 2008. Young and energetic, Hii Yik Ping, MD of Delta Bhd, cut ribbon to officially declare the mall open.

Delta Mall is medium-sized with 5 lettable floors, all fully serviced by escalators. The high ceiling and spacious foyer make it posh and comfortable, adding to shopping pleasure!

Most of the shops are soon to be opened. As such, the occupancy is still very much at the take-off stage.

The soft opening was simple but rousing. I was there to oversee the tea reception which was catered for by Premier Hotel ( www.premierh.com.my ).

The opening ceremony ushered in a classy choice for dear Sibuians. As the crowds streamed in the mall together with the twin lions, I witnessed a new shopping paradise in the making.



The tea reception was catered for by Premier Hotel.
It's finger-licking good! Yes, KFC is soon to be here.
The crowds witnessed a new shopping paradise in the making.

Pertama Residency Designer Suites

This road show is on in Premier Hotel from 28 to 30 Dec. to take you for an exposure to property investment in KL.

Ideal investment and attractive return are words catchy enough for you to pop in for a visit.

Located at Jalan Cheras area, Pertama Residency offers studio suites which are trendy in KL where expatriates are aplenty. Other than for owner-occupying, this category of residency is also ideal as an investment tool.

If you have spare cash, you may consider to jump on the bandwagon and take a ride in the on-going property party in KL

All the best to yoy!

PMR Results Day

Today is PMR results day.

Even before Christmas, an atmosphere of anxiety already started hovering over Allen's head. "Dad, I am not quite in the mood for it," he told me on a few occasions.

This morning, before I set off to office, Yian told me that she would stay calm. "It is all in God's hand," she said.

At 9:30am, I called back to check with Allen about the release. "Dad, the results will be available after 10:30am," Allen sounded anxious.

Thereafter, I just kept my fingers crossed and cast the matter aside.

When I arrived home for lunch, Yian came up to me with the results. Allen's scores fell within my expectations.

Allen still looked a bit downcast, but expressed a sigh of relief after we gave him our assurance.

We are thankful to God for His graceful guidance!

It's All Fun Over Crap!

That day Yian went shopping with my mom at Sing Kwong Supermarket and, unknowingly, they picked up this T-shirt with a cheeky drawing. They were drawn completely by the size and pattern - the saucy part of it just slipped off their attention.

The T-shirt was intended for my mom as casual wear.

After lunch, Yian showed it to Allen. Sharp as he was, Allen exclaimed with raised eye-brows," Look, mom, the picture shows a child crapping !"

That instantly blasted off a big round of laughter. My mom also giggled away, saying she wouldn't put it on for fear of being in the lime light.

It was such a fun in our family over a " shit matter "!

Life is meant to be interesting - don't make it too stressful!

Christmas Happenings In Sibu - Part 4 (Final)

Today is Christmas Day.

It's an occasion of great joy that we are able to celebrate the birth of our Lord Christ Jesus at liberty in this part of the world.

This morning , I went with my family to The Masland Methodist Church for Christmas service at 9:30am.

In her sermon, Pastor Yong shared with the congregation, "Jesus Christ did not come to this world by chance - His birth is prophesied in Genesis 3:15."

The religious freedom in Malaysia reminds me of countries where preaching of God's message is still very much restricted. Let's all dedicate our Christmas prayer to these parts of the world!

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At Premier Hotel, we have a line-up of events waiting for you to celebrate your festive joy!

Christmas Day Carvery Lunch srerves an extensive buffet spread of season's specialties laden with succulent roast joint of meats and all your traditional favourites. Again, Santa Claus and Santarina are on hand to entertain and give free gifts to all children. So, do bring along your camera.

Christmas Day International Buffet Dinner presents a stunning spread of Christmas favourites and international flavours with roast carvery and delicious assortment of salads, hors d' oeuvres and desserts. Our Carolling Team shall sing out the joy of the season. To stir up the mood, Santa Claus shall be making his grand entrance with his Santarina to hand out gifts to all children.

Come to Bamboo House Lounge where the festive celebration continues. Croon, dance and swing the night away to the rhythm of the Frozen Fire Band pulsating pop and cha cha hits. Fun - filled programmes and great prizes are also included in this evening's agenda, and the first twenty ladies shall receive free gifts!

Be there! It is open for business from 6:00pm to 1:00am.

Christmas Happenings In Sibu - Part 3

It's going to be a party time on Christmas Eve! Let Premier Hotel (www.premierh.com.my ) take you through the fantastic time with lots of fun!

To kick off the sparkling and splendid night, head straight for our Festive Season's Oriental Set Porridge which hosts a sumptuous serving of popular local hot dishes and condiments. The set porridge , ideal for the late diners and the night owls who need a quick burst of energy to party on, is to be served from 10:30pm to 1:30am.

Then, in Bamboo House, our voluptuous Frozen Fire Band is going to blast off the beat at 9:30pm till wee hours. Clap your hands, tap your feet and go bopping and ho! ho! ho! with our Santa Claus and Santarina as it's going to be a magical celebration with great programmes and prizes.

