First Days in SF

Arrived at San Francisco International Airport in Tuesday morning 27th Dec at 10am after an 18 hour flight from Singapore with a 1+ hour stopover in South Korea's Inchon airport where we had a couple of bowls of noodles. It was Nathan's first flight and we are thankful that we managed to get a seat with a bassinet so that we could sleep in it. Matthew's video console didn't work very well on the first leg of the journey to Seoul and had to be rebooted a few times. Still it didn't work well and kept hanging on the games. In the end he gave up and went to sleep.
For Nathan, he wasn't quite used to the flight, but was generally good on the trip. Only when we were landing at Inchon did he cry a lot due to the pain and pressure in the ear that he wasn't used to.
On the second leg from Seoul to SF, the tail winds were very strong, reaching 200 knots or 350 kmh at one point. This made the flight a bit bumpy especially when we passed over 2 storms in the Pacific Ocean. Those storms have now followed us to SF and is raining down hard right now.
I spoke to the leading stewardess and she said that there were 15 babies on this trip but only 8 bassinets, so we are not really thankful. Thankfully, Matthew's video console worked this time and he was able to watch a few shows. Well, the strong tailwind helped us arrive in SF 1hr 20 min ahead of schedule.
When we went through immigration, the officers don't come across too many people with H1B1SG visas, so it took us quite some time to clear. In fact, we were the last ones on the flight to clear. Also, we found out that although the visas were valid for 18 months, we can be admitted for only 1 year at a time, so it looks like we all have to fly back to Singapore before Christmas next year. Now I have to look at saving and raising funds for the trip back. Originally, we didn't plan to go back until April 2007 so hadn't budgeted for that.
We had quite a lot of luggage, 6 checked in and another 3 carry on. So when it came to collecting the luggage and handling 1 boy and 1 infant at the same time, it was very challanging. We finally got a porter to help us in the end for USD30 for all the bags. A bit expensive, but I think it was worth it cos we wouldn't have managed otherwise.
Our friends Phil and Alex from the church came to pick us up in 2 MPVs and Phil brought his 3 daughters who have become good friends with Matthew during our last trip here in August. We went to the church and moved all the stuff to the rooms and then went to a nearby Vietnamese restaurant for lunch. It was rather cheap according to American standards and quite good. We bought some take aways as well for dinner.
After lunch, we went back to the rooms and then I went with Phil to his house to pick up the cara, a Saturn that he is lending to us until we get our own car. The car is a compact sedan and just barely fits the family inside. Also, it's manual and Li Soon can't really drive it in SF's hills.

After picking up the car, I went back to the rooms and showered and slept as we didn't sleep much on the plane. Had a late dinner and continued to arrange the place and unpack a little.
One of the challenges we faced immediately was taking care of Nathan. He is extremely active and likes to explore everywhere. In Singapore, we had 2 maids to take care of him when we were busy - ours and my aunt's. Also, we had the play-pen to put him into so that he would not get into trouble running and climbing. We didn't have those luxuries here the first few days, and had to spend a lot of energy taking care of him and chasing after him. Unfortunately, being in a new place, he didn't know the dangers around and fell several times, once from the 4ft high end of the bed, thankfully onto a carpeted floor. That really scared him and us.
Also, he started to miss the people at home including the maids, aunty Iris and our parents who came to visit a lot just before we left and developed a bond with him. So Nathan was having difficulty sleeping and kept crying after 1 hours of sleep. He was feeling homesick and insecure due to the change of environment that he didn't understand. I had to carry him for quite some time before he would go to sleep again. Fortunately, he is very close to me, so I was the only one who could calm him down after some effort. The consequence of this was that both Li Soon and I were very tired for the next few days.

Tomorrow's the day

Yup. Finally got to the last day in Singapore before we leave for San Francisco. It's been a week of parties one after another. At home, at relatives' and at my parents last night. We are all pigged out. Our favourite excuse, of course, is that we won't get a chance to eat all the local food for awhile.
Today we are going to do the last minute stuff and try to relax. Most of the bags are packed - finally, and we are going to have a foot and back massage, cut Matthew and my hair, develop some photos and stuff. Tonight is the final party with Li Soon's favourite "kiam chye ah" or salted vegetable duck soup. She says it reminds her of Chinese New Year's - which we will miss without the family.
The reality of our moving has finally hit home. Going to say goodbye to friends, loved ones and familiar places, foods, things to do. Sometimes I have apprehension on why we are doing this, but we have to just trust God to show us. I'm sure He has a lot in store for us.

