Short Getaway

Just returned from a 3D2N vacation from????

PULAI SPRINGS!

Haha....yah i know what you are going to ask, "Dont you ever get sick of it?" kind of remark. Oh well, do you remember the night when GM & F&B Mgr came to apologize? F&B Mgr gave us RM210 cash vouchers to return to eat at the Qing Palace Restaurant......voted and awarded as Malaysia's BEST Chinese restaurant. So, 3 couples, Seah, Goh & Low decided to drive in and use up the vouchers.

The Seahs came to pick us at 12noon but we weren't ready. I needed to write some cheques to make payment for some home bills. Lowly was trying to back up and shut down his laptop. We then heard the famous Volvo HORN HORN HORN HORN HORN and so had to speed things up. In the rush, i forgot to bring a pair of long pants, face wash and hair spray. Lowly? He didnt wait for the laptop to shut down properly and close the lid. Only knew the damage when we reached Pulai Springs. He couldnt power it up....it CRASHED!

We went to have lunch at the Swee Kee Chicken Rice stall (ate previously after session retreat). Lowly's conclusion is nothing spectacular except for the fragrant rice. Anyhow, it was a good feed to famished souls at 1.30pm. But i must say the lime juice with prune is ever so refreshing.....slurp! :)

Hmmmm, we reached hotel just after 2pm. Duty mgr Benny was there to greet us. And so did the Resident Mgr... Mr Rudy (first time meeting him). Mike, the GM, popped by too. He was very nice and told us he has upgraded us to studio suites and remarked, "The whole resort knows you are coming"......heehee.....kind of made me felt like a VIP that instance.....not a bad feeling though ;)

Rev Pang & his 2 sons came with Peter upon our invitation. They needed to learn how to update and maintain website from lowly before pastor fly back to Guam on friday. So Wed afternoon was working time for lowly. I needed to finish the Mandarin service promotional card design and so i didnt do any recreational activities. The seahs went for a swim at 5 plus. Sheena went to the gym and Peter went to try out the buggy or driving range (i think).

I created a mystery and problem but couldnt solve it. What was it? Read on.

Had to download a pic file from internet (purchasing it with credits) and it was a huge one.... the highest resolution possible and it was 23MB! Clicked download and save. It took about 5 mins for the download to be completed (using Amy's laptop coz mine couldnt connect to internet). Thereafter, i saw the pic file open up with adobe software. I clicked to close it thinking i can locate it using windows explorer and transfer out of Amy's laptop to mine. Lo and behold, i couldnt. Searched frantically her whole comp and couldnt find. Used the explorer search function and decided to let it search thro dinner time and see good news upon return.

We went for a good dinner at the Qing Palace. Used up the vouchers and topped up with another 70RM. Loved the Camphor duck dish. Had a round of jokes and riddles from lowly, elderly seah & the reverend golf. We then drove out to eat durian. It was almost 9pm and the stall remained open. The seller remembered seah & goh and ME! He called out my name (hahaha, i couldnt remember his tho). Durian price shot up to RM6 per kg due to end-of-season and we bought 5. It was good. But i couldnt really enjoy because i was running a fever.

I was down with low-grade fever on Monday night (had it while on the way to Adults NTM meeting). Came home with fever after Tues night prayer meeting. And now fever in Malaysia. Felt sick and cold. Ate one seed and called it a day. The rest were enjoying the fruit and we had rambutans too. Lowly didnt eat a single seed due to his younger days experience (he will tell his story in his soon-to-publish book on his life.....erh....patiently wait for it to be written and completed). En Yang & En Hong ate and ate. Rev Pang too. Oh my, they are serious durian addicts (my conclusion).

Our night ended with the video on Nick, the man without limbs (my 3rd time watching and never get tired of it). Was once again reminded that we should live daily as if we are in full time ministry. How true it is. Nick's story touches my heart in more ways than you can imagine and when it is more appropriate, will share this online.

Didnt sleep well at all but could survive. Went down to 2nd level cafeteria for breakfast at 9am (meeting time for all of us). No one was there...... i dont mean just my people. I meant NO ONE (hotel guests). I was amused. My first to eat alone. My first to take food without queuing. My first to pick and choose at my own pace. I felt the whole feast and spread was just meant for me..... hehehehehe! The waiters & waitresses treated me like "Big Shot" coz i was their one and only customer at that point. My 7min royal treatment ended when the seahs strolled in. Then everyone else came and we had blessed fellowship over breakfast.