It's "Jingle Bell Bop" time not to be missed!

The picture shows our Carolling Team singing out the festive joy to the guests.

Six-Course Western Set Dinner in a cosy ambience.
It's going to be a party time in Bamboo House - join in and bop away!

Flooding Problem In Sibu

Our Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi hit the nail on the head when he narrowed down the causes of the recent worsened flooding to unthoughtful planning, silted-up river beds and defective infrastructural systems.

Datuk Seri Abdullah truly voiced the deep-down feelings of Sibuians!

The recent worse-than-expected hit by an all-time-high flooding sparked off a round of explosive outburst of emotions, not to my surprise at all.

But our PM's outright pin-point to the root of the havoc contrasted starkly with certain minority whose mentality is still awkwardly ostrich-like.

Sibuians, let's all shout hurrah to Datuk Seri Abdullah!

Dong Zhi And Tangyuan - Part 3 (Final)

The luscious New York Cheese Cake - Happy Birthday, mom!
Before cutting the cake - let's have a shot first.
The succulent Hot Dish - we cast aside the health count for the time being.
Thereafter, we adjourned to a Christmas shopping spree!

Today (Dec. 22) is Dong Zhi and it calls for celebration according to Chinese culture. Traditionally, the festival is never complete without a family dinner.

My sisters decided days ago to fly back from Kuching this afternoon to celebrate mom's birthday in advance. Coincidentally it is on Dong Zhi, so it has become a perfect two-in-one occasion for our family this evening.

Dong Zhi seems to trend towards having family dining out for celebration. The traditional home-cooking dwindles with time and change of lifestyle.

Most of the restaurants in Sibu will do a bustling business tonight. I made reservation with Blue Splendour Restaurant at Wisma Sanyan, only to be told that the price has gone up in tandem with spiralling inflation, reasonably by 7%.

The dinner gathering was a wonderful occasion for us. What we treasured most was the reunion of our family in this cordial manner - the sentimentally- tied siblings with dear mom chatting joyfully over succulent foods.

Christmas Happenings In Sibu - Part 2

You are precisely right - it is now sparkling at Koridor Chuan on the run-up to Christmas Day. From Dec. 20-23, if you happen to be moving around with high festive mood, you might just as well pop over to join in the sensationalized programmes lining up for Sibuians.

Themed "Joy To The World Christmas Celebrations", the grand event combines stage shows, exhibitions and live shows to make it a great time for all.

Highlighting the colourful celebrations is the exhibition jointly organised by SIB, RC and Methodist Church on "The Life and Story of Jesus Christ", with the objective to take you for a tour of in-depth understanding of our Lord - from birth, teachings , crucifixion to resurrection.

As a gesture of love for the deserving groups, charity sales booths are here to raise funds to do what they possibly can.

And, don't miss it - the fairytale fancy dressing is on every night to take you back to your childhood.

Plus ice carving and non-stop stage shows - all are set to make your Christmas a memorable one.

The picture shows a mock castle.

The picture shows the exhibition booths.
" The Life and Story of Jesus Christ" exhibition.
The picture shows children listening to the story of Jesus Christ.
Christmas Tree Decoration Competition at Sibu Town Square - the idea is to spur on creativity.

Dong Zhi and Tangyuan - Part 2

Dong Zhi is one of the seven major Chinese festivals, the other six being Lunar New Year, Lantern or Yuanxiao Festival, Qingming Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Double Seventh Festival, Mid-Autumn or Mooncake Festival and Double-Ninth Festival.

The significance of Dong Zhi lies in the ancient belief that the yang, or muscular, positive things will become stronger and stronger after this day. As such, it should be celebrated.

Ever since my childhood, we have never let this festival slip by without tangyuan. This afternoon, Yian put her hands to come out with another version of tangyuan - chocolate-flavoured lotus paste stuffing with ground coconut covering. Wow! It sounds just so very tempting.

The fresh pandan juice-mixed glutinous rice flour is portioned out and flattened into wrappings. The wrappings are then stuffed and rubbed into ball-shaped tangyuan. After deep boiling, they are scooped up. Lastly, the tangyuan are covered with sugared ground coconut for perfect serving.

Yummy!

The picture shows the ingredients in use: Glutinous rice flour, fresh pandan juice, ground coconut, sugar, salt and chocolate-flavoured lotus paste.


The portioned-out fresh pandan juice-mixed glutinous rice flour is being flattened into wrapping and stuffed with the chocolate-flavoured lotus paste.
Rubbing with palms - it calls for certain skill!
Boiling and scooping - there is a lot of fun in it!
Finally, they are ready for serving!

Christmas Happenings In Sibu - Part 1

You may have already started planning out your dine-out and party-time programmes for the upcoming Christmas, but just not knowing yet exactly which ones in particular to settle on. In other words, your mind is still very bogged down!

But don't get boggled just yet. Let me excite you with our Christmas happenings which promise to take you through the season with fun and joy in an elegant ambience.