6 days to go

Can't believe it's less than a week before we leave for San Francisco. It's been an interesting couple of months counting down to the 27th. It's going to be a week of parties! Tonight, we have a party at home for church friends and some family. On Saturday, a party at my parents' and another party on Christmas night.
As the date draws closer, the realisation that the major change in our lives is upon us. We ponder as we move from a large, comfortable 4000 sft home to 2 100sft rooms in SF. From having 2 maids to do everything from taking care of the kids to cooking, cleaning and washing to having to do everything ourselves. It's going to get some getting used to. I think it will be good for us to learn to take care of ourselves.
Last Sunday, I shared with the church about our ministry and they prayed for and commended us into the ministry.
Please click the link to my newsletter on the right for more info about our ministry for the next 1 1/2 years.

I'll be spending the next couple of days sorting out my company accounts before I go. Boring but necessary work.
My key verse
"12Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. "
Phil 3: 12-14 (NIV)

Leaving for the US

I guess many of you already know this, but I have been too lazy to officially blog it. Come 27th December 2005, my family will be leaving for San Francisco for 16 months. I will be in full-time media ministry with Cornerstone Evangelical Baptist Church in San Francisco. I will be working on Family Programming for Asian families amongst other tech and music ministries. Matthew will be going to school at Cornerstone Academy and Li Soon will make the challenging transition from IT consultant to a full time mother.
On Wednesday, we shipped off 16 boxes of stuff, about 3 cubic metres worth of clothes, computers, books etc. Now we are living out of the clothes that we will be bringing in 6 suitcases.

Matthew's birthday

Celebrated Matthew's 6th birthday on Sunday 30th and Monday 31st (his actual birthdate). Invited his school classmates on Sunday afternoon for a birthday party at home with food from McDonald's and games by my cousin Cheryl's friends.

Long sickness

Wow. It's been a really long time since my last post. Went to China for a week to QD and Shanghai. It's nice to be back in QD after 1 year since the last time I was there. Quite different this time though, it's mainly business. Went for the Haier Global conference and lots of meetings. Wanted to meet with some of the friends there, but even until the day I was to leave, I couldn't get their number. By God's grace, believe it or not, I almost literally bumped into one of them on the street. I was walking back to the hotel from Carrefour after dinner and the look on his face was priceless. What a shock to see me there and vice versa. Anyway, he was on the way home from work and was changing buses right outside my hotel. See how God really makes things happen when He wills it. Anyway, got his number and called him later to get another friend's number whom I met for dinner the next night before we left for Shanghai. It was a good time of sharing sitting at McDonald's.
Next morning, we all left for Shanghai where all 5 of us moved into a 3 bedroom serviced apartment. Quite nice, and we were on the 2nd highest floor. Nice views.
However, by that time I was already feeling sick, so didn't really want to do too much shopping. But Shanghai is indeed an interesting place to visit and shop. You can hear Singaporeans all around you in the shopping and eating places. You can tell by the distinctive Singaporean accent and Singlish that they speak.
Got back home and was sick for more than a week with a bad throat and cough. Went to see the doctor's for antibiotics and got some rest here and there. Still trying to recover completely and catching up with the work I'd not done last week.
Now in the office at almost 9pm doing a DVD due tomorrow. I've got to do DVD authoring training tomorrow at Nanyang Poly, so need to finish this tonight.
DVD burning done! Gotta go!

Off to China

Will be going off to QingDao in China next week for an International Seminar with Haier.
Before that, have the following to do
1. Finish training and hooking up equipment for customer
2. 2 Brian Cummins seminars tonight and tomorrow night
3. Do Tech for Chinese Moon Cake Festival evening on Saturday

Busy tech days

Wow! It's been quite busy tech stuff wise for church since my return.
Friday 2 Sept - Set up for Bible Camp at Paramount Hotel and rehearsal for Lily Chung
Saturday 3 Sept - Lily and Larry concert at Paramount Hotel
Sunday 4 Sept - Worship service and pick up equipment from Paramount hotel
Wednesday 7 Sept - Setup sound system for Mong Hua's father's wake and get ready equipment for Mrs Evelyn Tan's wake, video recording of Brian Cummin's seminar "A journey of faith with the Patriarchs" at church
Thursday 8 Sept - Day 2 of video recording of Brian Cummin's seminar "A journey of faith with the Patriarchs" at church
Friday 9 Sept - Missed AES committee meeting, attended Mong Hua's father's wake
Saturday 10 Sept - Pick up equipment for Alpha from church, transport to Plaza Hotel and setup with Marcus, pick up sound system from Mong Hua's father's wake, worship rehearsal, went to Church of Christ of Malaya to take a look at lighting gel problems
Sunday 11 Sept - Worship service, pickup up equipment from Plaza Hotel after

