"I love you", saith Almighty God

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases
His mercies never come to an end
















They are new every morning,
New every morning
Great is Thy Faithfulness!
O God
Great is Thy Faithfulness.

* (this picture was taken this morning at 7)

My First Encounter With

Chow Tau Foo

Located quite a distance from the main area of Taman Connought Pasar Malam (and with good reason), Chiew Chiew Chow Tau Foo provides it's patrons with fried, rotten bean curd. - the name's abit, disturbing, i know. I thought so too -. With a tagline 'Aroma of a thousand miles', which is, indeed apt, the strongest stomachs (and minds) savour this decomposed delicacy with chilli cuka, and nothing else. (If it were me, I would need chilli cuka and some Febreeze)

From afar, one can only catch a whiff of the chow tau foo 'aroma' because it is mostly concealed by 'tai chow' smoke and other pasar malam smells, and you would probably think the stink is from some longkang somewhere behind. But as you walk closer to the Chiew Chiew Chow Tau Foo van, parked in a dingy, damp, back-alley behind a 'tai chow restaurant', you get the full olfactory experience, and it smells something like this :

ohmygoshwhatsthatsmellitfreakingstinksweiohmygoshpleaseletmedienow

Anyway, my friends, being such wonderful friends, not wanting me to miss out on any of life's great experiences, MADE me take a bite. Thankfully, it was dark, and I couldn't really see what I was eating - I didn't really chew either, just bit it, and shallowed the piece whole. I did look though, and from what I saw, it looked dark, and rotten. And smelly.

Well, I survived. Chow Tau Foo is not for the faint hearted. If you can't stand durians, walau-eh, you ain't smelt nothin' yet!

Bye, Herm.

Herm has Gone Home to the sandy shore he loves.

7. and Herm

"Love me, for I love you"--and answer me,
"Love me, for I love you"--so shall we stand
As happy equals in the flowering land
Of love, that knows not a dividing sea.
Love builds the house on rock and not on sand,
Love laughs what while the winds rave desperately;
And who hath found love's citadel unmann'd?
And who hath held in bonds love's liberty?
My heart's a coward though my words are brave
We meet so seldom, yet we surely part
So often; there's a problem for your art!
Still I find comfort in his Book, who saith,
Though jealousy be cruel as the grave,
And death be strong, yet love is strong as death.

---------------------------------------

btw,















Meet Herm, the shell-less hermit-crab.

Happy Deepavali to you, you AND YOU! :)

I'll walk closer now on the higher way
Through the darkest night, will You hold my hand?
Jesus, guide my way.

O You mourn with me and You dance with me
For my heart of hearts is bound to You

Though I walk through valleys low
I fear no evil
By the waters, still my soul
My heart will trust in You
My heart will trust in You

O You counsel me and You comfort me
When I cannot see, You light my path

Though I walk through valleys low
I fear no evil
By the waters, still my soul
My heart will trust in You
My heart will trust in You.

Still my heart, and let me know Your will. There is no other way I would rather take. Still my heart so I can hear Your voice, because Yours only is the Truth.

----------------------------------------------

In other news :

• Hermit the Crab's shell broke, again. Poor little fella. I had to push his little behind to get him out of his shell just now...or whatever is left of it; it was dangling behind him and he was dragging it around. I gave him a piece of apple and a new bottle cap. I hope he feels better.
• I had to eat the rest of the apple. It is 4.08 a.m. -.- The things I would do for that crab. It just that he's so darn cute.
• There was a baby cockroach on the wall!!!! Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!! I killed it with one wack of a newspaper roll. ohmygosh ohmygosh ohmygosh ohmygosh ohmygosh...I hope there isn't a Mothership!!!

I learned a very valuable lesson today. One very hard to swallow, but one that I'm thankful for. We take such lessons because we are foolish, and we need to be taught. Only the wise learn from the mistakes of others. Not many can claim to be that clever. Today's lesson was on humility, and the teacher was Grace.

6.

this one, closest to my heart.

