3 Statues I'd be interested to visit...

WARNING & REMINDER to self: If 1 day I do visit any of these statues, make sure I only visit them with the same attitude/mindset just like how I visited the Merlion Statue in Singapore's Sentosa Island or even the Statue of Liberty in New York, USA (though I've yet been to the Statue of Liberty)... They're all merely tourist attractions, I should never ever pray to any of these statues or I'll be breaching Commandment Number 2...

Commandment Number 2:

"You shall not make for yourself any carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments."

Exodus 20:4-6

1. Christ the Redeemer (statue)

The statue is 39.6 metres (130 ft) tall, including its 9.5 meter (31 feet) pedestal, and 30 metres (98 ft) wide. It weighs 635 tonnes (700 short tons), and is located at the peak of the 700-metre (2,300 ft) Corcovado mountain in the Tijuca Forest National Park overlooking the city. It is one of the tallest of its kind in the world (The statue of Cristo de la Concordia in Cochabamba, Bolivia, is slightly taller). A symbol of Christianity, the statue has become an icon of Rio and Brazil. It is made of reinforced concrete and soapstone, and was constructed between 1922 and 1931.

World Famous "Christ the Redeemer" statue in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

2. Cristo de la Concordia

The statue is 34.20 metres (112.2 ft) tall, on a pedestal of 6.24 metres (20.5 ft), bringing its total height to 40.44 metres (132.7 ft). The statue is slightly larger than Christ the King in Świebodzin (if the 2 metres (6.6 ft) high crown of Christ the King is not counted) and Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro, making it the largest statue of Jesus Christ in the world. It is also the largest statue of any kind in the Southern Hemisphere. Construction of the statue began on 12 July 1987, and was completed 20 November 1994.

"Cristo de la Concordia" statue on San Pedro Hill, Cochabamba, Bolivia

3. Christ the King (statue)

Latest attraction, completed on 6 November 2010. The statue is 33 metres (108 ft) tall, the crown is 2 metres (6.6 ft) tall. It weighs 440 tonnes. It was built on a 16 metre embankment of stones and rubble. Christ the King has a height of 33 metres, symbolising a traditional belief that Jesus' age at his death was 33. The Crown of the temple is 3.5 metres in diameter and 2 m in height, and the whole is gilded. The head is 4.5 m tall and weighs 15 tons. Each hand is 6 m in length and the distance between the ends of the fingers is 24 metres. It is composed of plaster and fibreglass.

"Christ the King" statue in Świebodzin, Poland

Anyway, the "Christ the Redeemer (statue)" was proposed by Catholic priest Pedro Maria Boss and the "Christ the King (statue)" project was conceived and led by Rev. Sylwester Zawadzki, a retired Polish Roman Catholic priest... (I couldn't help but wonder what's Rev. Pedro Maria Boss's & Rev. Sylwester Zawadzki's understanding from Exodus 20:4-6, I'd be really interested to hear their definition for these 3 verses...)

The Spirit of Australia...

Destroyed: One of the engine of the Qantas A380 appeared to have exploded. The pilot, who was flying the plane to Sydney, was forced to make an emergency landing in Singapore

4Nov2010 Australian Qantas Airbus 380 heading from London to Sydney, carrying 466 passengers made an emergency landing at Singapore Changi Airport due to an explosion of 1 of its Rolls-Royce Engine... Debris from the engine fell all over Indonesian Batam Island, ripping walls...

Hole in the wall: The 6ft gash the wall of a family home caused by debris from the Qantas A380

5Nov2010 Australian Qantas Boeing 747-400 heading from Singapore to Sydney, carrying 412 passengers, 3 pilots and 16 cabin crew made an emergency u-turn back to Singapore Changi Airport because 1 of its Rolls-Royce Engine went into flames...

Engineers inspect the port engine of a Qantas Boeing 747, flight QF6, at Singapore's Changi airport

"A third Qantas aircraft make a priority landing at London’s Heathrow airport on Nov 5. The pilot had received a warning that there may be a problem with the hydraulic fuel system, Simon Rushton, a spokesman for Sydney-based Qantas, said by phone today. After landing, it was discovered the system was working normally, he said."