Busy Busy

More pictures

Swimming pool at Sedona Summit Resort


Down the natural water slide at Slide Rock Park


Taking a break after shopping


Fishing


Tailgate picnic


Family at Grand Canyon


Matthew at Sedona

In Arizona

Spent the first full day, Monday, in Arizona pretty much resting and settling in to the nice studio apartment at the Sedona Summit Resort. Sedona is well known for it's red rock formations that surround the town like an artist's painting. The different play of shadows and light as the sun moves through the sky during the day make for interesting and changing views.
We slept in late and then headed out to the Safeway supermarket to pick up some food and drinks. Bought a whole 24 pack of mineral water as we know the days are going to be hotter than in SF. 80s and 90s F will prevail. Also bought instant noodles. You know there aren't many Chinese around when they only have 1 type of instant noodles in the supermarket. There's also a forecast of thunderstorms in the afternoons. Matthew went swimming this morning with Phil's family in the morning. I don't think he swam so often in his life as he did in the time in Sedona.
Phil cooked lunch and we did out laundry in the afternoon and rested some more from the long trip.

Pictures from Arizona and Yosmite

Our families at Grand Canyon


Family at Grand Canyon


Matthew with friend Victoria


With Ranger Deb


Ready to play a game at Grand Canyon


Matthew close-up


Matthew ready to swim


Harry at Yosemite


Harry and Li Soon at Yosemite


Family at Inspiration Point Yosemite


Matthew in front of Half Dome at Yosemite

Going home

Today, we will be flying home to Singapore from San Francisco after a month away. Seems to fast, and yet I am looking forward to seeing my little Nathan again for his 1 year birthday on the 28th. Wow. He's already 1 year old.
We''ll be leaving SF at 120pm today and arriving at 1am in the morning on the 28th. Don't know if I will be able to make it to church on Sunday morning.
It's been a productive, fruitful and learning experience for all of us during the time here. Li Soon and Matthew especially had learned and experienced a lot of new things. I'm so happy that God has provided the opportunity to do so this time.
PTL.

Catching up with blogging

Wow!! I just realised that I haven't updated my blog for 1 1/2 weeks already. There was no internet connection at the place we stayed in Arizona, so I couldn't get online to get emails or anything.
Anyway, here's what happened.

On Saturday, 20th August, I got up early and tried to get a ride to the airport car rental place to pick up the car I'd booked at Alamo for our Arizona trip. Phil had lent me his car to get around in SF, but since it was last minute trip, we did not get a chance to get it serviced or looked at and I didn't want to risk a fairly long trip in it. So I decided to rent a car instead.
What happened was, Phil was supposed to go with another family to his timeshare in Arizona for a week, and we were supposed to spend the week visiting some theme parks and attractions near San Francisco. But at the last minute, the other family couldn't go as their father was critically ill, on the terminal list. So Phil asked us if we wanted to go with his family instead. After discussing with Li Soon, we said.... why not. Li Soon and Matthew have never been to the Grand Canyon before and furthermore, we wanted to visit Yosemite with Wing Kong and family but they were not free. Phil also wanted to visit Yosemite since he had never been there before, so we decided to go to Yosemite on the way home from Arizona.

It was going to be a 800 mile drive from SF to Sedona, Arizona. Sedona is famous for it's red rock cliffs that surround 3 sides of the town. We drove separately to Sedona. Phil left very early on Saturday morning as he wanted to drive the 800 miles there in one day. Li Soon and I decided to take it easy and break down the drive into 2 days.

Well, my neighbour in the dorm, Mr. Ian, who is from Vancouver and dislikes driving in the city, kindly drove Li Soon, Matthew and me to the rental pickup place. After picking up the car (a mid-sized Dodge Stratus), we drove back to the church and loaded in all the stuff that we had packed the night before. It wasn't very much. 1 suitcase, several small bags and a hot water pot. One thing great about a driving holiday is that you can bring all sorts of stuff, unlike when you have to fly and have to worry about checking stuff in and what you can and cannot bring on board the aircraft. You don't even have to pack everything into a suitcase for a driving holiday!

