Curious baby

Yesterday, we brought baby to Ling Shan Shi monastery in Paloh where baby became a Buddhist. Together with around 20 peoples, baby attended this simple ceremony to convert to Buddhist. This ceremony is held together with Wesak Day celebration over there.

Baby was quiet all the time. Maybe he was curious of so many people around him. Actually, it is not recommended to bring baby to crowded places since his immune system is still not strong. However, my wife wanted baby to attend this ceremony. So we stayed there just for a while before coming back.

Baby becoming a Buddhist

Listening to Master

Group photo with Master

Bathing for Little Buddha

Do we look alike?

Little Buddha

Wesak Day flower decoration overview

Ling Shan Shi monastery main area

Wesak Day's Little Buddha

Today the Buddhist celebrates Wesak day, which is the day of Gautama Buddha’s birth, enlightenment and passing away. The standard ceremony is pouring water over the Little Buddha. And this is always accompanied by beautiful flower arrangment.

My wife has been doing the Wesak Day flower arrangment in Kluang Zhi Zhu Ting temple for several years. And this year is no exception. Since time is tight, she did a simple design for this year Wesak Day.

Helping hands from relatives

My wife trying different arrangement

Early design overview - has been slightly changed later

Design closeup - left

Design closeup - right

Looks futuristic

A different angle

Back row

Little Buddha

Overall, this year Wesak Day decoration looks futuristic with UFO shape tower. Close up look gives an impression of future city with green grass, trees and pathway. This continues my wife’s flat design theme from previous year. It breaks away from traditional heavy use of flowers and leaves.

Me of course lend a helping hand. Do you see the tiny green chrysanthemum flower spread across the table? We planted it one by one. And with longer feet and hands, I was responsible for planting those chrysanthemum flower in the back row. Ouch! My back!

Happy Wesak Day to those who celebrates it.

Seminar on success in the morning by Dr Lee

Last Saturday, I went to Seremban for a charity event – “You are my eye”. This was a Chinese musical performance by a group of blind people from Taiwan. For the first time, Dr Lee invited them over here to perform and to raise fund for several charity organizations. Mr Wang Nai Hui, a speaker with cerebral palsy from Taiwan, was also invited.

The day began with a seminar on success by Dr Lee from Taiwan. He shared with us the correct mindset to achieve success in our life.

Searching for success

Dr Lee (left) imitating Mr Wang Nai Hui

Me (right) and Mr Wang Nai Hui

Charity musical show in the evening

There were a total of 70 tables

Me (right) and Dr Lee's son - Chong Hui, the emcee

The blind musical performers

Blind but talented

Overall, this was a warmhearted musical show. It showed people are still willing to give and help the unfortunate even in time of financial difficulty.

These performers didn’t let their handicap prevent them from achieving success in their field. Some have bachelor degree, master degree and even Ph.D. Although they are blind, they are more hardworking than many people. And their musical talent is not worse than normal people either.

I really enjoyed their musical performance.

He mentioned that basically, we are water. So show more love and appreciation to water around us. Hopefully, this will make Earth a better place. Overall, I would say this seminar touched us emotionally. Here’s are some photos taken during Dr Emoto seminar.

For this trip, Dr Emoto went to 3 cities in Taiwan and 2 cities in Malaysia before coming to Singapore. He was invited by Mr Ling, the founder for “Deep Level Communication” from Taiwan. For Dr Emoto, this is his record breaking trip. For these 6 cities, more than 10,000 people attended. The record number is at Kuala Lumpur with 3200 participants. Dr Emoto previous record was 2800 participants for one talk.

Watching Dr Emoto video before the seminar starts

Many people came in early

Dr Emoto speaks English with Chinese translation

Q & A session between Dr Emoto and Mr Ling

Dr Emoto signs his book

Dr Emoto autograph

Autograph session with participant

Mr Ling signs his book

Mr Ling and me

At last, we managed to take a photo with Dr Emoto

If you noticed something wrong in the above photo, it’s because someone stood between my wife and me in the original photo. I’ve erased it using Photoshop

More detail on Dr Emoto Message from Water

Of course, I didn’t forget to take some photos of this beautiful hotel. However, I had to use Panasonic FX36 point and shoot camera since it was too troublesome to bring the much bigger Nikon D60 SLR camera.

