Yvonne Foong

So I read The Speech Of Angels by Sharon Maas. About a little indian girl living in the sllums of India, who got rescued from hunger, poverty, and abuse, was adopted and grew up a gifted musician in Germany. Witnessing the death of her mother in a road accident left her traumatised and unable to convey her thoughts in speech. She was later discovered to be dylexic, but gifted in music. Jothi eventually revisited her troubled past and unlocked the secrets of her heart, a heart of music, the speech of angels.

In another note, Tremayne, who studies in UK, is currently visiting his father in India. He vividly describe the slums I had been reading about in his blog. Check it out.

Tremayne say donations in cash do not elevate poverty in the long run. The main concern should be education. I agree with him to an extend. But in places like India, we can’t mainly focus on providing education when everyone is desperate for food. Perhaps there should be a balance.

Yay! I’m back online again. The Taiwan earthquake did not affect my website, which is hosted in Cyberjaya. At home, however, internet connection was disrupted. For two days, I could not connect at all. But check out my webstat. I guess the bulk of my readers are international, both local and foreign. That’s good news, isn’t it?

The brief halt did not affect me much. Even though I could not check my e-mails and communicate with friends over MSN, I’m not dead yet. Instead, I found time to indulge in books, yes paperback books, not e-books! I also whipped out letter pads and wrote to some friends. Alas, I was also clearing up clusters at home, dusting and wiping here and there, while cursing the cats for stealing my bacon left to defross on the stove. Buggers.

Life took on a different route in the past one year due to the urgent need to raise enough funds for surgery. I got carried away to new heights and intensed activity. But now, I’m down to earth and smelling the roses again - sitting back with a book and hot tea while others were crying out loud for the slow internet connection.

Newspapers were prompt to interview local bloggers, getting their frustrated comments, publishing reports after reports of unhappy fervent bloggers who got held back from their daily repetoire of blogging.

Thing is, I felt weird. They seemed to have represented the thoughts of all bloggers. Strange. Why didn’t they interview me? The journalists properly detected by sixth sense that I wasn’t frustrated and wouldn’t be able to give them colorful comments.

To put it the Malaysian way - won’t die wan mah.

I was affected too, at first, but after reading about the casualties caused and the trouble needed to fix cables under the sea, my deprivation of the internet was considered a minor issue. At least the internet will eventually come back but the terror of on-site victims were irreversible.

In the past few days I managed to finish Sharon Maas’ The Speech Of Angels, and half way through Leah Stewart’s The Myth Of You And Me. I can’t read an entire book at one continuous sitting, though. It’s tiring.

My church, Grace Assembly Of God, had a Christmas charity dinner at Grand BlueWave Hotel, Shah Alam. The event was in aid of Sechem Home, an orphanage and children shelter also based in Shah Alam. Click here to learn more about Sechem Home.

It was your-typical-10-course-chinese-dinner with shark fin soup as entree. My favourite! I liked the baby octopus and mushrooms too. By the fourth dish, I was already full, so I spent most of the time chatting with Joyce, Stephen, and Foong Ling. Outside the hall, a fellow church goer, Paul Tong Weng Han, was selling his masterpiece paintings to raise funds for Sechem Home. Check out this website for his story.

Blablabla… long story short, here are some photos.

At the table

At the foyer

On stage!

Children of Sechem Home on Christmas Day!

Wow! So many photos. I LOVE taking photos with friends. Makes me happy seeing them. And this was what I did upon coming home. The photo frame is a birthday gift from Joo Kim two years ago. I finally found use of it.

Awwww… so sentimental. But I’m not the only one. Look what Cecilia got for me as present!

So cute right? What if I secretly harboured ill feelings for her. The present would have backrfired! Just kidding.

So here’s wishing all my wonderful readers, MERRY CHRISTMAS!

A charity Christmas dinner is to be held this Saturday at Grand BlueWave Hotel, Shah Alam. Event proceeds go to support the children of Sechem Home. Diners will be treated to a night filled with stage performances by the children and youths of my church, Grace Assembly Of God.

Guest performance by Liang, winner of the Best Newcomer title, 2006 MET10 Awards organised by Hitz.FM.

I’m selling off the last 10 tickets (one table) to readers of my blog. If you haven’t any plans come 23rd December 2006, 7:30pm, you should consider joining us for dinner. All in the name of charity.

Interested? SMS me at 016-3786873 with your name and number of tickets you wish to buy. Payment Collect-On-Delivery at Subang Parade.