We finally got started at about 1130am and drove through the Bay Bridge, then I-580 East to I-5 South, across to highway 99 and Bakersfield. From Bakersfield, we took the CA-58 which took us to Barstow. About 400 mile drive which was a nice halfway point. We made numerous stops along the way and it was hot, but not extremely hot. Li Soon had her first chance to drive in the US on Saturday. Between Bakersfield and Barstow, we drove through the Mohave desert and the town of Mohave where many unused commercial airliners are mothballed waiting for their day to be called back to service. We also went through the Tahachapi pass, which is famous for it's many windmills that help to generate electricity. We passed by Edwards Airforce Base where the Space Shuttle landed.

When we reached Barstow, which I had been before, there was supposed to be a big factory outlet. Barstow is the intersection of several highways. I-15 which goes from LA to Las Vegas, I-40 which starts in Barstow and goes across the US East-West, and CA-58. I drove through most of Barstow from CA-58 towards Las Vegas on I-15 but could not find the outlets. Finally, I said maybe it's in the other direction. So we turned around and went towards LA on I-15, passed the CA-58 turnoff and voila! The next exit was where all the factory outlets were. Our first task other than looking at what stores the factory outlets had was to look for accomodations for the night as it was getting late. We first looked at a Holiday Day Inn Express which was just next to the stores, but decided against it after we found out it was $130 per night++. We drove across to the other side of the freeway and finally found a Red Roof Inn for less than $50 for the night!! Thank God. It even had T-Mobile Wireless internet (not free), but that was about the last time I had internet access for a week!

Slept the night, woke up and bought breakfast at MacDonald's across the carpark, got everyone ready and then headed shopping!!
It was a huge outlet, so we only had time to visit Reebok, Gap, Coach. Matthew and I bought 3 pairs of shoes. Li Soon didn't buy very much, which was surprising.
After lunch at about 12, we finally said bye to Barstow and headed towards Arizona.

Another long day of driving ahead. We passed through Needles (the most expensive gas I had to pump at $3.35 per gallon!!), Kingman, parts of Route 66, and finally to Flagstaff where we ate at a Chinese restaurant there. (Chinese food out of California/New York is really iffy.) It was ok.
After dinner, it was already dark and we had to drive the last 27 miles from Flagstaff to Sedona.
It was the most scary drive for us. We didn't realise that Flagstaff was on a plateau at 7000ft and Sedona was at the bottom of the plateau at 5000ft, and the road, AZ-89A, was a very winding road down a canyon. It was completely dark outside, I was having a headache and tired, and we had to negotiate this road with hairpin turns and unfamiliar surroundings with very little traffic. Thankfully, there was a car ahead of us, so we followed it. It was good, cos in the middle, the car had to swerve to avoid hitting a family of deer in the dark! However, about halfway through the road, the car turned off the road and we were left alone. The road seemed to never end and kept winding and winding. It was almost 10pm already and Phil was calling us, afraid that we might have gotten lost or worse. After what seemed a long time, we finally saw civilisation. We had reached Sedona. The next challenge was to find the resort. We were given directions, but couldn't find the street in the dark. Finally at what seemed like the end of town, we decided to turn back and stopped at a landmark.... the only green-signed MacDonald's and Safeway. There we tried to call Phil but couldn't get through. We finally called the hotel and got directions. Apparently, the point we turned around wasn't the end of town after all. The resort was at the next traffic light after that, but we couldn't see it cos there was a hill in between. We finally pulled into the resort at 10pm or so. Relieved to have arrived and thankful for God's mercies despite our foolishness and weaknesses.

After checking into our nice studio in the warm Arizona night, we unpacked, showered and went to sleep.

To be continued.

No time to blog

Spent the last week in Sedona, Arizona visiting the Grand Canyon on Tuesday. Unfortunately, there was no internet connection...arrrgghh!!
It was a good week, staying in a resort in the red rock area of Sedona. Long drive today from Sedona to Fresno, CA. A drive of about 600 miles or 1000km.
Going to Yosemite tomorrow. Will blog more when we get back to SF tomorrow night.

Studio pictures

Pictures of the studio I helped set up.



The wires after we tidied them up. Too bad, I didn't take a "before" picture.

