YOU ARE INVITED!!!

You are invited to the 14th Malaysia Jewelry Festival 2008, 21-24 November 2008!

CarmenZ is proud to be one of the wardrobe sponsors for the Red Carpet Jewelry Runway!

Watch out for new and exciting CHULA designs together with the finest jewelry from Emrusa!

Event : Red Carpet Jewelry Runway / Fashion Show
Date : Sunday, 23 November 2008
Time : 2:00pm
Venue : Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre, Hall 4 & 5

Also look out for a FASHION PREVIEW during the festival's grand opening ceremony on Friday, 21 November 2008 at 11.00am!

Please drop by CarmenZ, Lot 10 for FREE invites to the festival.

For more information, pls call 03-2143 3336 or visit http://www.carmenz.com.my/

Check out related posts here :-
CHULA on the Red Carpet Jewelry Runway!
I Love Fashion Shows!!!

Carmen

Excapade Sushi at Kuala Belait, Brunei

Last month, we went to Brunei for a day trip. Augustine cannot wait to introduce this Japanese restaurant called Excapade Sushi which he has been once with his collegues. We went to the Kuala Belait branch (there are 3 outlets!). Thumbs up for the really generous servings, freshness and service!

Didn't take a lot of photos and the photos I took did not turn out well but here's a few :-

The interior (there is also a sushi bar)
Soft shell crab
Hokkeido Maki (giant size!)
Spider Roll
Unagi Fire Cheese!
Chicken Ramen
Macha Ice-Cream with Red Bean

Brunei's just a short drive from Miri so we'll definitely be heading there again soon! ;-)

Carmen

Foodies over the weekend

Last weekend we checked out some food places we haven't been before. We constantly try new places but sometimes when we're in the midst of running important errands, we eat at the nearest coffeeshop or something. To save time. Like once when I had to send my slippers to the cobbler and he said he needs half an hour, we had no choice but to eat nearby and most of the time, the food is not what I like.

On Sunday after church, we went to 2020 Cafe at Pelita. Actually I had a craving for dimsum. We shared a couple of items like beef noodles, dry pan mee, kolo mee and a variety of dimsum. Dim sum didn't really satisfy us but the noodles were quite good especially the beef noodles, it got us talking about the places we had beef noodles back home ;-) The soup base was a little spicy and they serve it with lime to squeeze and belacan ;-) Didn't take any photos though hehe.

On Saturday, we bought a variety of food from Saberkas night market like rojak thambi (it was not bad but still didn't live up to my expectations LOL, we added chopped nuts ourselves at home), apam balik (this is Augustine's favourite but I find it too sweet) and some local layer cake to try. Apparently the layer cakes are very popular here. Below is a picture of three flavours I chose, yam-strawberry-pandan, chocolate mint, cheese-butter. They are not cheap, I think coz there is a lot of work involved. Very hand made indeed.

The Saberkas market is held every weekend Friday morning til Saturday night. They sell everything just like our "pasar malams" back home and in addition, there are many many food stalls selling stuff we get back home during the Ramadhan bazaars. We've tried some others in the past like "ikan bakar" - there's all sorts of fish available, fried noodles - again many types to choose from, "keropok lekor", "murtabak", "laksa", etc.

On our way home after the market, we decided to check out a stall manned by a very old aunty at Pujut 3 residential area somewhere behind GK supermarket. The aunty only sells her yummy teatime delicacies 2pm-6pm Tuesdays til Sundays. She speaks Cantonese in fact! We bought turkey ham cheese sandwiches, hotdog roll (the bread layer was wrapped in egg!) and "chee cheong fun" (yumyum). See pics below hehe. She sells a lot more stuff and I bet some of it already sold out by the time we got there ;-)

Carmen

Shopping at Imperial Mall

It was only recently we stepped into Imperial Mall for the very first time. We quite like the mall. Maybe it's something new compared to the others we've been frequenting LOL. It's actually inside Imperial Hotel and it has the Boulevard Hypermarket too.

