Visiting Chapel of Immaculate Conception

I recently visited the Chapel of Immaculate Conception in Sungai Batu (Stone River). I was told that many miracles have taken place there. The chapel is isolated and difficult to get to. Luckily, members of a nearby church gave us direction to the location.

I was unable to find the location of the chapel on Google but found a few blogs by others sharing their visit. For those of you who want to go the chapel, the coordinates are:

5.653000, 100.496000

The location on Google map:

The chapel may be locked and you will need to call the caretaker (Mr. Francis – 013 4569984) to open it if you wish to pray. Note that the caretaker only understands Malay language.

History of the chapel - found at the entrance of the chapel

Based on the history, the chapel was originally built in 1935 by the estate management to cater for the needs of the Catholics there but was removed in 1981 by the government to make way for development. In 1987, one of the parishioner donated a land to build the existing chapel.  The feast day is held every year in December.

The Chapel

The sign on the outside

Scenery from the compound

Cows from the village

Looking out of the entrance from the compound

Picture of the compound

The Altar

Statue of Mother Mary

Another statue of Mother Mary

Inside the chapel

How to send a link that will add a calendar subscription

If you have a calendar that you want to help a friend subscribe, this is how you do it:

Send them a link with the following <url> followed by the calendar id.

The url is as follow:

https://www.google.com/calendar/render?cid=

For example, if the calendar id is 2skpnamedhqnlhfesc3l77qvkk@group.calendar.google.com

then send them a link as follow:


https://www.google.com/calendar/render?cid=2skpnamedhqnlhfesc3l77qvkk@group.calendar.google.com

Try it out by clicking here.

When the link opens, Google Calendar will ask whether or not to add the calendar

The Malaysian School Holiday calendar is used in this example

Premium Coffee

I started drinking coffee black a few years ago in the attempt of reducing my calorie intake and to better appreciate the taste of coffee. Initially I did not like the bitter taste but after a while I enjoyed it.

I prefer instant coffee since I did not always have a coffee maker handy and did not want to make a whole pot just to enjoy a cup. There are many brands of coffee in the market in various packaging. All the different brands were derived from Arabica coffee. The price of the coffee was almost the same and the taste were also almost the same. Even the ones I had from restaurants taste almost the same.

Recently, a colleague of mine gave me three sachet of Starbucks VIA Dark Italian Roast. The taste was very different from all other instant coffee I have tasted before. It is much richer and sweeter even without adding sugar or cream. It also provided a stronger caffeine effect on me. Not sure if this will continue since it is the first one I had. I had Starbucks coffee before but not the VIA but did not feel the same effect. Maybe I did not add enough water. However, this cup was enough for me to get more. Based on the price, the Starbucks VIA cost about 1.7 times more than the other instant coffee in the market. With it, I now have a variety of taste for my coffee.

Sadly though I discovered this a bit late. I was unable to find the Seasonal blend. The store I went to did not have any in stock. I guess I will need to wait until next year to try it.

I gave one to my mother but she did not like it at all. She felt that it was too bitter. The same reaction I had when I started drinking black coffee.

The coffee may be a tad more expensive but it will be one of the things I am willing to splurge on.

Counting My Blessings

Instead of setting up a new year resolution, I thought it would be a good time to count my blessings instead. One of the key components in the Law of Attraction is gratitude. In order to feel gratitude, we need to reflect on all the various blessings and gifts we have in our life. Rather than looking at things to improve all the time, we sometimes have to stop and see what we already have.

First to be thankful about being alive and here today and being able to write this article. Here are the list of things I am thankful for the year 2013:

• that everyone in the family is healthy.
• having a good job.
• working with great and supportive people.
• having money in my savings account.
• having food to eat everyday.
• living in a peaceful country.
• having people who appreciates and loves me.
• having things to believe in.
• having and knowing talents and gifts I have been given.
• getting to know wonderful people from different countries around the world.
• having a great team to work with.
• having multiple source of income.
• being able to enjoy wonderful movies.

I find this exercise to be extremely useful to help me appreciate what I already have. Too often, we compare with others and are jealous with what others have and become disillusioned and frustrated. We also see injustice being done and hate them for it. However, the hate does not make things better but instead eat us up from the inside. What needs to be done are things that are within our control and not to worry about things that we cannot change.

Happy 2014. Here is to all the things that we will be grateful for in the coming year!