Event Details
Venue: Grand BlueWave Hotel(5 star)
Persiaran Perbandaran, Seksyen 14, 40000 Shah Alam, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia MAP
Date: 23rd December 2006
Time: 7:30pm
Drress Code: Semi-formal or smart casual
Ticket Price: RM70 per head
In support of: Sechem Home

SHECHEM HOME is the pilot project of Grace Church, Shah Alam, for the neglected, abused, abandoned and orphaned. Since opening its door in June 1999 with just three children, Sechem Home provides love and care to the underprivileged in society. There are currently 17 children under our roof, ranging from 4 to 17 years old.

Aims & Objectives:

• To provide shelter, food, clothing, education and tender love for neglected, abused, abandoned and orphaned children.
• To provide Godly, homelike atmosphere, where children can comfortably call their own.
• To provide parental love and to cultivate brotherhood among the children, equipping them well toward adulthood.
• To be responsible for the development and reconstruction of the children’s lives in 5 areas:
  a. Spiritually
  b. Socially
  c. Physically
  d. Emotionally
  e. Intellectually.

I’m jealous of Lydia’s book cover. So attention-grabbing! Must bribe MPH into placing her books next to mine. hehe… just joking.

Last Saturday, Cordy, Wai kong, and I attended Lydia Teh’s book launching ceremony at Crowne Plaza Mutiara Hotel in the heart of KL. “Honk! If you’re Malaysian” is Lydia’s 3rd book, but the first one to have had an official launch. The venue and timing was excellent, in conjunction with MPH Share-A-Gift carnival. Definitely an eye-opener.

Despite Lady-In-Red being the center of attention, I managed to steal a bit of her limelight. Some MPH staffs recognised me and said hello, someone gave me a free copy of Quill magazine and took photos of me with it, probably for promotional purposes. Met others like Xeus, Ted… actually I’m not very good at recognising people. I don’t make it a point to look at people in the face from afar. Yvonne has got lots to learn about socializing.

Here are some photos! Taken with Cordy’s camera phone.

The street in front of my house is a state of chaos during weekdays, where herds of students and vehicles zoom pass at lightning speed. Walking along the massive traffic is dangerous. Cases of snatch theft commonly occur in this area, surprisingly unaffecting its commercial value.

None of the neighbours I know frequently stroll the neighbourhood or the park. For one reason or another, we prefer to stay indoors. Perhaps an unrelated deterrence is the humid weather.

But when it turned windy and dull this evening, I walked to the shops nearby without breaking a stride. On a busy day, it is impossible for me to walk along the roadside with ease. The newly surfaced road rise about two inches from the sides, putting pedestrians with balance problems in a limbo. Today, however, I could walk a little towards the middle without the risk of being rammed down.

I am currently reading Nicholas Sparks’ At First Sight. Even though the person who lend it to me did not enjoy the book, I’m instantly converted. The best part of this book is perhaps the author’s description of suburban North Carolina, where vast fields and lush greeneries span every corner, carrying my mind away from the hustles and bustles of Kuala Lumpur.

Sometimes, even I am confused with myself. Am I more of a city mouse or a country deer?

Here goes some pictures from last Saturday’s book launch at MPH MidValley! I hope you guys liked my speech about writing and publishing. Enjoy!

The lack in blog hopping recently has set me back in catching up with current events of the local literary scene. Meeting Xeus and Lydia over coffee yesterday was a wake up call. “Hello! The world’s writings don’t stop while you’re on holiday.” Okay, I am ketinggalan zaman.

Seeing the duo so gung-ho in churning proposals at Mr. Publisher, I was glad to have come prepared with my own. You know, I think of book topics all the time, but rarely act on them. Never knew that while my hesistence was holding me back from doing anything productive, many out there are right the opposite of me. I’m a fat, doppy mouse slipping off the rat race.

Of late I noticed new magazines on sale, established corporations and individuals alike launching their own news tabloids, agents turn publishers, many new writers, and ofcourse, the increasingly extensive variety of books and articles to choose from. Our very own dotcom boom.

They were right. The world doesn’t stop just because of NF. So what I have brain tumors? Think Helen Keller, who achieved many a great deal despite being blind and deaf.

And who said writing doesn’t bring you anywhere?

All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.
–Martin Luther King, Jr.

This Saturday, Cordy and I will be attending Lydia’s book launch at Crowne Plaza Mutiara. Wanna go?