Interesting stuff we bought? I found a nice pair of sandals and Augustine made new glasses (with built-in sunnies). I chose the frame for him, it's from Louis Koo's collection called Level Nine 9 ;-) And it came in a nice army like case in military green. Very cool indeed ;-) They have very nice sunnies too ;-)

Carmen

A Heart After You

A Heart After You

Create in me a new heart
One that follows You
Place in me a deep desire
To know You as I'm known

Set my feet in Your ways
To live worthy of Your call
Draw me near to You Lord
Every single day

I just want to be more like You
Walk with You beside me Lord
Won't You be my guide
Place Your heart inside my soul
A heart that's ever true
One that's after You

All I desire
A heart after You

A great song written by City Harvest Church which brings me really close to the Lord whenever I listen or sing along ;-)

I put up 3 videos above : One in English, the second one in Mandarin and the third one is a jazzy version - just the piano and saxophone ;-)

Does anyone have the lyrics in Mandarin?

Carmen

Follow up to "A faithful christian in Lean environment "

Change is necessary in any circumstances, although many people might not deem this as a need or even sometimes we cannot tell the outcomes are for the better or for the worse. Change is for the survival and hoping for a good outcome. All and all, it is quite subjective and open for different opinions from different level of thinking and individuals.

Let's have some scenarios to prove its existence, act as reflections and for food of thoughts:
1. people will change after pay rise, which is bringing family for vacation, etc.
2. even after marriage and family growth, people might change to buy a bigger car in order for the family to ride in more comfort.

Are these 2 scenarios showing that people will change because of their needs or because of knowing their outcomes are for better or worse??

Personally, scenario 1 is explicitly showing that people change because of trying to fulfill a sense of satisfaction or to provide a self reward from a milestone of hard earned efforts, but do we really think it is a need? Generally it should be good if everyone is contented from certain angles, if not all. In negative angles, family might not be happy or satisfied from the vacation if let's say, plane delays, sudden riots in the place that is planned for the vacation, etc. Do we prioritize the outcome or the need first?

Scenario 2 is more likely to show that need has precedence priority since house, car, clothes and food are deemed to be necessities. But is the outcome important as well? A good car can bring the family for a long term comfort but a car which is always having emergency break down although it is new, might have averse impact. So, again, do we prioritize the need or the outcome first?

By adopting Lean, companies have better chances to survive (or even excel) and have better and positive outcomes under the threat of recession and financial undesired meltdown, than not changing at all. It is not a need but a MUST for survival. After all, Lean (just like six sigma) is reputable for having a systematic methodology and approach to improve and turnaround business. Employees will be protected and job secured if companies are survived. Same towards becoming a good and faithful Christian, change according to the teachings from Jesus and miracles can happen. Really can’t emphasize how much more that change should come within a person’s heart (as precedence priority) and not from external influence or factors.

珍惜每一天!

Augustine

Brownies with ice-cream

Secret Recipe opened in Miri not too long ago, early September if I am not wrong.

Sometime last week, we decided to head there to have my favourite dessert, brownies with ice-cream. Great combination of warm brownie with cold ice-cream. YUM! I actually requested for vanilla ice-cream but I guess they heard me wrongly hehe.

Hmmm I can't recall since when I started liking this dessert so much. In fact I am not even a chocolate lover like my sis. But I have to admit I recently fell in love with Hershey's range of chocolates ;-) Especially Reese's Nutrageous Candy Bar and Peanut Butter Cups!

Carmen

Suspected ulcer in my right pupil

I went to an optometrist at Imperial Mall on Wednesday night thinking to make a new contact lense for my right eye, coz even after using the new solution, my right eye wasn't very much better :-(

After checking my eyes, the optometrist informed me that I have ulcers in my right pupil and advised me to urgently see an eye specialist. She recommended me a few specialists to contact here in Miri. I am grateful to have met a very kind optometrist.

There isn't a residing eye specialist here in Miri, they are all on a visiting basis, but thank God I managed to catch one coming this Saturday.

Since Wednesday night, I have not been wearing my contact lenses. I am praying for God's miraculous healing on my right eye. Please pray for me thanks. I am not feeling too worried about this, I have gone through worse in my life and God has never failed to pull me through.

