Season's Greetings from Joanna (2009)

Dear Family and Friends,

Firstly, let me wish God's richest blessings on all of you and your family this holiday season! How truly blessed we are to find ourselves in the bosom of dear ones - a truth that I've been powerfully reminded of in 2009.

When the bottom fell out of the economy earlier this year, I received a call informing me that my role had been axed. Although it wasn't easy to bid farewell to a wonderful team of colleagues and the security of a paycheck, this news gave me exactly what I needed - a six-month break and a healthy bank balance.

Within 48 hours of reaching out to family and friends, I was enveloped in kindness and received invitations to stay in homes all over the world - a privilege I happily exercised. The Glass Half Full series chronicles this welcome break.

My heart overflows with gratefulness when I think of the many precious memories that were created this year:

• Our Yeoh family was reunited with Julie's homecoming to Malaysia during Chinese New Year, and family ties were further cemented when we took a family vacation to Sacramento, Lake Tahoe, Bodega Bay and Las Vegas
• A wonderful vacation to Candidasa, Bali where I enjoyed massages, snorkelling, fishing, massages, drinking, making new friends and I did mention Balinese massages didn't I?
• Spending time in New York City with my friends Andrew, Isabel and their beautiful boys. The many hours spent wandering through the inspiring Metropolitan Museum and Central Park has deepened my love for the Big Apple. And a big Thank You to Elaine Li for showing me the world beyond Manhattan, and to my NYU friends for the intellectual stimuli
• Hunting down the Liberty Bell, Independance Hall and Philly cheesesteaks in historic Philadelphia with Julie was good fun! We also made a side trip to Washington DC where we narrowly escaped a deadly train crash...thank God...
• Visiting and learning about the Amish community in a town called Intercourse ;-)
• Witnessing the gala reunion for BBGS (Bukit Bintang Girls'School) at the Pavilion KL was a dream come true. Thousands of girls and teachers came together to celebrate the spirit of a school that has outlasted its bricks and mortar. I am so blessed to have contributed to the event by writing the Back2BBGS blog and the Women of Vision exhibition
• Travelling to Australia to witness the wedding of my cousin, Aaron and the baptism of my god-daughter, Alyssa. Being able to catch up with so many good friends made it feel like a proper homecoming
• Enjoying 5 minutes of fame when the Star newspaper published an article on my career and travels, through which I connected with old friends and a gentleman who asked me if I liked younger men...YIKES!
• Watching all five of my god-kids grow in stature and spirit is such a joy. I'm so grateful to their parents for allowing Aunty Jo Jo to contribute to their development in her nutty, unconventional way

Let me say a big THANK YOU to all my family and friends for your kind words, hospitality, a warm bed, storage space, countless coffees and cakes, food, wine and friendship. All good holidays must come to an end so when October came round, I found myself another position at a oil & gas services company in Singapore. This city state will continue to be my home as I believe it's the perfect beach-head from which to ride the crest of the Asian century.

As we bid farewell to the noughties ('00s) and enter a brand new decade, let's continue to be grateful for all that we have and become all that He created us to be.

Here's wishing you a HAPPY NEW YEAR and a blessed 2010!

Just call me Godma

Baptism ceremony & Noah's ark cake for Alyssa and Zachary

Today, I had the honour of officially accepting Alyssa Wong as my god daughter. The ceremony took place in a Catholic church in Melbourne.

The setting was peaceful, serene and very symbolic. It was interesting that the unlikeliest couple were asked to be godparents given that I'm a Protestant and AJ (the godfather) is of Jewish descent. You should have seen the look of his face when the priest asked us if we "believed that Jesus Christ is the son of God, was crucified, died and rose again for the salvation of sins"! AJ stood stone still so I quickly said, "We do"! :-)

I also enjoyed helping to make the Noah's Ark cake to mark the special occasion. Carina, her aunty & I slaved for over 6 hours to create the masterpiece and judging from the response, it was well worth it. During the lunch at an Italian restaurant, other patrons came over to our table and started snapping photos of the cake :-)

I shall have to spend more time in Melbourne so that Alyssa won't forget her Aunty Jo Jo.

Brush with AFL hall of fame

Sat next to Brent Guerra (Hawthorn No. 18) on the plane to Adelaide

My four-year stay in Australia taught me one thing. Sports is a religion and professional players are gods.

I learnt the rules and watched my share of weekend cricket, rugby (union & league) and footie just so that I could understand conversations on Monday mornings. Seriously, no one speaks to you if you're not talking sport.

One of my favourite sports was AFL (Australian Football League) or footie. It's like no other game on the planet (a bit like American football played on a cricket oval without protection). The players are usually tall, fit and wear tight jerseys, which probably explains why it's my favourite spectator sport :-)

To my delight, I found myself sitting next to a professional footie player on the plane to Adelaide last Friday. He was actually all over me (ahem!). Probably because he had to climb over my semi-comatose form to get to the toilet!

Brent Guerra is a Hawthorn forward and has been playing for 11 seasons, starting at age 17. He and his girlfriend Rachel were heading to a wedding in Adelaide. We had a nice long chinwag about footie, travels and plans for the future. Looks like I've got to start following Hawthorne now, in addition to the Lions, Swans and Cats.

Beautiful Barossa

We spent last Saturday at the world-renowned Barossa Valley - home of the South Australian wine industry. It was very hot (39C) but that didn't stop us from enjoying the stunning views, gorgeous rose gardens and sampling lovely local wines. We stopped at Chateau Barossa, Peter Lehmann's and a fruit wine place. In addition to the wines, we were enchanted by the profusion of roses all over the valley. One garden worthy of mention is Queen Elizabeth's favourite at Chateau Barossa.

Enjoying a day out with mum & dad at the vineyards

This Adelaide holiday has been very different from my normal travels. I usually travel on my own but this time, I'm part of a large family entourage including mum, dad, aunt, uncle, granny and cousins and it's been FUN! The jokes, laughter and family time have been an eye-opener for me. A big thank you to Uncle David & Aunty Lai Sum for the invitation. And to Aaron & Pik Yee for playing tour guides.

(L) Aaron & Pik Yee with their darling Poh Poh

(R) Family photo outside Peter Lehmann
(although Pik Yee thinks we look more like convicts from Pudu Jail..haha)

Adelaide wedding

My little cousin Aaron got married in Adelaide this week and we all descended on the sleepy capital of South Australia. The Chongs, Wongs and Yeohs had a whale of a time with a laugh-a-minute throughout the five days. Even our 83-year old Granny joined the conga line during the wedding dinner!

Hope we didn't scare poor Jocelyn too much...welcome to the family, my dear...we're really quite normal - I promise! ;-)