Pictures!!

Lazy me. Finally got my pictures up!!



Matt and Li Soon talking the walk down the long corridor to school



Matthew and Li Soon in Burlingame



Me and Li Soon in Burlingame



Li Soon in San Francisco



Matthew and Li Soon in our bedroom



Picture of our messy room



Another view of our messy room

Below are the wonderful views from our room

Overnight in Barstow

Drove 400 miles today from San Francisco to Barstow, CA, not far from Las Vegas. Won't be going to LV though. We are staying in a cheap motel, Red Roof Inn, for US$50 for the night before taxes. Not bad. Holiday Inn wanted $130 for the night!
Left at 1115am and arrived about 645pm. Long drive. Li Soon's first time driving in the US today, and at 80 mph or 130kmh!

Tomorrow, we will continue on to Sedona AZ for a few days vacation.
Pray for journey mercies.

Dinner in Berkeley

Took us almost 45 min for us to drive the 8 miles from SF to Berkeley across the Bay bridge during rush hour. We went there to meet Stephanie Chia for dinner on Friday night. We picked her up at Bancroft and Telegraph right outside UC Berkeley. Drove up and down University looking for this one Japanese restaurant but couldn't find it. Finally ate at another Japanese Restaurant at Shattuck and University. Had quite a bit of nice Sushi there. Matthew enjoyed his plain Maki Sushi without any fish.... just seaweed and rice!!
It was nice to catch up with Steph after a long time. She's going to Hawaii this weekend with some friends.... how nice.
Have a good trip Steph.

Fixing the left over stuff, going to Arizona

Haven't blogged for a few days.
Today we are off to Arizona, Grand Canyon and Yosemite for a week. It was kinda of a last minute thing. Phil was supposed to go to Sedona with another family for his RCI timeshare holiday. However, the other family had some urgent family problems and had to cancel at the last minute. So Phil asked us if we were interested to go and Li Soon and I decided to go. Since Phil will be gone, I can't do much this coming week anyway. So here we go. We'll try to go to Yosemite on the way back from Arizona.
Phil and his family left this morning for the 15 hour trip from SF to Sedona, AZ. He's driving straight through. We will be leaving later this morning, after picking up the rental car at the airport. We have decided to take a more leisurely drive today and probably staying overnight near Bastow California after an 8 hour drive today. Depends on how far we get today. Looking forward to it.
Missed David Au in the Bay Area when he was here earlier this week. He's going to the Grand Canyon, so maybe we'll meet up near there.

I spent the last 2 days clearing up the last remaining items for the video studio, like tidying out the cables, labelling, etc. I must say I am pretty satisfied with the results now. Almost everything is working properly now. The crew will use it this weekend for recording the service, and then they'll report if there are any other issues. When we get back, I'll get on fixing the last 4 remaining items, which mainly pertain to sound in the sanctuary.
I tried to fix the waveform monitor on Thursday and traced it down, with my very limited knowledge of analog electronics and a borrowed oscilloscope, to a couple of components that may be bad. However, they might end up buying a new one, cos the are now running in component video instead of composite video. The old waveform monitor only ran composite video. I had a tough time trying to match the component video and the composite video signal levels, so I gave up and only did the component video setup by "Eyeball". Component video signals are better as they split the video into 3 cables instead of 1, which gives you better overall quality.
I'll try to get some pictures up soon.

Li Soon's day off, still fixing studio, TV show shoot

Li Soon took the day off today after finishing much of the work yesterday. I think she finally had a chance to rest.
I spent most of today still fixing up the control and machine rooms, getting the stuff that we didn't get to yet to work. Finally got the tally lights to work today after some tricky soldering of a 44 pin D-sub connector!! Another item off the list.
Quite satisfied with the results so far.

Tonight we recorded 2 more episodes of the TV show about families and husband-wife relationships. Tiring work. Finally finished around 1030pm.

Today was Li Soon's first time preparing dinner. We had pre-packaged caesar salad, chicken nuggets, chicken wings, and rice.
Today, when I picked up Matthew from class, he was learning to play chess.
Tomorrow is 2 weeks since we got here. Time flies fast. Hoping to meet up with Stephanie in Berkeley on Friday night and get some time off to go to Marine World and Yosemite with the family next week when Phil goes off for his vacation in hot Arizona.
Also looking forward to meeting with Peter, Dollie, Kai and maybe Christine next week.