I found out from Dr. Friedman this morning, that the tumor they discovered is a Jugular Foramen Meningioma. With my heart in throat, I read about the complexity of this location. Jugular Foramen tumors are very rare, difficult to be dealt with, and it’s surgery involve much morbidity and mortality risk.

Not my brain. Taken from www.bcm.edu

From wikipedia:
Behind the carotid canal is the jugular foramen, a large aperture, formed in front by the petrous portion of the temporal, and behind by the occipital; it is generally larger on the right than on the left side, and may be subdivided into three compartments.

From Answers.com:
An opening in the cranium formed by the jugular notches of the occipital and temporal bones for passage of an internal jugular vein, the ninth, tenth, and eleventh cranial nerves, and the inferior petrosal sinus

Trust me. These are the simplest explanation I’ve read. The jugular foramen have so many nerves I can’t even pronounce. But anything that involves the “occipital angle” is no child’s play. Notice the many nerves involved. “gasp”

Lying weak after surgery, Mom said that midway through surgery, the surgeons excitedly spoke to her about tumors on my neck that can be felt. They purportedly said THESE neck tumors may leave me unable to swallow.

And I believed her. She was the only person I could depend on. Together with Cordy, we looked into the possibility of having my neck tumors that can be felt removed by radiation. We e-mailed some doctors and planned to have an MRI done soon.

But it was only last night that i decided to ask Dr. Friedman. When his reply came this morning, I was shocked that the situation is much more dangerous than I thought. But I also felt, “what the heck!”. Knowing my mother, this probably happened….

Drs could have said: “There is a tumor in her brain involving many nerves. Surgery is dangerous, might affect her ability to swallow. If it grows, the best option is radiation.”

Mother registers: “tumor”, “swallow”, “radiation”.

Then she process again: “Swallow” = “neck”

“Girl, they were talking about your neck tumors!”

Also, Mother failed to mention the doctors debulked my Jugular Foramen Meningioma during the Acoustic Neuroma removal. That was probably the reason why the doctors seemed “excited” to her, or a better word would be “keen”.

So in the last surgery, they did three things at once via the translabyrinthine approach.

1. removed the Acoustic Neuroma

2. placed the Auditory Brainstem Implant

3. debulked the Jugular Foramen Meningioma

Following after that was a 45-minute MRI scan. The extra procedures did not go into the bill. Very kind of Dr. Friedman and St. Vincent hospital.

Now I’m lost. So should I go ahead with an MRI on my neck? The tumors there are giving me pressure when I eat and drink.

Actually, it is very hard to predict which sympthom belongs to wich tumor. I also have occasional sudden itches in my throat. For several days last week, there were twitches in my brain, near the mastoid region behind my right ear.

Hmm… makes me wonder what happened to the largest brain tumor behind my forehead.

Early last year, before I made anything substantial out of myself, I browsed the internet looking for publishing opportunities. Hoping to find a publisher closer to home, my online queries comprised of local keywords. Eventually, I came across a website about “The Book Project” by Karen-Ann Theseira.

For an aspiring writer, The Book Project was equivalent to a pot of gold. I sent an enquiry and received an almost immediate respond from the boss herself. I began writing my very first article now published in Book Project 2.

As a writer, I regret to say I started late. Sure, The Book Project may have received some discouraging comments within the local literary scene, but through it, I have gained some invaluable experience on what it takes to be a bestseller. By attending book launches and readings, observing how Karen-Ann engaged the public’s attention, I have also grown comfortable with book store event settings. When my own book was published, I wasn’t nervous the way I used to be when speaking at The Book Project events.

I got to know many friends and along the way improved my writing as well. The purpose of The Book Project is to provide local writers a platform to showcase their talents. I must admit, knowing that there exists the hope of being read is priceless.

Someone once said, there is no such thing as bad writing. Every word is worth reading and appreciated in its very own right. (paraphrased)

Finally, not only has The Book Project attracted awesome talents, we have finally secured a traditional publisher!

With the 3rd book, rebranded as “Write Out Loud”, selling in bookstores very soon, earlier editions are slowly depleting and will not be printed again.

Knowing that I’m raising funds for medical treatments, Karen-Ann is very kind to let me sell the remainders through my blog. I personally feel, they make decent Christmas presents for little children and young adults who aspire to become writers some day. “Look, so-and-so’s writing when he was still a nobody. You can do it too!”.

Usual retail price is RM22 per book. This is a bargain!

To place an order, send me an e-mail at sale(at)heart4hope(dot)com