I am not sure if I should ever wear my contact lenses again, but I am planning to make a new pair of spectacles. But I will have to check with the specialist first coz my right vision perhaps is not very accurate at the moment due to the ulcer.

Carmen

Contact Lense Solution Crisis

Part and parcel of adapting in a new city is finding places to get certain services or products.

My right lense is occasionally irritating my eyes recently and I ran out of a Boston cleaner that I could easily buy from Guardian or any other optical shops back home. For more than two weeks here in Miri, I checked every pharmarcy and optical shop that we passed by when we went shopping or makan and I was very disappointed to find out that they only stocked solutions for soft contact lenses. Does that mean everyone in this city is wearing soft contact lenses?

Mine are semi-hard lenses and I have been wearing them since I was 15 therefore I need a solution for rigid gas permeable contact lenses. I was almost giving up after my nth time of asking and sms-ed sis to courier to me. Thing is there are many many optical shops in Miri, but none had the solution I was looking for! Augustine told me not to give up and so we continued checking the many optical shops at Imperial Mall yesterday and finally I found one (it is probably the one and only!) selling it! In fact, the optometrist told me Boston now has a new all-in-one solution. Thank God for the discovery! My right lense is now OK after I started using the solution. The optometrist confirmed that she can also make new semi-hard lenses and I am very relieved to know that if I need to urgently make a new lense for my right eye, I can do it here in Miri ;-)

I've been seeing the same specialist back home all these years, although the specialist recommends that I use a particular solution and protein removers on a monthly basis, I recently realised the Boston solution was a better choice for me.


Carmen

Dental Crisis

Gum and toothaches...
I had gum and toothaches since early September in the right upper row, in the beginning I didn't think it had anything to do with my teeth so I actually visited my usual GP, he gave me antibiotics and painkillers and advised me to visit a dentist. I did not take his advice very seriously and as the aches occurred more frequently in the last few weeks here in Miri, I made up my mind to visit a dentist! It's true that a lot of people like me are just so afraid of going to a dentist! I don't recall my last trip to the dentist, if I've not been to a dentist all these years, the last check would have been during my primary schooldays!

Checking out dental clinics...

I checked yellow pages online and it listed 10 dental clinics in Miri, two Saturdays ago, we visited one that Augustine's colleague frequents, unfortunately, they were full and so we made an appointment for the following Saturday. But just one day before our appointment, the nurse called to say the doctor had an emergency and she has to cancel our appointment and she cannot make another one for us. I thought it was so strange that she just left things hanging in the air. So I called another dental clinic and they could only fit me in like 2 weeks later! Augustine decided to call another clinic and they could fit us in the very next day and we were very relieved but skeptical as to how come some clinics are so busy and this one seems to have an empty slot.

The day finally arrived...

When we arrived at the clinic, we saw a lot of people waiting, but actually most of them are family members who came along with the patients. We didn't wait very long for our turn and we were very surprised to find out the doctor is a Miss, not a Mr hehe...I was relieved in a way, immediately she told me I have a rotten wisdom tooth, which had affected my right nerve causing pain to the whole row of tooth (it really made sense now!) and she said the only solution is to pull it out, she assured me it's not surgery and there will be no pain. I was a little stunned for a moment and asked her a lot of questions. After she injected anaesthetic into 2 areas of my gums (she actually warned me the 2nd injection would cause a little pain and it did), she asked me to wait for the numbing to set in while she checks on Augustine's teeth. While Augustine had his teeth polished, I was actually shivering in fear waiting for my turn. My turn came and after checking that the area is numb, the doctor swiftly and confidently pulled the tooth out in just ONE SECOND and showed us the rotten tooth! And there wasn't any pain during the extraction. Erm, she became my instant hero that day! I asked Augustine to wait for me in the room, I think he must have been shaking too LOL.

Post extraction...
After that, I had to bite on cotton wool for a few hours to stop the bleeding. I had odd sharp pains in my right nerves each time I swallow my saliva and a little sorethroat but it was all over the very next day. Phew!

