Wednesday, December 31, 2008

My 2008 ....

The beauty of blogging :) , I read my previous blogs My 2006 vs My 2007 , to refresh my memory.... I have details for 2006, but nothing much for 2007 .... hmm, 2007 was all in my memory now ... it's good to keep some details , I guess...
So, here's the yearly report for 2008.....it's a VERY long winded version, I need to capture my major events.

January
For the first time, Bahija crossed to this new year with a gloomy mood, knowing that after June'08, she'll need to change her career path , and had no clue of what to expect from 2H of 2008, deep inside her heart, she had some fear ..

February
CNY day 1 early morning - received another 'saman' , an expensive Ops Sikap $300 summons , it's a clear sign to warn Bahija not to speed in future.

Mid Feb - Bahija attended a forum in church, when this man 'Lim Guan Eng' walked in, I asked my sister "who's him ? " ...my sis gave me a blank look. From that forum, I started to learn a bit about politics, about my little role as voter. It was a wonderful forum. Since then, I actively learning politics in Msia. Took the opportunities to discuss and asked my In-Kei colleagues during lunch. Fruitful short learning curve, within 3 weeks - from a political-idiot Bahija to a 'more-savy' Bahija, I'm proud of myself.

Feb 27, my youngest sis went thru her brain surgery, to remove a super tiny blood clog. We Thank God for all the prayers, wishes. It's a smooth surgery and recovery .... Again, Bahija appreciated the great family support, having a caring family makes things easy for all :)

March
First week of March - attended open talks organized by opposition parties in USJ 12 and Penang Han Jiang school - eye opener for me :) . Han Jiang Penang was a big crowd. I went with cab, and at 11 pm, I took an overview, noticed that the crowd was way too huge. Thus, I quickly got myself ready and left, afraid that if I waited till the talk ended, I may got stuck and no transport to go back to my hotel. As I rushed out from the school, the roads were all jam-packed with people and cars or bikes and policemen... now I takut, alamak, how on earth was I suppose to go back to my hotel in 1 peace safe leh. I quickly prayed. Right after my 'Amen' , suddenly a cab was in front of me in the middle of the road. I knocked and opened the door. In the cab, I heard christmas songs ... then I smiled. it's not easy to find one who played christmas songs in the month of March. I myself love to listen to christmas songs... christmas songs calmed me....Right there, I knew he's God sent angel to rescue me and sent me back safely to my hotel. Later, the driver told me he's off duty, and usually he didn't use that road to go back home from his parent's house, for that night, somehow he detoured and got stucked in the jam. I smiled and told him, that night his mission was to pick me :) Praise God !

March 8 - Helped in USJ 4 school voting counter. My job was to check the voters' name and IC No, ensure they are legitimate. I enjoyed the counting moment ... happy when 'rocket' is shouted out loud. It's tiring day for me, yet fruitful, I witnessed the voting process, ALSO , for the first time , I VOTED for my country , I did what I needed to do as a Malaysian Citizen :)

March 9- Bahija started a EE program organized by her church ( Full Gospel Tabernacle ) , it's a 13-weeks intensive training, with on-the-job trainings too. It's an eye opening for me, I've went thru the hurdle, ups and downs during this whole journey, the devils like to 'kacau' us when we want to do something for our Father Lord ...hectic weeks in 3 mths - yet I've managed thru , oui

March 23 - My First F1 experience @ Sepang F1 Circuit. Went with my US colleague Ms Frog and handsome son, it's a hot hot hot day, we bought the Grand Stand seats leh, costed me a BOMB. I'm not a racing car fan, couldn't appreciate the super fast speed car - zoomed and disappeared from my eyesight for a while. It's a good experience to taste the atmosphere. I'll go F1 provided it's free :)

March 24 - 28 - My In-Kei US team was in Penang, for the first out of US Face-to-Face meetings, and I think it's the last too. I had fun meeting them, we, the local girls were very tired as we worked 2 shifts, day shift - working, off-work shift - as tour guides ....Face to face meetings are very effective, thru those time , I got to meet their spouses, their likes and dislike , style and behavious - these are good and beneficial for a good working relationship ... ( unfortunately mine didn't last long - as my exit date from In-Kei was June 30 )

