The grand year end birthday celebration again : Dec-17

Three years ago, Dor and Hong started this tradition of celebrating four of our birthdays together which coincidentally are merely two days apart.  It is lovely to come together as a family not only to celebrate our birthdays but also to end the current year with a good note and get ready for the new one.  This year, we have the celebration at home instead of a restaurant, as usual, Dor prepared a sumptuous dinner for everyone.

2017 : Kansai Trip : May-2020

This was special holiday trip which we were well protected by the Gohozon.  We met quite a serious accident on our third day to Nara when a big truck knocked us from behind.  Miraculously the accident happened right in front of the Nara Soka Kaikan, and we were immediately assisted by our kind members over there!  None of us were injured too and we were able to continue our holidays. Such great benefit and good fortune to be protected.

Our Kansai year end holiday : Dec-17

In 2017, the family had our year end holiday in Japan again, for the third time!  This round 'conquering' the Kansai area, Osaka, Nara, Kyoto and Awaji island.  As usual, everyone was looking forward to this trip especially when we loved Japan so much.  We also tried something different by staying in a AirBnB in Osaka and also renting a car to drive around for the entire trip.  The experience was refreshing where we could stay together in a house, cooked, do our laundry and take our time to move around Kansai with our car.

However, the highlight of this trip was not in our itinerary... but definitely one of the best family testimonial to share by far which happened during the trip.

This was on the fourth day of our holiday when we planned to visit Nara.  That day, we set off at about 8.30am and after driving for about an hour, we finally reached the town.  While we were waiting at a traffic light to turn green, a 24 footer truck suddenly knocked behind our car!  The next moment I was hearing En'en crying and mama chanting Nam-myo-ho-ren-ge-kyo.  I came down the car to check on them immediately and luckily there was no serious injury for anyone, apart from Mama and Xuan complaining that their neck may had been jerked and injured during the impact.  What was so mystical during this accident was where it had occurred, it was right in front of our Nara Soka Gakkai kaikan and we did not even planned to visit this centre that day!  As soon as the accident happened, a kind gentleman who was renovating the center came running out to assist me, asking if anyone was injured and also helping me to call the police and insurance company   Then,  papa went into the centre to get help and soon after, a few staffs came out to understand the situation.  2 police cars arrived shortly, and the Kaiken staffs were then already busy helping us to communicate with the car rental company, insurance company as well as policemen.  While i was making the police report, they even invited the rest of our family in the kaikan and hosted them warmly with tea, biscuit and brought them around the newly renovated kaikan which was about to open that very Saturday.  They even showed them the room which Sensei stayed before and chanted some daimoku there together.  When they were inside, they had also not forgotten about me outside the freezing weather and even bought hot tea and heat pad to keep me warm.  We were so touched by their kindness and felt so fortunate to have them around during this difficult moment.  After about 2 hours, a replacement car arrived for us to continue our journey, insurance matters were settled, the police report was made and ambulances were also arranged to bring papa, mama and the gals to the hospital for a checkup.  Their checkup completed promptly in half an hour and everyone was fine and not injured.  This would not be possible without the help of these kind kaikan staffs.  It was such a wonderful good fortune for the family and definitely a fantastic testimonial in lessening our family karmic retribution!

We were able to continue enjoying our holidays without a slight impact from the accident
 

Xuan first prom night : Nov-17

It was Xuan's first prom night and just a week after her 'O' levels, thus, this prom night timely served as a good celebration to end a stressful examination and also a 'final' gathering before the classmates embarked on a new journey next year.

Xuan had been looking forward to this event and already making preparation a few months ahead to make it a memorable one.  She bought a new dress, a new pair of shoes, borrowed makeups from her sister and even invited her classmates over that day to get ready together!  Qi was also very kind to help her sister and her friends in their hair-do and markup.

We also took out the green screen to take some shots for everyone.  Some of her classmates were initially shy to pose, but eventually warmed up to have a few good photos.