Future visits?

Yep I plan to visit the same dentist again in the future for scaling, polishing and filling. I like her a lot and she earned my trust and confidence ;-)

Carmen

Horror at first...but turned out to be fine after first time visit to a dental clinic in Miri

Today, Carmen and I had gone to a dental clinic near the Imperial Mall. Its location was not difficult to be found as i did some homeworks earlier by consulting my colleagues on the location. I did not ask on the gender of the dentist nor the normal charges issued in the clinic. The only concern was i could make an appointment with the dentist and Carmen's toothache could be resolved ASAP!

Dr. Hii was the name of the dentist. Although we could not tell whether the dentist was a man or a woman...but nevertheless it never deterred us to visit the clinic. We reached at 2.30pm sharp for the appointment. Waited for a while as many people were also waiting in the lounge. Must be good business, we thought. True enough, one by one, the patients were led into the operations room for their problems to be done with on the hands of the dentist.

By almost 3pm, Carmen's turn had finally arrived. We knew by now Dr. Hii was a lady and very experienced as she advised Carmen on the cause of her toothache and what she could do to solve her problem, which was to pull out her tooth!!! OMG!!!

The wisdom tooth had gone rotten by months and no alternative was at sight. So no choice, just listened to the doctor. She's a pro. By now, someone would have both knees shaken and weakened, whole body almost collapsed to the floor. Hehehe...

After injected with anesthetic into Carmen's jaw and away for 15 min, the dentist quickly pulled out her bad tooth without even feeling a pain (a mild one perhaps). Dr. Hii was awesome and fast. Then she advised on Carmen's next oral checkup. After almost 30 mins in the whole session, her assistants happily brought Carmen out to make payment and claim some medications.

Now, with some pills to pop in orally and further taking care of oral hygiene, Carmen is sleeping and away into the dreamland. Although this would be our first time visiting Dr. Hii's dental surgeon clinic, but most likely won't be the last in Miri. Her service and professionalism was way too good.

Augustine

A faithful christian in Lean environment

How some of the contents in the Lean philosophy could be so much similar to the teachings in the Bible?

Actually i don't intend to compare a management tool from Toyota's invention to a religion teaching....but there is a desire within me to share this message since i'm associated to both school of thoughts.

Today, a church sermon was delivered that was so much relevant to the world happenings now. Taken from Luke 5: 37-39. Lots of people refuse to change once they are happy (or lazy to change) when they are in the comfort zone. Sometimes, these people also fear in changes, inflexible to change, no long term vision to change, etc.

Change...a very powerful word in today's world as we see many people lost or swayed aside from their good old days but these people still remain the same in their lifestyle. Lost of career, lost of incomes, etc. But they are still overspending and remain in their old lifestyle. Why?

As Lean change agents, sometimes we also encounter resistance from people (especially old timers) to change in the business process, the working culture and the way of working. Cost cutting, business improvement or organisation restructuring...all these are towards changes as well.

In a nutshell, changes are coming from inside a person's heart and not forced by external factors.

Augustine

Soundtrack to Mamma Mia!

I have a dream
A song to sing
To help me cope
With anything
If you see the wonder
Of a fairy tale
You can take the future
Even if you fail
I believe in angels
Something good in everything I see
I believe in angels
When I know the time is right for me
I'll cross the stream
I have a dream
...

Mamma Mia! Found the soundtrack today ;-) Am listening to it over and over again! Enjoyed the movie a lot a couple of weeks back ;-)

You are the dancing queen
Young and sweet
Only seventeen
Dancing queen
Feel the beat from the tambourine
You can dance
You can jive
Having the time of your life
See that girl
Watch that scene
Diggin' the dancing queen

...

Carmen

Entering God's Presence Through Praise and Worship

I love attending church here. One of the reasons is the praise and worship usually lasts about an hour. Time to appreciate and give thanks to God is never enough.