March 29 - Attended a wedding in Penang. During the prayer time, I closed my eyes, saw yellow and red lights flashing in my brain ...then suddenly my mouth opened and spoke in tongue - Hallelujah ! It's my spirit-baptism moment, I could pray in tongue liow ...haa

End March - Sayonaro to most of my Cyberjaya In-Kei friends and colleagues. It's very sad moment leh. Bye to my Sanguine Queen, she's the first cubemate I met in Cyberjaya. She helped me to adjust to the old time ATD + 1 work environment. ( I'll blog about her one fine day ). Besides Sanguine, I also have to say bye-bye to many others. aiiii

April
After Q1, entered Q2 , my heart was more 'un-peace', started to have strong fear of my future after In-Kei ....couldn't focus much on work anymore, everyday carried a 'lepak' 'chin chai' mood to go to work lor, stopped to take on new job tasks, everything pretty much passed over to Dockers' Pant and Fish, no mood for In-kei's work. Cyberjaya office was like a 'fridge' - super cold, super quiet , lack of human chi .... trust me, it's very pethatic , depress to go to office under those situation ...sometimes lunch also no kaki to go with :(

April 9 - Seriously needed to hear from God, hear his direction, need to know what He has to say ...attended 'Hearing God's Voice' class, it was an awesome training for me. Enjoyed the class so much, I learned to be sensitive to hear from God ....

April 15 - 18 - HP sponsored my eldest sis for an event trip to Bali Nusantara - 5 star Grand Hyatt hotel. Bahija took the opportunity, claimed mileage points joined her. I spent 3 full days on the beach, read books, had quiet time with God. The goal of this trip , was for me to have peace in my heart, and to hear from Him. Praise God, when I took my step of faith, God talked to me, He told me He's taking care of me, that I shouldn't be a lost child, shouldn't be in fear. He's in control. I brought a few books to Bali, one of them was a gift from RotiTelur, Monica and Ringgit ... God spoke to me thru that book :) . Third day on Bali Nusantara beach, a phone call came, I picked it up. It's a job offer - sound very good , fit what I needed, at that moment, I've sensed my peace , it's truly a blessing when I knew well that I was hearing His voice and getting the right message ( this job offer later came to a reality in July - God is GOOD ! ) ... I went to Bali as a lost child, sad. But I left Bali energetic, filled with hope and faith , and PEACE ... heee

May
This month busy at work - not for 'real work' , but to settle all the personal outstanding items such as medical checkup, dental claim, employee PC purchases, stocks handling, HR personal data updates, backup all my data, clearing data on the In-Kei's T42.

One POSITIVE thing was badminton ... Bahija consistently persistently played badminton almost everyday after work , actually during work , haa - from 4 to 6 pm. I've lost so much weight ..looked slimmer and nice - haaaa , OH, most important, from a dummy badminton player, my gurus praised that I've improved substantially - haaaa

Another GREAT thing - my wish was granted. Many moons ago, I had a wish to go Europe Contiki tour. Been talking about this for many many times, all NATO ( No Action Talk Only )...for some reason and good timing. I managed to secure ticket, and timing was OK - thus Sanguine Queen and Bahija adopt the 'JUST DO IT' attitude - we booked our Contiki tour spontatuously

June
First week of June - pretty much settled all my In-Kei tasks.

June 8 - Sunday morning completed my EE final test. night time - to KLIA - vioa - Amsterdam :) , I was off to Europe for 16 days :) .... Sanguine and Bahija have had a marvellous Contiki tour in Europe. I am soooo happy , sooo glad that we made it , it was such a memorable fun time for me forever. ( just a bit dissappointed that as of now, I've not uploaded the Europe photos , nor prepared a travellogue yet )

Deep in my heart, I knew this trip was blessed by God. He completed one of my wish ...because I was full with many activities ...it's amazing that the timing and flight ticket all worked out well out of sudden. THANKS Father !!

June 26 - Sayonari to Europe :( , landed in KLIA 6:30 am, rushed home , showed, then rushed to KLIA again, took a flight to Penang. My USA boss was in Penang for my exit day. I had farewell dinner with my Penang teammates.