2nd wedding photographer experience : Nov-17

On 11-Nov-17, Kia, our dear YWD happily tied her knot and had also requested me to be her wedding photographer.  This made it my second time being an official wedding photographer.  As there was also another photographer helping out, it was easier this time as the load was shared.  However, the experience was still quite tiring, yet rewarding as you know you were capturing this couple most important event in their life.  I was indeed lucky to be invited twice this year to be a wedding photographer, and grateful for the trust they had for me to capture their precious moments.

Ling and Qi Birthdays : Nov-17

Ling and Qi Birthdays are just 2 weeks apart, although every cake cutting seems to be quite similar, it is effort that everyone comes together to celebrate and give their best wishes every time that makes each time so priceless.

District Lotus Sutra Exhibition outing : Oct-17

2017 October was significant for SSA as we held our first and maybe only Lotus Sutra Exhibition in Singapore, in conjunction with our 50th anniversary of SSA.  We had encouraged our members to participate and also bring along their friends to LSE since beginning of 2017.  After so many months, 13th October finally marked the day where we  gathered for Eunos West to visit the LSE.  Thanks to our chapter leaders, logistics was well planned with buses and food to ensure our members were safely fetch to and fro from the Art House and not hungry.

Shakayamuni preached the Lotus Sutra in his last 8 years of his life and expounded that it was the ultimate teaching which he wanted to teach in his entire life with an intention for everyone to attain the same wisdom as him.  In Lotus Sutra, it said that every human being possessed the Buddhahood in their life and then later, Nichiren Daishonin taught us that by chanting NamMyoHoRenGeKyo, each individual would definitely be able to manifest this Buddhahood in their lifetime, overcoming challenges and obstacles and achieve happiness.  As such, we were all excited to visit this exhibition to understand more about this king of the sutra, Lotus Sutra, which our practise was fundamentally based on.

Each district LSE visit was catered for 2 hours and there were 5 sections to visit.  Honestly, it was too rush to truly appreciate the exhibition within the allocated duration.  After the visit, many members went back again a few times to revisit some sections which they were unable to cover.  LSE in Singapore achieved a remarkable 51000+ in attendance, a great success to SSA!

An update on Olla : Sep-17

It is just a mere 2 months and now Olla weighs at 6.7 kg and looks like a 6 months old baby.  Simply amazing!

XinYang KL anniversary : Sep-17

XinYang KL celebrated their first anniversary on 16-Sep and I was cordially invited to attend this event by Adrian.  Initially I wanted to join because Bee Seng and Daniel were also going but they were ill the day before and had to pull out last minute.  I was then hesitant to go ahead but at the moment, I decided to continue to join since I was already mentally prepared for the trip.  Although I did not know many people going along to this anniversary from Singapore, they were very nice and easy to mingle and we started our friendship instantaneously.  That weekend turned out to be very enjoyable as we visited many lion and dragon dances related culture places, like a theme café and a lion-making master.  The anniversary dinner was grand too, and I had the honour to be seated at the VVIP table as the Singapore vice-Chairman for XinYang, a title which was kindly given to me despite my minimum contribution to the troupe.

Coach to KL

India business trip : Aug-17

 In August, I visited India again for business.  This time to the north side of the country, the Panja province and a town called Nahba.    I stayed in the GSK guesthouse this time and although expecting a less comfortable standard than the hotel, I must say it exceeded my expectation.  This guest house was donated by the King of Nabha in the past to GSK and was very well maintained by GSK in providing a peaceful and pleasant environment to the visiting guests.  There was even a few person serving the guests, cooking meals and housekeeping the rooms!

The IT host also took good care of me by bringing me to visit the biggest Sheikh temple in the nearby town, the temple was very impressive, even more was their strong community spirit in maintaining fairness among women and men.  This was something which I felt very lacking in India and it was no surprise that people especially women were inclined to join this religion.

The highlight of the trip was my good fortune to be able to come back on time before a riot occurred the next day in that area, due to a prosecution of a religion leader called Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh.  It was a good example on how people could be misled by a wrong religious leader causing social disharmony.  The place which I visited was subsequently on curfew for  the next 3 days, and I was glad i was not trapped there.