Elegant hotel reception

Beautiful hanging lamp

Solid elevator path

Simple and nice elevator

Enjoy the big space with natural sunlight

Fire and water

Aquamarine buffet restaurant

Spacious dining place

Special chair arrangement

Marina Mandarin Hotel was built with great design in mind. You can see elegant decoration and design in every corner. The huge empty space in the middle is surrounded by hotel rooms. And the external elevator moves up and down to transport people between these rooms. Enjoy the spacious environment accompanied by the elevator’s gentle movement.

Hmmm… I’m hungry! Let’s go get some food at the Aquamarine buffet restaurant. As its name suggests, this restaurant is designed around the theme of marine world. You will see light and clear design everywhere. However, don’t expect to see prawn, crab and other seafood being served here.

Beautiful aquarium with fast moving fishes

Celebrating birthday

A special round table

Chicken rice and Indian cuisine

Chef cooking fried noodle per request - noodle is delicious depending on who cooks it

Bread anyone?

Salad and mini sandwich with tuna or sardine

Porridge with many side dishes

Traditional Chinese "Dim Sum"

Make your own "Popiah"

Make your own "Rojak"

Delicious chocolate cake with other desserts

Make your own "Ais kacang" (Ice peanut)

Mini desserts and "Muah Chi"

The healthy fruits

Sushi with salmon sashimi

The food was good (I’m easily satisfied with food) although the service was slightly slow when we ordered our drink. Maybe it was due the crowded people in that Saturday noon. Overall, I really enjoyed this buffet lunch.

For any buffet meal, just remember not to eat too full. You may want to “eat back your money” but at the end, you’re ruining your health.

Love and gratitude

You may have heard of the power of thought to change your health, wealth or relationship. Your thought can make something magically happens. Your thought can even make this world a better place.

Some people are still skeptical of this. But few years ago, Dr Masaru Emoto proved it through his experiment on water crystal. He pasted a piece of paper written with certain message on a bottle of water. After a while, he froze the water and used a microscope to photograph the water crystal image.

Dr Masaru discovered different messages produced different water crystal image. Good message such as “love” and “thank you” produced beautiful crystal. Bad message such as “I hate you” and “I kill you” produced ugly and broken crystal.

This shows your thought can indeed influence water. And since your body has 70% water, imagine what thought can do to your body? Here are some videos on “Message from water” by Dr Masaru.

And here is a good news if you’re from Malaysia or Singapore. Dr Masaru is invited for a talk on “Message from water” at the following venue at 7:30 pm.

23rd April 2009
PGRM Tower
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

24th April 2009
Kuan Rou Chinese Secondary School
Johor Bahru, Malaysia

25th April 2009
Furama Hotel
Singapore

Dr  Masaru speech will be translated from Japanese into Chinese. The entrance fee is RM 50 for Malaysia and SGD 50 for Singapore. Dr Masaru had given speech in many countries and this is the first time he comes over here. By participating in this event, you will also get a free DVD documentary on Earth’s beginning, destruction and how you can make this world a better place.

Find out more on Dr Masaru research at:

http://www.masaru-emoto.net
http://www.emotoproject.org (click on “Children’s book”)

Followup Post: Dr Emoto in Singapore

Happiest moment in life

In November last year, we did a balloon wedding decoration for my wife’s friend. The venue was at Kim Wah Loon restaurant in Kluang. Previously, we did this balloon decoration for our relatives’ wedding. Then, some friends asked us to decorate for them too. Gradually, we started to do this as part time.

Wedding dining area

Stage front view

Balloon chain on stage

Wedding flower basket - pearl

Wedding flower basket - red

Spiral balloon with stand

My wife is in charge of flower decoration. Her cousin, Johnny is in charge of the balloon. Me? I’m just helping a bit here and there. Before this, our balloon decoration was rather messy. There was no spiral design. But now, it looks a bit more like professional.

Where do we learn from? Youtube!

If you’re interested to have this kind of balloon design for your wedding, we can help out. Just let me know by leaving a comment.