1 Chronicles 16:34 "Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever". God is good ALL THE TIME. When I am weak, God gives me strength, wisdom and love. I consider myself very blessed, but no doubt in the course of running my business and in my relationships, I sometimes fail and I also have my mountains and tough times. But each time I get anxious, tense and all worried, I pray and ask God for help, and each and every time, He never failed to answer. Sometimes it is not an answer I expect, but He answers, in His perfect timing coz our God is a righteous and faithful God. I try to accept every challenge and difficulty that comes my way coz what do we have to share with others if we didn't have any problems to encounter and learn from leaning on God and experiencing God's power and love? Why does God always choose the poor, the sick and the underprivileged? It is so that God's glory can be magnified!

I wanna encourage all of you to sing and give praise to the Lord no matter what circumstances you are in and I pray that you will find strength and joy in the Lord when you enter in His presence.

Dear Lord, thank you for your faithfulness, thank you for the blessings.

This is one of my favourites called Lord of Lords from Hillsong's Saviour King album :-

Beholding your beauty is all that I long for
To worship You Jesus is my soul's desire
For this very heart you've shaped for your pleasure
The purpose to lift your name high

Hear and surrender in pure adoration
I enter your courts with an offering of praise
I am Your servant come to bring you glory
As is fit for the work of your hands

Chorus:
Now unto the lamb who sits on the throne
Be glory and honor and praise
All of creation resounds with the song
Worship and praise him the Lord of Lords

Verse 2:
The spirit now living and dwelling within me
Keep my eyes fixed ever upon Jesus' face
Let not the things of this world ever sway me
I'll run 'till I finish the race

Chorus 2:
Singing unto the lamb who sits on the throne
Be glory and honor and praise
All of creation resounds with the song
Worship and praise the Lord
Now unto the lamb who sits on the throne
Be glory and honor and praise
All of eternity echoes the song
Worship and praise him the Lord of Lords

Bridge:
Holy Lord
You are Holy
Jesus Christ is the Lord

Chorus 3:
Now unto the lamb who sits on the throne
Be glory and honor and praise
Call all the saints to join in the song
Worship and praise him the Lord of Lords

Ending:
Lord of Lords
Lord of Lords
Lord of Lords

Carmen

JAY CHOU's latest CAPRICORN

Jay Chou's latest album Capricorn (yes he is a Capricorn) was launched recently on Oct 9. Radio stations are playing his songs and CD shops too. There seems to be no escape hehe. I am now listening to it. Love his songs as always. U cannot deny how big Jay Chou is and how influential his music is. His name is like one big brand itself. Jay Chou chips. I still remember finding these chips in a little convenient store when backpacking in Sapa (north Vietnam near the border of China!).

Back to the album, the first single released if I am not wrong is called "Dao Xiang" (Fragrant Rice). It's written and composed by him and it's really meaningful if u listen close. In the car listening to it, Augustine wonders if his inspiration for this song came from the recent earthquakes in China. I think so too. It's got a very uplifting and encouraging message and feel to it.

Hmm...I guess I will never stop listening to his songs, I've been listening to them for years, through my ups and downs. I am not exactly a very crazy fan, I've only been to 2 events to see him, one was when he was at 1 Utama for an outdoor meet the fans session. That was a few years back and I think I queued for at least 2 hours just to shake his hands and get my album signed! Second one was attending his concert earlier this year. I thoroughly enjoyed it, the crystal piano he flew in with and his playing combined - simply amazing.

Carmen

Lutong Cafe

I've long heard that Lutong Cafe serves the best porridge in Miri and people travel all the way here just to have the porridge. Well actually this coffeeshop (just across from Kelab Rekreasi Petroliam) is just 10 minutes drive from home! But they finish fast and we were never up early for it. So I've only tried their fried rice and fried noodles for lunch. But last Friday we woke up early to go Brunei so we decided to have breakfast at Lutong Cafe. Augustine ordered kolo mee (possibly the cheapest place to eat kolo mee for RM2!).