June 27 - THE DAY arrived. It's my last day with In-Kei. My ex-managers, some good friends went to PG12 , bid farewell and took photos with me :) ... that was my 2nd exit , my 1st exit was I-Kei June 2002 - back then, I was very close with my team, thus farewell wasn't easy. This time round, In-Kei , the decision was made back in Nov 2007, dragged till June 30, 2008 - it's a long time , I suppose the mood already gone as time goes by ...my last day with In-Kei - I wasn't as 'sad' as it should be lor ....

July
Officially jobless....Initially thought could lepak for 3 months, rest and relaxed, take a missionary trip in September.

July 3 - received call, to attend meeting with business partners. Discussed the job tasks and details

July 9 - signed contract, meeting with my customer the Lembaga Hasil Dalam Negeri

July 10 - officially started my freelance consulting services work - aiii - fast and I didn't have much time to lepak , haaa. This was the job opportunity that came to me while I was in Bali talking to God. So this is a deal I couldn't let go ....

August
Super busy month , learning to adjust to new work environment. Busy with church activities, plus LA sister and nephew also back to KL visited us.. this was the month which started to drag me off track ... some negative emotional side effects started to stir within me :(

Aug 7 - 9 - escaped to Pulau Lang Tengah , great fun time with Josh, Jar , Ice Kacang, Lily and Benji. During this trip, I lost a battle, shamed on me - where's Milan ? I said France - from a person who visited Milan before , malu betul. I also officially annouced that I retired from banana boat , Bahija will not ride banana boat anymore , I'm too old for this sport , scary ....

September
Problematic month , started in August , dragged into September ... emotionally unstable, I've all that I needed, yet I wasn't happy .... not contented, that's the big issue. I was lacking something still, no inner peace. One of the main reason was me being single. All these years, I've been taking the 'single' status quite well, just not now , I struggled within myself. Started to skip QT , skipped bible reading, gradually slowing down my walk of faith as well .....struggled to lift up myself .....

Good News - despite me backsliding , God still treats me well, He blessed me with my Black-B. It was such an easy smooth buy ....welcome to my world - Black B :)

October
Problem carried forward from Aug, Sept, I even felt depressed every Sunday after my special kids ministry. I was sad to see the special kids, to hear of their problems, their family issues etc etc...sundays seem like a dark cloud day for me - I dragged myself to church now...Luckily I had a short break to Hong Kong during Raya weekend. I'm such an expensive woman, I need to fly far far away to be by myself, away from family and friends, and read some good books ....gila hah. Anyway, solo in Hong Kong , besides some shopping and good yummy food, I spent most of the time reading books. Again, I have to say , God is Good. Yet another time, He sent the right books as my rescuer. I felt so much better after Hong Kong trip.

November
I started to settle down in my work. Emotioanlly, I was also feeling better, gradually lifted myself up step by step ....I've asked God to come help me, guide me thru this down moment. I was alive again, hee

December
Thank God ! Bahija is back to herself , I'm out of the miserable 'recession' moment. I'm doing well with my special kids now, I repented, prayed, asked God to help me enhance my walk of faith. God stopped talking to me since August, personally, I really missed His voice. This month, I seriously went for altar call, seeking Him into my life. Of course, now I'm back to have a relationship with my Father. He talks to me now, or rather I shall say I'm sensitive to His voice again, I can sense his message when He comes to me :) That to me, is very intimate and important .... so I'm super duper glad to march forward to 2009 with my current healthy state :) ...

Happy Blessed 2009 , May all of us have a joyful, healthy and contented New Year !

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey... happy new year to you.
Yeah myself too have been feeling kind of depressed over my single status. I think its like that after awhile - I feel kinda hopeless.
But i still pray... hopefully God will hear my prayers and the answer is a yes. Lets pray for each other... :D

Bahija said...

MG ...
There's a reason for us being at this stage. We ought to gracefully embrace and walk thru this test. It's not easy, Seek Him, Ask and He shall give :) we pray and work harder yea. It's normal to feel depress, for myself ,I don't even want to allow myself to go into that 'hole'..my last depression was 3 yrs ago before I accepted Christ. 2008 was a testing year for me, I've been thru many trials, glad that I've grown up and continue to grow wiser ...

Anonymous said...

From your 2008 reflections, Bahija, I think you had a great 2008 and you emerged victorious. What a great victory report you have there! I wish I had as many great moments and doing so many wonderful and meaningful things in my life. I must learn from you!