Trust me, I have not earn'd your dear rebuke,
I love, as you would have me, God the most;
Would lose not Him, but you, must one be lost,
Nor with Lot's wife cast back a faithless look
Unready to forego what I forsook;
This say I, having counted up the cost,
This, though I be the feeblest of God's host,
The sorriest sheep Christ shepherds with His crook.
Yet while I love my God the most, I deem
That I can never love you overmuch;
I love Him more, so let me love you too;
Yea, as I apprehend it, love is such:

I cannot love you if I love not Him,
I cannot love Him if I love not you.

♥

-----------------------------

I have never walked on water
Felt the waves beneath my feet but
At your Word Lord,
I’ll receive Your faith to walk on oceans deep

And I remember how You found me;
In that very same place
All my failing surely would've drowned me
But You made a way

You are my freedom
Jesus You’re the reason
I’m kneeling again at Your throne
Where would I be without You
Here in my life, here in my life?

You have said that all the heavens
Sing for joy at one who finds
The way to freedom, truth of Jesus
Bought from death into His life

And I remember how You saw me:
Through the eyes of Your grace
And though the cost was Your beloved for me
Still you made a way!

I'll worship at Your throne,
Whisper my own love song,
With all my heart I'll sing
for You, my Dad and King
I'll live for all my days
to put a smile on Your face
And when we finally meet,
it'll be for eternity

And oh how wide You open up Your arms
When I need Your love
How far You would come
If ever I was lost
You said that all You feel for me
is Undying Love
That You showed me through the cross

I worship You, my God
I worship You, my God
I love You,
I love You
forever I will sing
forever I will be with You,
be with You.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

5. prayer for you and i

O my heart's heart, and you who are to me
More than myself myself, God be with you,
Keep you in strong obedience leal and true
To Him whose noble service setteth free,
Give you all good we see or can foresee,
Make your joys many and your sorrows few,
Bless you in what you bear and what you do,
Yea, perfect you as He would have you be.
So much for you; but what for me, dear friend?
To love you without stint and all I can
Today, tomorrow, world without an end;
To love you much and yet to love you more,
As Jordan at his flood sweeps either shore;
Since woman is the helpmeet made for man.

4.

I lov'd you first: but afterwards your love
Outsoaring mine, sang such a loftier song
As drown'd the friendly cooings of my dove.
Which owes the other most? my love was long,
And yours one moment seem'd to wax more strong;
I lov'd and guess'd at you, you construed me--
And lov'd me for what might or might not be
Nay, weights and measures do us both a wrong.
For verily love knows not "mine" or "thine;"
With separate "I" and "thou" free love has done,
For one is both and both are one in love:
Rich love knows nought of "thine that is not mine;"
Both have the strength and both the length thereof,
Both of us, of the love which makes us one.

There's no place like home, no place at all.

3. it would be nothing new

I dream of you to wake: would that I might
Dream of you and not wake but slumber on;
Nor find with dreams the dear companion gone,
As summer ended summer birds take flight.
In happy dreams I hold you full in sight,
I blush again who waking look so wan;
Brighter than sunniest day that ever shone,
In happy dreams your smile makes day of night.
Thus only in a dream we are at one,
Thus only in a dream we give and take
The faith that maketh rich who take or give;
If thus to sleep is sweeter than to wake,
To die were surely sweeter than to live,
Though there be nothing new beneath the sun.

For Today.

For Today, this is appropriate.
Fuh, what a one and two days it has been.

The heart is a bloom
Shoots up through the stony ground
There's no room
No space to rent in this town

You're out of luck
And the reason that you had to care
The traffic is stuck
And you're not moving anywhere

You thought you'd found a friend
To take you out of this place
Someone you could lend a hand
In return for grace

It's a beautiful day
Sky falls, you feel like
It's a beautiful day
Don't let it get away

You're on the road
But you've got no destination
You're in the mud
In the maze of her imagination

You love this town
Even if that doesn't ring true
You've been all over
And it's been all over you

It's a beautiful day
Don't let it get away
It's a beautiful day

Touch me
Take me to that other place
Teach me
I know I'm not a hopeless case

See the world in green and blue
See China right in front of you
See the canyons broken by cloud
See the tuna fleets clearing the sea out
See the Bedouin fires at night
See the oil fields at first light
And see the bird with a leaf in her mouth
After the flood all the colors came out

It was a beautiful day
Don't let it get away
Beautiful day

Touch me
Take me to that other place
Reach me
I know I'm not a hopeless case

What you don't have you don't need it now
What you don't know you can feel it somehow
What you don't have you don't need it now
Don't need it now
Was a beautiful day
U2, Beautiful Day

2.