Quoted from a Bloomberg Report

Qantas 747 Jet Suffers Engine Flameout a Day After A380 Blowout

By Sarah McDonald - Nov 7, 2010 9:20 AM GMT+0800

A380 is a very new aircraft model and B747 is a relatively much older aircraft model. These 2 incidences doesn't seem to be the fault of Airbus nor Boeing, and it's hard to believe they're just sheer coincidental incidences... Both involves Qantas(Destination: Sydney) & Rolls-Royce Engine, and both happened just a day apart... What is it telling us?

Investigations are going on, and hopefully the results of the investigations will be made known to the world when they're concluded... But for now, I can't help but be skeptical over whether if it was Rolls-Royce Engine's flaws to be blamed? Or was it that Qantas engineers/technicians hadn't been diligent & thorough with their aircraft service checks & maintenance? Or could it have been an act of sabotage? Whatever it was, nobody would have expected a 2nd "Qantas Engine Problem Scare" to happen again in just a day's difference. No doubt nobody was hurt in these 2 incidences, but it is still plunging faiths in their flight safety, and I'd say no Qantas flying for me for a long time...

Upset Passengers from Qantas flight QF6 on a Boeing 747-400 passenger plane make their way out of Changi International Airport's terminal after their aircraft returned to Singapore's airport shortly after take off

"THREE mid-air emergencies in as many days have left more than 1200 Qantas passengers stranded, thousands more affected by flight delays and cancellations, and the airline's boss defending its increasingly shaky safety record.

The pilots union has accused all airlines of lowering safety, maintenance and training standards and said safety incidents were occurring more frequently, placing additional pressure on staff.

But Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce yesterday defended the company's safety record and maintenance practices and ruled out sabotage as the cause of two of the emergencies, both of which involved engine failures just minutes after flights carrying a total of more than 800 passengers left Singapore."

Quoted from a The Sydney Morning Herald Report

Qantas party crashed

Ruth Williams and Rachel Brown

November 7, 2010

After a horrendous 48 hours for Qantas with two engine failures, the national carrier celebrated its 90th anniversary on Saturday 6Nov2010 with the help of brand ambassador John Travolta

P.S. I miss you, Grandma...

我最亲爱的张锦桃婆婆：

这两天虽然没做很多事，但却觉得非常的累，也没能睡好。每天睡醒的心情都沉重得很。洗脸之后，第一件事就是想看看您睡得好不好。今天，我特别的想您，我有好多话想跟您说，我见到每个人都说声早安，但见到您静静地躺在那里，我却什么也说不出，只顾回忆童年时您是何等的爱我和照顾我，不自觉的双眼就开始朦胧了起来，脸颊也都湿了，鼻孔也因突然涌出的鼻水被堵塞着而呼吸困难。婆婆，我好想您，我真的真的好想您。我很想跟您说说话，就只闲聊而已，但也许这个要求对安息着的您来说是太过份了吧？ 

真不好意思，我边写边哭，所以花了很长的时间来写这封信给您，让您久等了。不过就算写完了信，也不知道应该寄到哪里去，因为没有人能够告诉我您的新住址，所以我想我只能把信放在您身边好了。

您知道吗？来临的星期五是屠妖节，这一区的印度家户一到晚上就会放烟花提早庆祝，而且他们喜欢放一些像“响天雷”那一类巨响无比的烟炮，就在您开始安息的第一个晚上，我因实在忍受不了隔几间的印度家户放那些巨响的烟炮放个不停而去跟他们理论，请他们不要太吵闹，免得打扰您安息。他们虽然有点不高兴，但还好也始终停了下来，并改换放一些比较安静的烟花，那样可好多了。

大舅的家人说，门外这几天前来了两头野狗，可恶的是，它们在您安息的这两天里一直不停地跑来我们在屋外搭起的铁篷下胡乱大小便和交配，再惹得邻居的狗吠个不停，真气人。还好，对面的回教堂似乎也忍受不了而叫捉野狗的人今天早上来把它们给捉走了。