The sky darkened and rain came. It was pouring. Eld Seah gave this riddle "What is worst than raining cats and dogs?"

What is your answer? Think before you scroll down (btw, I couldnt think of any so i said "Raining elephants"......lols.....dumb).

"Hailing taxis and buses"............hahahahahaha...... got the joke?

Rev Pang & his sons had to leave us that morning. Arranged a taxi to bring them to causeway and thereafter they will take a bus into Singapore and then a cab. Peter went off for a golf game without lowly coz the latter had to train the Pangs till 3am and didnt sleep much. 5 of us had a good time of fellowship, brunching with rambutans and some snacks Sheena brought. I was hungry at 1.30pm and so i made a room service order.... the Pulai Burger. It was huge but tasted a bit funny, as in a little sour and weird. Certified by the seah chef that it was in good condition and so i ate half of it. Everyone ate the fries and salad. No one else wanted a full meal then.

Oh yes, need to reveal the mystery of missing file. It wasnt in Amy's comp. I knew then if i needed to finish the card design and email to printer to print for it to be ready and distributed this Sunday, i had to call for help, Dr.com. Lowly was summoned to Amy's room. He did an intelligent search.....*bmp. I searched under Picture file and according to him, it would only search for jpeg. Given a tinge of hope to find the file (it cost us $7 for this pic), i proceeded to download my emails and opened my MSN to chat. Alas, it wasnt so.

My supposedly downloaded pic was never found!!! Lowly diagnosed i didnt actually download the file or rather failed download. I was adamant about this.....how could i not downloaded properly? Me, a frequent user who download stuff from internet.....simple steps like this could not go wrong. But the fact after search......pic was never in Amy's comp in the first place hit hard on my face. AAAHHHHH....... And so i humbly admitted i could have clicked OPEN instead of SAVE and when it opened with Adobe software, i closed it and lose it forever......sigh...... He downloaded one more time for me (free download of the same file within 24hours of the first download). Sigh... why didnt he tell me the night before!!! I could have done that and not cracked my brain so hard. And so, the mystery was solved. My stupid mistake that cost so much time wasted and some human energy and brain cells too.

Thank God i could work on it straightaway and by late afternoon, send the design to printer. Whew!


Some went to swim in the evening but it was extremely cold for me. I chose to read a book instead but only managed 3 pages.... pathetic creature. Our night dinner was at Qing Palace and i requested for Camphor Duck once more. It was good. We had some other signature dishes too. Seah chef, the expert, made all the orders.

My fever didnt return that night and though this is one mystery i couldnt solve (no cough, no runny nose, no other symptoms), thank God it went away.

Slept early that night. Returned to cafeteria at 9am the next morning and found myself alone once more! Oops.... not really though. One couple hid behind a column to eat away happily.... so yah, i was the 3rd person. The rest streamed in. Apparently a church group from Singapore arrived and the whole place was filled with talking and laughing. More jokes at our table by the pros and honestly, nothing spectacular happened during our stay. But i must say it was good to be away physically though we were still very much involved in finishing our work and task. Dreaming of my Redang trip now.....hmmmmm.....

Lowly managed to revive his comp but he was faced with another "Disaster". Virus crept into his websites (companies, mytengah, saipan and the rest). He had to shut them down and solve it when back in Singapore. Was Pulai Springs server the culprit? We dont know.

Our closing meal was at this Wanton noodle store in Senai (sourced by the Seahs). It wasnt that bad but i missed the Eng Kong wanton noodle store.... best i ever tasted and now they are gone. Closed shop after 30 years i think. Probably on long retirement coz they had earned enough all these years.

Thank God for a blessed time together and the generosity of the seahs and gohs. Will i return to Pulai Springs again? Most likely. Why? Because i still have 1244 mins to spend for internet before it expires on 5 Sep 08! But i will request for a room closer to lobby coz the one i was given had low signal for wireless and no connectivity for the LAN cable. No one solved my problem during my stay despite my repeated attempts to tell so many individuals. And yes, Mike will get to hear this from me when he opens his email on Mon morning. :)