I wish I could remember that first day,
First hour, first moment of your meeting me,
If bright or dim the season, it might be
Summer or winter for aught I can say;
So unrecorded did it slip away,
So blind was I to see and to foresee,
So dull to mark the budding of my tree
That would not blossom yet for many a May.
If only I could recollect it, such
A day of days! I let it come and go
As traceless as a thaw of bygone snow;
It seem'd to mean so little, meant so much;
If only now I could recall that touch,
First touch of hand in hand--Did one but know!

first

I am a born sucker for all things romantic. I love the soppy and sentimental, as soppy sentimentals would; and as someone once pointed out, I would look out a glass window at a tree on which hang small yellow lights and sigh at the fireflies I see fluttering about there.
(is 'soppy' even a proper word?)

I don't know many poems I could call my 'favourites', and I understand fewer. But here is, Christina Rossetti's Monna Innominata : A sonnet of sonnets. A compilation of 14 of (to me) one of the most beautiful sonnets of love ever written :)

And the first sonnet goes :

Come back to me, who wait and watch for you:--
Or come not yet, for it is over then,
And long it is before you come again,
So far between my pleasures are and few.
While, when you come not, what I do I do
Thinking "Now when he comes," my sweetest when:"
For one man is my world of all the men
This wide world holds; O love, my world is you.
Howbeit, to meet you grows almost a pang
Because the pang of parting comes so soon;
My hope hangs waning, waxing, like a moon
Between the heavenly days on which we meet:
Ah me, but where are now the songs I sang
When life was sweet because you call'd them sweet?

Have I an object, Lord, below,
Which would divide my heart from Thee;
Which would divert its even flow
In answer to Thy constancy?
Oh, teach me quickly to return,
And cause my heart afresh to burn!

Have I a hope, however dear,
Which would defer Thy coming, Lord,
Which would detain my spirit here,
Where nought can lasting joy afford?
From it, my Saviour, set me free
To look and long and wait for Thee.

Be Thou the object bright and fair
To fill and satisfy the heart;
My hope to meet Thee in the air,
And nevermore from Thee to part;
That I may undistracted be
To follow, serve, and wait for Thee.

George W. Frazer

FUNDRAISER

its 12.48 a.m. I am sooooo tired and I smell like cookie dough.

and I'm so very happy. Because everything turned out so well. Thank you all who helped out!

Finally, it's here :

fundRAISEr for Hanging On To Love.
and if you're reading this and can make it :
@ppbc, 11 p.m., tomorrow (sunday)
there will be :
books, pies, jackepotatos, massage, cupcakes, scones n muffins, custom made 'HangingOnToLove' cookies, nasi lemak, one (1) absolutely brandnew handbag and one (1) cd for sale.

:) Come!

Whats Wrong!?

I've been trying and trying and trying to write this ridiculously short piece of news on the traffic jam on the North-South highway on Sunday. In Bahasa Melayu.

But it's just not working. ARRGGHH.

:(

Redang got cancelled :(

I wish things were simpler. I wish you didn't give up.

You r my heart.

My Father I adore You more than anything my heart could wish for, I just want You. And Jesus, my beloved Saviour, everything I am I owe to You; I owe it all to You. And angels come and adore You. And we Your children worship You.
You are my world, You are my God, and I lay down my life for You. You are my Lord, the one I love. No one could ever take You place.
And everything I am I give to You, my Lord, the one I live for. I live for You. And all my days are gifts from You, I pray I'd use them as You want me to, use them for You. And angels come and adore You. And we Your children worship You.
You are my world, You are my God, and I lay down my life for You. You are my Lord, the one I love. No one could ever take You place.

"But you will be fed with the finest of wheat; with honey from the rock I would satisfy You" (Psalm 81:16)

Chill

Battle scars & Raya Outdoors

can see anot?

Inset : One leech bite, three cuts.

And got summore others la (very good rite my england?) But i cannot show you.
All in all, Camp Banyak Orang was fun. Fun in the sun. And we FINALLY reached the waterfall, which was, really, worth the hike up.

I wouldn't mind staying another night. Nice lah, nature. God is good. :)