这两天来了很多亲戚和远亲来看您，我也很久没见他们了，和他们叙旧时，很多时候都会提到您是多么好的一个人，心肠很好，很为别人着想，在医院临终前还不时在懵懂中要四姨记得多奖赏10块钱给照顾您的佣人，Sil，您真伟大。婆婆，我会永远记得我小的时候您是如何的爱我和照顾我，我会记得您要拉我去冲凉我却任性得要拿石头打您，我会记得您在雅达屋的水井旁如何细心地帮我洗澡，我会记得您叫我要珍惜碗碟里的每一颗米饭，我会记得您教我要多做善事，要乐于助人，我会记得许许多多和您一起的点点滴滴。我会永远想念您煮的饭菜，尤其想念您特别为我煮的多汁咕咾肉。您永远是我最棒的婆婆。

 非常爱您的乖孙，

勤仔字

2010年11月1日

Love Letter to Grandma...



World's Greatest Grandma Award Winner, Grandma Chan Kam Toh @ Cheong Kam Toh


我最亲爱的张锦桃婆婆：

虽然您没能见到，但是您所深爱的子子孙孙又再次地从世界各地特地回来看您啦。我们大家都很想念您，是非常非常地想念您啊！虽然有几位亲人没能回来看您，但我很肯定他们也一样的很想念您呢，因为您在我们大家的心中永远都是位非常贤良淑德的妻子，最伟大的妈妈，最和蔼可亲的婆婆，最正义最勇敢的老HERO，最慷慨的圣诞老人，最慈祥最善解人意最为他人着想的侠女，我们大家都很爱您。

很遗憾也很抱歉，我们许多人都回来得太迟了，没能让您再享受全家之福，我们也不能再见到您那么灿烂的笑容和听您述说您以前的趣事，我们只能看到您很安祥地睡着... 我们只能把我们对您的爱慕化为思念，再把我们对您的思念化为泪珠，但愿我们在您身边哽咽抽泣的时候您能够感受到我们对您的爱慕，对您的孝心，对您的思念而让您得到安慰和幸福。您知道吗，今天下雨了呢，因为这个世界又少了一个大好人了。

您请放心，我们虽然伤心地哭了，但我们同时也从您那安祥的睡相得到安慰，因为我们知道您不会再为所有子子孙孙的事而忧虑和操心，也不会再因为您衰老欠佳的肉体而强忍疼痛，而且您连曾孙也都抱过了，您这一生走来也还算蛮幸福的吧？

对了，大约再过两个星期后，您的外曾孙女就要出世了，我想您一定会很高兴，很兴奋吧？只是她的出世和其他孙子孙女以后的婚礼和曾孙的出世会因为少了您的出席见证而会很遗憾呢。我们会继续地惦记着您，不过请您放心，我们大家都会好好地过着，您只要好好地安息着就可以了哦。我们爱您，我们大家都爱您。好想再抱抱您，亲亲您，不过还是不要打扰您安息的好吧。请您放心，请您安息。

非常爱您的乖孙，

勤仔启
2010年10月30-31日

My Review on "Perfect Wedding"

Perfect Wedding

A good light-hearted romantic comedy with many gorgeous babes & creative wedding plan ideas... The movie starts off with a very interesting "lady picking-up gent" scenario. Then with numerous over-the-top wedding plans, it's simply hilarious and may also influence you with wild & creative imaginations for a wedding... Highly recommended for those who're in a relationship or planning for a wedding. The movie promotes relationship between an elder lady and a younger gent, and it also reminds us to treasure our love ones and not to vent our anger or jealousy on our love ones or it may cause disastrous hurt that may ruin the whole relationship or any advancement opportunity. It's a hilarious movie, and worth to watch.

