dannytalk ™ A Danny Ng Blog

I know this is a bit late but happy chinese new year everyone!

Unfortunately I hardly have any relatives in Australia as they’re all still in Malaysia & Singapore, and my mum, sister and eldest brother is in Malaysia on holidays so there was only my second brother, his wife, and two of my cousins.

Chinese new year in Australia is pretty boring and it doesn’t have that festive atmosphere that you’d find in countries that do celebrate it. I just had a simple steamboat lunch with my remaining family and relatives. Unfortunately we couldn’t find the proper steamboat pot so we used the rice cooker instead hehe.

I was mentioning to Hong Yi how fun it was when I was a little boy and driving up to Taiping, Perak with the family to congregate with all my other relatives to celebrate Chinese new year.

From the endless supply of food, the lighting of fireworks and gambling, I really did enjoy it all spending time with family. Not to mention all the red packets I get from everyone we visited.

The family on mum’s side is quite big. I have 4 uncles and 4 aunties. So I’d say I have 30 over cousins as well. That’s just my mum’s side. Can you imagine how packed it is fitting everyone into my grandma’s house?

Compared to Hong Yi when she visits her na’s place, she doesn’t have any cousins on her dad’s side and has two uncles. Well, I guess she has her two brothers but that’s different. Would be quite a different environment from what I’m used to.

So it’s finally the year of the Ox, my year. Let’s hope this year brings much fruitfulness and live life without regrets :)

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I’ve been on holidays for the past 4 weeks, travelling around West & East Malaysia as well as spending a couple of days in Perth.

It feels surreal going back to work and normal life after a fun filled 4 week adventure. No more staying up in the blackness of night with the bats and waking up hungering for breakfast but the time for it seems to have passed into lunch.

Yes, I will need to sleep and wake up early now to catch my daily 1 hour trip to work via bus and train. Not to mention back again.

Today it took me about 5 hours to go through 600+ emails. Yes, 600+ emails. Really shows how dependent we are on email as a form of communication, internally and externally.

I’m starting my new role now as a consulting team leader. A new year, a new role and fresh challenges lying ahead. Let’s hope it all goes well :)

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Finally after my 3 week holiday in Malaysia, I’m back in Australia. Perth to be exact.

Arrived 6am this morning to find my baggage damaged through the flight with Air Asia. Another fail point about Air Asia.

It feels weird to pay A$25 (RM60) for a taxi fare to my friend’s place after visiting Malaysia where everything is so cheap and the same taxi fare would’ve costed around A$5 there.

Guess my holidays is going to last for another couple of days before I head off to Sydney tomorrow afternoon. Hopefully I’ll snap some shots of my visit here and post it up later.

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Just got back from Kota Kinabalu, Sabah last night and back in Kuala Lumpur before I head off to Perth next.

For those that don’t know where Sabah is, it is located in East Malaysia, above Kalimantan. Yes, I didn’t know where it was as well. Haha, just kidding :P

Notice how the map of Sabah looks like a dog’s head?

Unfortunately for the 11 days that I stayed at Kota Kinabalu, it was raining every single day which limited the amount of outdoor activities I could do there since Sabah is famed for its islands, Mount Kinabalu climb, fishing and whitewater rafting. I’m sure there’s more stuff to do there.

But I guess it was sort of a good thing because I had the opportunity and time to get to know Hong Yi’s immediate and extended family a bit better and they were very hospitable to me which was great! I’ll post up more about it once I get back to Sydney and also pictures once I’ve used photoshop to adjust the colours and contrast. Unfortunately my Olympus camera isn’t very good :(

So next stop tomorrow would be Perth to visit my thambi friend for a couple of days before I head back to Sydney!

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I just read an article on BBC news about a ‘No God’ campaign backed by the British Humanist Association which has posters on 800 buses in England, Scotland and Wales with the slogan ‘There’s Probably No God. Now Stop Worrying And Enjoy Your Life.’

I seriously don’t get why do atheists, agnostics or any other non-Christians in a generalised way think and believe that faith in God is about rules, regulations, worry, intimidation and suppression. Have they even attempted to read the Bible in context and try to understand the beauty, relevancy and usefulness of it? To see it from an open mindset and learn that it is possible to apply the teachings of the Bibles to day to day life? To see how relevant it is to modern day society as the human nature has not changed over the past two millennia but yes, the mode of transportation has, from donkeys to cars.

The human nature is still full of pride, lust, deceit, greed and anger. This does not and will not change over time. And you know what? The Bible addresses all of them.

Anyways, back to the campaign slogan. First of all, let’s break down the slogan into three parts.

1. There’s probably no God.
2. Believing in God will make you worry.
3. Believing in God will make you not enjoy your life.

I won’t be addressing point 1 as that’s a big topic and it’ll take forever to address it. However, I’d like to point out point 2 and 3.

I’m glad the atheist’s agree that we should stop worrying. Even Jesus said so, but much earlier.

25″Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

28″And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. -  Matthew 6:25-34

The second point that the atheist’s encourage you to do is to enjoy your life. Well, Jesus said that too! Surprise surprise!

10 The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life. – John 10:10

Well, some might argue that the advertising campaign is just for laughs and Christians should just chill and laugh with it. So what if we rephrased the slogan to ‘God probably exists. Now Stop Worrying And Enjoy Your Life’?

I wonder what and how the atheists might respond to that.

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