I ordered one bowl of porridge to share with Augustine's mom. Long after finishing our drinks also the porridge hasn't arrived. I think we waited more than half an hour! Sigh, the reason is coz the porridge is not cooked using normal gas stove but using charcoal fire. Using charcoal they can't control the fire and heat I guess. Everyone else who ordered this porridge was waiting very patiently as well. The porridge costs RM3 and u can choose to add an egg, like how u add an egg to your claypot yee mee when it's ready! Yummy! Using charcoal fire really makes a difference to the taste! We're not sure what type of rice they use to cook the porridge though. A lot of people told us about the "highland rice" here which makes very good porridge, we plan to buy some soon ;-)

Below is a picture I took of the porridge ;-)

Carmen

Kelab Rekreasi Petroliam

Augustine joined Kelab Rekreasi Petroliam (formerly known as Kelab Shell Lutong) recently and I was pretty impressed with the sports facilities they have here, although it's highly unlikely I will be using them all. Sofar I've only gone to the gym, it's called "Why Gym", not sure why! And the badminton courts (air-conditioned!). And we sometimes read newspapers in the lounge. The pool looks good and I can't wait to try it next (waiting for Augustine to get a new pair of goggles). They've also got a playground for the kids, restaurant, karaoke lounge and snooker etc, meeting rooms and fields and courts for beach volleyball, netball, basketball, football, futsal, tennis, squash, hockey, etc. They also organise aerobics, dancing, cooking, yoga, karate, chess for kids etc. And there are events held here from time to time as well, for example we came here for Augustine's company Raya open house last Sunday for makan-makan ;-)

Carmen

Word Challenge

Update
Augustine's latest scores : 14656 LOL

I am not one who likes computer games but Augustine is and he was a little addicted to this game in Facebook since a couple of weeks back. He convinced me to also play the game recently and for almost 2 weeks, we were at it almost every night! He was almost always ahead of me but last night, with his assistance (I have to admit it), I achieved 16447 points, way ahead of his last achievement of 14317 points LOL. Well, we decided that we wont be playing anymore from today, instead we'll be blogging here a lot more. We'll see ;-)

For those who are interested, the game is all about creating words from the letters provided as fast as you can in 2 minutes, and you'll get extra seconds everytime you find a word with four letters or more. And when you manage to unscramble the full word (sometimes there are more than one), you get a chance for a bonus round to unscramble your Facebook friends’ names for extra points. Now you can see why it gets pretty fun especially if you play it together with friends right hehe. At the end, you'll get a funny rating like whether you are a drill sergeant, salesman, saleswomen, circus ringmaster, teacher, rock star, student, etc depending on your scores, right now I am a scientist LOL.

Try it for yourself! Enjoy! ;-)

Carmen

Faith. Hope. Love

Hmmm what shall I write...since Augustine was talking about adapting in his first post, I 'd like to share a message we heard in church last Sunday.

Senior Pastor preached about faith, hope and love, one verse he referred to was Hebrews 11:8 "By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going."

I was very encouraged by this verse as I have been thinking on and off about the relocation all the way here from our comfort zones back home in PJ/KL. In fact, the night before, we were again talking about this, if this was indeed the best for both of us and so on.

And Pastor in his message said we can liken Abraham's experience to ours where when something seemed to be our only avenue of blessings - our job and family back home in this case, and God then asks us to give it up for something we are not sure of.

Do we have faith in Him? Faith is all about obeying God anyhow, being sure of what we hope for, certain of what we do not see. Which is why we need to continue to build our faith and learn to lean on Him and seek Him constantly for wisdom and guidance in all that we do. God certainly is more eager to bless us than we are to receive His blessings!

I thank God for His assurance and I look forward to continue my journey here with Augustine.

Next I wanna write about our day in Brunei ;-)

Carmen

118th Day in Miri (more to come!!!)

It has been 118 days since I first settled down in Miri. One small city that is rich in oil and gas in the land of Borneo...first journey to my new career and livelihood.

Almost everything is new. New and delicious food, new place to stay, new culture to adapt, new career expectations, new neighbourhood, new landmarks.....endless newness!!

After adapting to almost new life in the city now, me and Carmen decided to create a blog to share our experiences with others. All comments are welcomed!!

Augustine