Rasa Unmasked

Lillian invited me for Rasa Unmasked by Sutra Foundation last Wednesday. I have heard much and have skimmed through some newspaper articles about Ramli Ibrahim, our very own Malaysian dance icon, but have never attended any of his concerts. Since there was no prayer meeting on, it being the third Wednesday of the month, and it's a complimentary ticket, why not?

Ticket to Rasa Unmasked

To be honest, we were prepared to have the performance go over our heads but there were parts which we really enjoyed. To our uninitiated eyes it appeared to be a a hotch-potch of Indian, Balinese and modern contemporary dance forms.

Cannot take photos so here's what was produced in the programme

The parts where the lady lamented on and on were super boring since we did not understand Indian, that is assuming it's one of the Indian dialects she is singing in. However, I really have to commend them for strong core muscles. Being able to keep one's balance standing on one leg whilst turning and doing stuff with the rest of the body is no mean feat.

Very Balinese

Being the typical kiam siap Penangite we refused to pay RM10 for the programme and were a bit - actually a lot - lost during the performance.

The programme we were too kiam siap to buy

We interpreted the performance as some karma rebirth story but it's actually about creation, the maya of existence and human emotions or rasa being interpreted through dance.

I found out all that when I finally laid hands on a copy of the programme which they were giving away FOC at the end of the evening. See, kiam siap-ness does pay off in the end.

This page would have helped make sense
of what was happening on stage

Clothes For Health

The other day hubby and I were at our favourite Malay tomyam stall for lunch. There were a number of Malay ladies there and all of them were obese. Hubby looked at them and commented that their clothes (baju kurung) were so shapeless that it was no wonder that they allowed themselves to get fat. They could get away with it!

Actually his observation is so true. Shapeless or loose clothes allow us to cover up our unsightly bulges so we happily pile on the weight and all the while we are endangering our health. But when you put on a pretty dress that shows off a less-than-perfect figure that'll trigger off alarm bells that, hey, you're on the slippery slope to obesity. The last straw that'll break a fully padded back is when someone asks you, "Are you pregnant?" That's when you know you're out of control.

So ladies, let's invest in some nice form fitting clothes - for our health's sake if not for vanity's sake! Haha!

But having said all that, exercising is easier said then done which is why most of us resort to the big cover up and let things slide. Sigh.

Not-So-Good Friday

Yesterday the day started off well. I read through Matthew chapters 26 and 27 in the morning and was humbled once again by what the Lord had done for me. I felt waves after waves of His love sweeping over and enveloping me. My heart just overflowed with love and gratitude for Him.

That was the pinnacle of my day. From then onwards it deteriorated.

We had material deadlines which we could not meet due to our client's sudden obsession for the nitty-gritty. We were asked to double the font size for the toll-free number which we did. When the artwork was submitted she claimed that it wasn't doubled.

We were baffled because we did double the point size so we asked her how she came to that conclusion. Believe it or not, she printed out the copy and measured the increase in size with a ruler!

The customer is always right so the ding-donging process for approval dragged on and on while we pleaded for extension after extension of the deadline. If deadlines are actually deadlines we would have died a number of times yesterday.

But you know what, His love carried me through. I thank God for drenching me in His love so I could face the day. It's still a Good Friday after all.

Raining Cats and Dogs

It was raining cats and dogs, rhinoceroses and hippopotamuses every evening for the past week or two.

On Tuesday evening the front porch of our office leaked. Rain was pouring down like there was no awning there.

The contractor came to fix the problem and, could you believe it, it didn't rain at all the next evening and we were so hoping that we could check whether the contractor did a good job.

See, I tell you. God has a sense of humour.

This photo was taken by me

This photo was taken by darling hubby.
Same camera, different photographer and the photo looks better.
Can even see the drops of water!

The whole porch was wet through

I Have Visitors

The sole purpose of this blog is for me to post some random thoughts. I did not expect people to visit then tiba tiba I had two comments over the past two days!

Thank you, thank you for visiting.

Now I have to be more careful di. Cannot simply say things that may come back and haunt me in the future!

God's Sense of Humour

God has a sense of humour. He can even use a joke shared from the pulpit to minister healing. That was what He did yesterday.

Pastor John Kirby shared this quip during his first sermon as the Interim Pastor for TOP's English section yesterday. I am not quoting it verbatim because I am terrible at quoting people word for word but it goes something like this:

"People who give you a piece of their mind can give away so much that they have nothing left!"

Haha. You'll never know how much of a comfort that was after a week of rude, crude, unreasonable and irrational verbal bashing.

Stressed to the Max

My stress meter registered 10 over the past 10 days.

On the work front there were so many things to rush out within a short space of time and having an impatient, stressed out client barking away at us did not help the least bit.

The church is in transition and again there are so many things to attend to. Letters to write and so many emails and sms-es to send out in order to keep everyone informed.

I find that in times like this it is the simple, foundational truths of our faith that can provide a stabilizing factor to undergird us and to keep us sane through all the upheaval.

• God is who He says He is.
• God can do what He says He can do.
• I am who God says I am.
• I can do all things through Christ.
• God's Word is alive and active in me.

I taught these facilitating a video Bible Study by Beth Moore. I never expected them to be my life line.

I survived. God is good.