Time to cross books!

Have you ever heard of BookCrossing?

Well, I never - until last week when I went to 1Utama in Bandar Damansara. I was walking through Ground Floor Highstreet and I spotted this bookshelf located at the side of the walkway.



Normally people won't give a care about a random bookshelf in a shopping centre, but being the book-lover that I always am, I walked over to check it out. A big poster caught my attention.



BookCrossing is defined as "the practice of leaving a book in a public place to be picked up and read by others, who then do likewise." The term is derived from bookcrossing.com, a free online book club which began in order to encourage the practice, aiming to "make the whole world a library."

BookCrossing literally opened a whole new world for me. I love their concept; it's so creative! And what's a better way to get more people interested in books by using such an interesting method?

Also, bookaholics can now have a chance to share their books instead of not touching them anymore after a few reads.

New York Times quoted: "If you love your books, let them go."

So, how do you get started?

1. Find books at home that you'll like to share with others
2. Register at http://www.bookcrossing.com/ for a Book ID number
3. Pick up a free book sticker label at BookCross@1U
4. Write down you Book ID number
5. Leave books on lounge bookshelf
6. Log online to see who has found and read you bookBookCrossing is perfectly described as the modern day "message in a bottle". It's like a mystery when you pick up a book at BookCross and wonder whose book might that be. The owner may turn out to be of someone you actually know!

Furthermore, it's a fun way to make friends with people who has picked up your book. It really supports BookCrossing's mission to connect people through books!



1Utama is proudly the first mall in Asia to have a BookCrossing Zone, so those interested can head on to 1Utama or http://www.bookcrossing.com/ for more info.



“A book is not only a friend, it makes friends for you. When you have possessed a book with mind and spirit, you are enriched. But when you pass it on you are enriched threefold.”

— Henry Miller
The Books In My Life (1969)

Happy reading!

How awesome is our God!? :)

As a Christian for so many years, I've heard countless testimonies about people experiencing God in such a powerful way that I do not fail to go "WOW. WOW. WOW!" every single time.

Honestly, those out-of-the-world experiences never did happen to me. Well sure, a number of times God answered my prayers and.. I just felt that, wow God is such an amazing God. He does wonderful things, He answered my prayers miraculously which always leaves me in a state of disbelief.

Which continued to: God. Is. Real.

All those testimonies that I heard over the years.. they seem distant, so surreal that I find it hard to put them in my line of thinking. They always say "God spoke to me". But I always wonder, how did God spoke to them? In which way? What did they experience? Supernatural feelings all of a sudden?

Until recently, my childhood friend shared a wonderful testimony. It involved one of my close friend's brother, which kinda brought something real close to my heart. I felt really encouraged by her story, and I hope to share it with all of you out there (:

"At times, YOU can hear God telling you to do something, you're pretty sure about that, but you just don't have the guts to do so. It's because I experience the same thing. Apparently everyone does, and so my story is to encourage all those who got some "weird" ideas or compulsion to DO something, but are just afraid of what people might think.

That morning I went to school, I was revising halfway when I heard my classmates gossiping.

"..really? He's got depression?"

"I heard it was insomnia and anxiety. Had to see the psychiatrist!"

Later I found out that it was one of my classmates, YL, who had been absent for a few weeks. I didn't know the whole story yet, but apparently he came back to school today...

When he walked into the class..i had this urge to pray for him. I told God, " Well God, if You really want me to pray for him. Then let him stay slightly later in class during recess. I don't want to pray when all his buddies are around."

*note: His buddies are anti-God I'd say. They actually told him that no God can help him. They don't need a God to help them. All you have to do is to trust yourself.! >~<'''

Great. They say it so loudly just before i had the urge to pray. I'm scared that they'll probably make fun of me...But You have to make a stand.

Recess came, and YL didn't stay back: Aha! God, he didn't stay back, maybe prayer isn't today.

To my surprise, as i was on the way to the library, I bumped into him ( and his buddies). My mind was going: Okay, okay God. Today. TODAY!

So I dragged him out of the library, told him i wanted to pray for him.