My Review on "Detective Dee-The Mystery of Phantom Flame"

Detective Dee-The Mystery of Phantom Flame

Another wonderful, should not be missed, Director Tsui Hark's work of art. The movie is a combination of Chinese History (with some creative fantastical twist), Chinese Tradition, Majestic Architectures, Spectacular Sceneries, myths & mysteries, crime solving, and lots of KungFu actions and stunts... Simply Magnificent!!!

Kudos to Producer Director Screenwriter Tsui Hark

The mystery of the "Phantom Flame" seems to have adopted the idea from the mystery of Spontaneous Human Combustion (SHC), and the scene of sailing in the Black Market kinda reminds me of a scene from "Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief" where Percy Jackson and friends took a sail to hell, but nevertheless, the scene was equally spectacular...

I really like the idea of introducing the Dragon Mace as an imperial weapon gifted to Detective Dee from the deceased former emperor, it kinda brings Detective Dee's status in the dynasty to a higher level, as a Chinese Mace is a weapon which looks more like a cubical metal rod without any sharp edges as it wasn't meant to cause much harm but supposedly used as a disciplinary tool for advisory personnel or wise men. And Sammo Hung did another great job with another fight choreography again. Like a kid, I almost urged myself to imitate those impressive kicks & punches while I was sitting there watching the movie.

Sammo Hung, masterful KungFu Choreographer, despite his age & physique, he is extremely agile...

The makeup artists & costume designers had also done a great job, especially with Carina Lau's character as Empress Wu who appeared with several superb looking hairdo, though sometimes her eyebrows makeup looks funny. In my opinion, these costumes could have been great trend setters during that era...

All the acting was great. I've watched numerous shows by Andy Lau, Carina Lau, Li BingBing and Tony Leung Ka-Fai before, but I didn't have any impression of Deng Cao's shows, and am impressed with his acting in the movie too, he did really well in it. Li BingBing is as beautiful as ever, love her sweet gorgeous looks, and she acted well with those emotional struggles of her character in the movie. Andy Lau played well, nevertheless with his star qualities, portraying a handsome looking Detective Dee who's very intelligent & also good in KungFu, but overall, I'd still prefer the Detective Dee played by Kent Cheng in the HongKong Drama Series "盛世仁杰" as the character of Detective Dee in the TV Drama actually focus more in Detective Dee's intelligence instead of any good looks or good KungFu, which I think was more down to earth...

To sum it up, go watch the movie, it's a good movie & well worth your time & money.

Kent Cheng played a well-fed & KungFu-less Detective Dee

My review on "Charlie St. Cloud"

Just watched "Charlie St. Cloud". A rather unique story with the combined ideas of brotherly love, romance, the moral of keeping promises, ghostly spirits, chasing dream and the spirit of adventure. I've enjoyed that movie much. The story is easy to understand and it has a clever twist towards the end.

The movie revolves mainly around Charlie St. Cloud and his little brother Samuel St. Cloud (Charlie Tahan), and the female lead Tess Carroll (Amanda Crew) actually had a much lesser screen time in the movie. Though Zac Efron didn't showcase his talent in singing in the movie, but I thought he had been given lots of opportunities to showcase his marvelous skill in acting. Zac Efron had numerous silently emotional / reaction scenes in the movie, though those moments came without any dialogues, but Zac Efron was able to pull off those internal emotions rather well, showcasing the cool and melancholy side of his character, I must admit that it made him look really charming. He had 2 extremely tensed scene, 1 in the ambulance & the other was when Charlie St. Cloud went totally devastated & started wrecking his house, you could notice all his veins popping up on his arm, Zac Efron really lived out the character well... Charlie Tahan who played the little brother Samuel St. Cloud also impressed me with a solo scene of his sympathetic love for his brother towards the end of the show.

I also loved the romance scene from Charlie St. Cloud's dinner with Tess Carroll till the close-up shot of the goose. Their romance scene had managed to tease the audiences quite a bit, stirring audiences' emotions, it was really a job well done by director Burr Steers. Hence, my kudos to Zac Efron.