It's all going to be at Premier Hotel. To start off, you are going to pamper yourself together with your loved ones with our most talked -about Traditional Christmas Eve Buffet Dinner. Serving from 6:30 to 9:30 pm, the buffet dinner is going to be laden with all your favourite prime cuts, trimming and entrees and a bountiful of salads, hors d' oeuvres and irresistible desserts.

And our Carolling Team shall keep your festive mood glowing with their Christmas carols. Don't forget your camera as Santa Claus shall be making his appearance with his Santarina giving free gifts to all children.

Alternatively, you may opt for our Six-Course Western Set Dinner - a delectable western set dinner specially prepared to stir your festive mood in a cozy and elegant ambience. Starting from 6:30 till 9:30 pm, the dinner is going to be a fabulous dining experience for you.

Be pampered at Premier Hotel with our festive dine-out temptations. You would love to be with us!

See you at Premier Hotel!

Winter Solstice Festival (Dong Zhi ) and Tangyuan - Part 1

Winter Solstice Festival ( Dong Zhi ) is a major Chinese festival. It falls on Dec. 22 of Gregorian calendar, marking the start of the first of the 24 seasonal division points.

During my childhood, my grandparents used to tell us: Dong Zhi falls on three days before Christmas Day. That teaching has since been engraved in my memory.

Dong Zhi goes with eating tangyuan , according to the tradition. Tangyuan are ball-shaped dumplings made of glutinous flour served in a variety of ways to suit different tastes. There are now creative recipes available to make tangyuan a lot more interesting.

That day I had a sudden craving for tangyuan, probably knowing that Dong Zhi is just not too far away. Yian, with little hesitation, set her hands to the task and came out with the delicacy for the family.

This recipe has been handed down from the past and is rather simple. The dumplings , after being boiled to perfection , are covered with soya bean flour, crushed-up peanut and sugar. They are best taken steamy hot when the aroma is so very enticing.

The picture shows the mouth-watering tangyuan.

Land Issues - Part 3 (Final)

YTL Corporation Bhd. is confident in securing a contract to construct a network of high-speed railway for bullet trains.

The proposed bullet train network shall link KL with Singapore, making travel between the two cities a lot easier and speedier.

But, you may ask, what on earth has the proposed bullet train project got to do with land, or more specifically, land value?

According to Tan Sri Dato' Seri (Dr.) Francis Yeoh, MD of YTL, the proposed link of the two cities by bullet train services would work towards narrowing the vast price differentials in real estate properties between the two metropolises.

With the differentials presently standing at 700%, the proposed bullet train network link would very likely enhance the growth in real estate value in KL.

That implies that, if the proposed project takes off, the real estate outlook in KL would be bright.

Francis Yeoh cited the real world example of the bullet train link between London and Paris in which a 21% differential in property value was evened out in just 4 years after the introduction of the high-speed network service.

As such, the proposed bullet train project should be exciting to real estate investors in KL.

Ecumenical Christmas Carolling - Silent Night, Holy Night!

Close to 4000 church members in joyous mood, together with more than 10 floats all decorated with themes and several uniformed bands playing melodious Christmas hymns carolled around Sibu town last night from 7:00 to 8:30 pm.

(The picture shows the congregation at Sibu Town Square before setting out.)

As the procession marched along the main streets, the air was filled with festive mood, and the good news of the birth of Lord Christ Jesus was proclaimed loud and clear to the onlooking crowds.

(The picture shows a float with "Jesus loves you" as the theme.)

Both sides of the streets that we walked through were lined up with onlookers, all anxious to partake in the celebration of Christmas joy!

(The picture shows another float with a live band performance.)

With the flooding tension being eased off, all the carollers sang out loud to God from their thanksgiving hearts, making the night so very wonderful for everybody.

(The picture shows a float presented by Zion Methodist Church.)
(Hi! Merry Christmas to all of you! Have a good night!)
(Themed "City Of love" by SIB of Sibu.)
(The picture shows the carollers sharing with the onlookers.)
(Yian and Pauline in front of a decorated Christmas tree after the carolling.)

Ecumenical Christmas Carolling In Flood-Affected Sibu On Dec.15

Floods seem to be striking back!
The Masland Methodist Church presents a boat-shaped float to take part in the Ecumenical Christmas Carolling.
A creative Christmas tree presented by Mafrica Corporation Sdn. Bhd. at Sibu Town Square.
A grand Christmas tree decorated by SMC at the grandstand of Sibu Town Square.

This year's Ecumenical Christmas Carolling, an annual grand procession organised by ACS (Association of Churches, Sibu Branch), is to go ahead tonight as scheduled despite a likely come-back of the just subsided floods in Sibu.

If the flooding swings back, then the carolling procession inevitably has to wade through water, making it a fascinating experience for the carollers.

The procession is expected to comprise 5000 church members, all with one heart to sing out joy to the world that the Lord has come!

I partook in the past few years of the Christmas carolling. This time, I am going to pull Yian and Pauline along to join in the procession to let them sing to the Sibuians also.

As we set to carol around the town, we are going to fill the air with festive mood and proclaim good news to the onlooker crowds.