I was praying halfway and one of his friends came out questioning me, " What are you trying to do larh~ You think it'll help him sleep meh?" I continued praying.

Recess was over and i headed back to class. Here's the most interesting part. I had a STRONG impression that i had to write a letter to YL. The letter must have

(a) "God loves you."

(b) and a verse from Psalms attached!( It was clear, the verse Must come from Psalms. But Psalms has 150 chapters! =.= )

I hesitated. I don't know this classmate of mine. Really, you can be in class for the whole year through and not know anything else of the other person than the basics. I thought, my mind was playing games, again. I told Darryl, a new believer, about it.

It's crazy. You don't go up to a stranger and tells him, "God loves you." or write him a letter. There was so much internal struggles.

His advice : It's from God right? You're sure about that. Then do it lah~ You've got nothing to lose!

(Goodness, he's so new, yet he's more willing to do bizzare things for God than me, a 6-year-old Christian. Shame on me XD~ )

"But what about the Psalms thing?" I asked.

" I'll look for it. You start writing."

I finished my letter. One portion was blanked to fill The-Psalms-Verse, which will magically "pop" out in 150 chapters. Honestly, i have doubts.

But when it came, Darryl flipped open the bible-----and there it was, right before your very eyes, no hassle---- the verse was:-

Psalms 4:8
"I will lie down and sleep in peace, for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety."

How could it be? God gave me the Perfect verse because he knows everything. He knows, that YL had a tough time sleeping, waking average or 6-7 times at night.

I can only obey now. And i did. I shove the letter to him. And he asked me in what name I was praying for him earlier, he said he felt at peace. I told him I'm a Christian, and God asked me to pray and pass this letter to him. I made it clear that it wasn't me, it was God.

I told him, that if he couldn't sleep, read the verse, put it under his pillow, and he'll get sleep. I don't know what gave me the guts to say that. All i know is that if God wanted to reached out to him, He'll make His name known.

The next day, he was absent. I was thinking whether the verse worked. I had been praying hard for 2 days. The next day, he came up to me. He said, " Beatrice, you're method worked! I slept through that night! I want to know more about this God you pray to.."

I can only smile. That was 2 weeks ago. He still keeps asking and wanting to know more about this God that wants to have a relationship with humans, just as they are =)

Be bold, be courages! My brothers and sisters.
If your idea is crazy, then be crazy for God!


*P.s.
today is 20/5/2011
My prayer was answered. YL went to church on his own initiative. I was not expecting that to come so soon. Praise God! It blows my mind how obedience works. It didn't just changed my mind. It changed his life. AMEN! =D "

I'm hoping that someday I will experience God in a ground-breaking way too, and I can use my testimony to inspire others as well :P

P.S. Read more on true christian stories here =] http://community.urtherevolution.com/Story/List/id/1

Hari Anugerah Cemerlang 2011

My school had its Hari Anugerah Cemerlang quite late (early May) when other schools already had theirs. The "best" thing was, the day clashed with Sunway University's Jeffrey Cheah scholarship ceremony.

Well, I chose to skip the ceremony because.. for a simple reason: It feels good to be back in my old school, seeing old friends again =)

With Ca Hoe and Kat



So nervous going onto the stage :S



With Phoi Yih and Shu Min



Second time going up the stage.. for Moral Terbaik SPM. Was so shocked man, never thought I would get the best subject award ;P



With the moms.



With Veronica, PY and Kat



Now with the dads. LOL.



With Kat, Ver, Joy and Mean Shan



Group photo of everyone =)



Second shot!



Miss my gang of friends very much. After secondary school, everyone is parting their own ways. Some go to different colleges, and even different states. It's only a matter of time when we meet again.

My gang and I try to meet every holiday, to catch up on everything and.. basically anything! We meet new friends in college, and yes their awesome in their own way but duhh - you can't deny the fact that old friends are still the best. Cheers.

To my gang of friends, let's all keep in touch - forever and always =) *hearts*

Sister's birthday :)

It was my sister's birthday on April 27th. So my dad bought her a (small) birthday cake.