Gospel Magic / Object Lesson with Rubber Bands

I've known this trick for years, the ever so famous Crazy Man's Handcuffs. It can be performed anywhere anytime with just 2 commonly found rubber bands. Though many layman already know the secret of how it's done, but not many take the time to practice & perform it, and so many had forgotten about it after some time.

I've seen the Reverse Crazy Man's Handcuffs performed by 2 magicians long ago, ST Tang & Priscilla Khong, but I had never really practice it much as I find the moves more difficult than the original one, thus my moves are still rather slow with the reverse part. Nevertheless, I love the fact that it can be performed very much impromptu, thus I thought it'd be great if I can apply a Gospel message to it, thus I've been trying to come up with a suitable Gospel Application to it and here's my attempt.

And here's my patter:

Here is a rubber band, representing each & everyone of us, individually.

And we all know very well that everyone of us had done some wrong deeds at some point in our lives. And we call these wrong deeds "SIN".

Whenever we sin, we are trapped as sinners, and there's no escaping from it. And the wages of sin is death.

And death is often represented by bleeding (or shedding of blood), thus that is where sacrificial ceremonies came about when mankind slaughter animals to try to favor God to release themselves from their sin.

But these sacrifices only dismisses them temporarily. And so they are prone to sin and be trapped again very easily.

Then God came up with the best plan to help release us from sin forever with the ultimate sacrificial ceremony.

This is when Lord Jesus Christ came.

He sacrifices Himself on the cross to save all of us. Forever.

But under 1 condition… If only we believe in His salvation and let Him be our Savior...

Anyway, magicians equip themselves with impromptu magic tricks so they can perform anytime anywhere with any object available. So it'd be good as disciples of Christ to be able to readily share Gospel anytime anywhere too. And studies had proven that object lessons or visual lessons are very effective and impacting in passing a message across. Please feel free to use this idea to share Gospel.

If you don't know how the trick is done, simply Google "Crazy Man's Handcuffs" & you can easily get lots of references... I'm sure it would be a good trick to equip yourself with for your future mission trips. Never mind if you do not know how to do the Reverse Crazy Man's Handcuffs, just casually put the rubber bands back in interlocked positions again & continue from there. But please make sure you practice well before you try to perform it. ;)

Kay Foong's Official Website

Been dreaming about it for years, and finally get myself to work on designing & building it, and it's finally up and running. Yippee!!! Hope you all will like it, though it has been noted that it is a Flash site with huge media files which may cause slow page loading, but I hope your systems would be powerful enough to view the site at ease. Do visit it at either:

Kay Foong's Official Website

or

Kay Foong's Alternate Domain

or

Kay Foong's Webdesign at Wix.com

Kay Foong's Official Website

Watch the website, for here is a to do list for myself to add onto the website in the near future:

Add More Showreels Titled:

Tiramisu

Oli's Wild Adventure

迷云二十天

奶爸百分百

左麟右李之我爱医家人

小孩不笨2

钱不够用2

我在政府部门的日子

I may also replace some of the photos on the website too. I've been having lots of fun working on this website, I hope you'll enjoy it to. Do click on the Facebook "Like" button on the website if you like my website, you may also email me your feedbacks too. It'd be most appreciative if you have suggestions to advise me on how to improve the website, for this is the 1st and only website that I've built, thus I'm lacking experiences & am very weak with HTML or any other web building languages. Thanks. ;)

You can never please everybody...

Many times in life, we'll be caught in dilemma and be torn between decisions, not knowing what to do or how to proceed in order to try to please everybody... We always try our best to make things into a win-win situation, but most of the times, it is rather impossible to derive so.

Galatians 1:10 says "Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ."

"No matter how hard you try, every decision you make will alienate someone in your organization. If you try to please everyone, you are pleasing nobody. Paul reminds us that ultimately, if you please God, either the truth will speak for itself or you will at least be doing the right thing in the sight of God. It takes wisdom and experience to know how much and how far to exercise this principle, but it is a good piece of advice that will serve us well."

Quoting from Dr. Albert Ting

Principal of Singapore Bible College

Note to self: "Whatever decisions you make, do take into consideration of whether would it be pleasing to God"...