Nopes, not Secret Recipe. (*hint hint* :P) It's from Tong Kee Bread Tarts.



With candles on :D



Ahhh, lovely candles.



Smiling so radiantly with her cake :P





For dinner, we went to Little Pantry in IOI. Again, lol! Cuz my sister wanted to try out that place xD

This time, I brought my compact to polish up my food photography skills haha. Just on the same day, I read the Snapshots column (written by Jason Goh and Jason Lioh) about food ethics. Aha!

So anyway, the lamb shank.



I love lamb but this is the first time I ate the "shank" part. Don't like it, at all. Meat is not soft like the other parts, so it's kinda tough to chew. Doesn't have the full aroma, no flavour, and all I tasted was the lamb's foul smell.




You know how some lambs - when not cooked well - give off some smell? Yea.. so I made sure the black pepper sauce covered every bite. The mashed potato was not bad actually.. it came in a huge portion, so I was not able to finish it after the lamb. Though I really wanted to :P



The fish AGAIN. Described it in my previous post, you can take a look here.

If you're a first-timer, I would really recommend this. Pity I can't remember the name, but maybe, you'd find a picture of it in the menu? :P





Salmon pizza.



You may think that it doesn't look like it has salmon in it. Well the only thing I can remember of this pizza was, the horrible yellow cream stuff - which apparently turned out to be mozarella/cheddar cheese.

And it doesn't taste like cheese. Not even one teeny tiny bit. We ate them like, blueeurgh.



Chicken with black pepper sauce. So-so, nothing to really comment about.



After the pizza, this, is the real deal - salmon fish.



I'm not a salmon fish lover, so I'm not going to comment anything for fear of being biased xD But still, it looks yummy doesn't it?



Finally, the contented birthday girl. Peace out ^^

Little Pantry in IOI

Okay so it was probably a month ago.. my mom and I went to this cute PINK cafe o_O in IOI Mall, Puchong. I love diners with interiors that are oh-so-gorgeous but not everything splashed in pink. Well, anyway.

It's called Little Pantry.


This is a separate compartment for dining. It's like a small little house! With traditional English designs :)

Mom ordered the set meal, which is actually quite worth it. It came with a Soup of the Day - on that day it was tomato soup. The tomato flavour came out quite strong, not what I expected (plain, no-tomato-taste-at-all soup). Really delicious! It warms your stomach without filling it too much.

(I know the feeling when you drink one whole bowl of Pizza Hut's mushroom soup and then you still have the pizza.)

And a... umm forgot what's it called. But it's fish. The cheese cream and the sweet special sauce blends in well with the soft and juicy meat. Yummy, it's the first time that I like fish, cooked western styled.

I don't quite prefer fish and chips.

And guess what I ordered.

Double cheese pasta. Kids' meal. Zzz =.="

I didn't realised it was in the kids menu until I saw how small is the plate. And it's a really small portion - yes perfect for kids =.= What a dumb choice I made.

The first mouth and I was like, ewww no way. The cream is very very thick (okay fine it's "double cheese") which made me want to vomit after a few mouths. I didn't know it was like the white cream sauce spaghetti, double the cream.

I had a perfectly opposite expectation of "double cheese".

The menu made me feel cheated. So please, next time take a closer look at the menu before ordering.

Although I can't exchange for another meal, the waitress was quite nice to us. She kept asking us how was the food, if I want to order a different one etc. I think their service is not bad.

To comfort my unsettling stomach, I went around and took photos of the interior.

Yes, even the waitress' uniform is in PINK. They make it look like an anime cosplay or something. I would die if I'm seen in that uniform.

Dessert: fruit cake with nuts. The verdict: Nah.. not really nice. Plus I was already so bloated, how to enjoy??

The back part of the cafe.

The dining area right smack in the middle. The entrance is in the background, with yellow balloons around it.

(Aargh ignore my finger)

The table setting just in front, right after you walk in the entrance.

P/S: Photos were taken with a phone camera that explains the poor quality; I forgot to bring my compact :/