Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Malaysia-Kukup Trip 1

Yes! The long await kukup trip is here.


On 17 December 2008, we met at about 10 am at Bugis MRT. Before we met, I had to go down to the ICA to get my new passport. The reason was that I had to update my photo as my old passport photo was commented by the customs previously when I went to Malaysia.


The ICA has new rule: There is no more just updating photo alone. If to update photo, a new passport has to be applied.


To my horror when I reached ICA, there was a really really long queue to get into the building. The queue basically surrounded the whole building. But luckily, the whole process of getting into the building and getting my passport did last more than an hour.


This is a photo taken at Bugis MRT while waiting. Soon, we set off to Queen Street Terminal to take a bus travelling between Malaysia-Johor Bahru's Lakin and Singapore's Queen Street Terminal.



The whole lasted for about 2 hours or so? In between, we had to alight and board the bus to pass the customs. This was my first time taking the causeway link bus to get to Malaysia.




At the Malaysia custom, there were queues at the counters (at least 15 counters). Some queues were shared among 2 counters; one queue is handled by two counters. These are the queues that were faster *obviously*. Haha. But not many of us realised until when there were of us who reached the counters faster.


This is the new Malaysia custom. It is quite spacious as compared to the old one. But i guess the waiting time is still almost the same? I am not very sure as I seldom visit Malaysia. =)

After we reached one of the Johor Bahru's bus interchange Larkin, we need to catch a bus to 笨镇 (Pontian). *I think so* According to Yu Han, we are supposed to know which bus is going to where. This is really different from Singapore. As Yu Han and me discussed, Malaysia or more specifically, Johor, is not as systematic as Singapore. And we, the Singaporeans, are used to the systematic life in Singapore.


The bus ride to Pontian is about one and a half hours. Most of us took this time to take a quick nap.

This is a picture of the view of Pontian. At there, we ate at a Indian food outlet. I won't say it is a restaurant as it does not restaurant standard!












Here, we actually had to connect 4 or 5 tables in order to accommodate the whole lot of us. This reminds me of The Little Nyonya's Tok Panjang (长桌筵). Haha!


There was a thing which actually amused us. They told us that they did have enough rice. I was like: Derh...





In any case, the main point 重点 重点 重点 is that, the place is full of houseflies!!!

Woah.. This was very IRRITATING! They fly around your head, legs; rest on your arms, neck. Yucks! And this sucks!



This is a flat screen TV over there and houseflies were found resting on it!


There were also some coconuts (real), which have houseflies on it.


Really.... Steady.
Below were some of the pictures taken there.





























After we had our don't know whether is it for lunch or tea break or dinner, we proceed to Giant Supermarket and bought snacks for our stay later in the night. Then, we board a bus to Kukup at the bus stop taken below.














And finally, we reached our chalet! This is the place that we had our stay. It seemed a very simple place from the outside, but actually, it is quite furnished and.... the whole place can be air-conditioned!


There were even drinks provided! The toilets and bathroom were clean.







This is the time that we reached the chalet itself.
Haha! I find it creative to take a picture of the clock to indicate the timing. Haha.











Below are some views taken from the chalet.






















The kukup trip will be continued... Haha...

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

My ah ma's (外婆) 83rd Birthday

Have been sleeping a lot since the end of term tests.. Not much programmes, except for my ah ma's birthday celebration to attend.
The older generation go by 农历 (Chinese calendar). Her birthday by right is on 十一月初二十一. But that would be on a Thursday. So we had the celebration pushed forward, to be on a Sunday where everybody is able to attend.

As usual, my family would buy bird nest for her. This year, my both older sisters were not able to attend as one had to complete her project and one has to complete her dissertation.

Our birthday gift was so last minute until i have to go down to Chinatown to buy it before going over to my ah ma's house at Telok Blangah. So i went.

The original plan was to just to buy 3 boxes of bird nest, 2 for my grandma or grandmother and one for my sister as she requested. In the end, there was a offer; buy 5 and get 1 box free....

So, being tempted and the price was reasonable, I ended up carrying 6 boxes of bird nest!!! It was so heavy that I cannot tar han and I called a cab to my my ah ma's house..
Until now, my both arms are aching.

At there, everybody was present except for a few. This year there was no longer Bak Ku Teh and curry, its hotpot. The base soup was absolutely fabulous! Whoo!!! Very very nice.

Then after breakfast or lunch or dinner, it's birthday cake time! Haha.. Below are some of the pictures....

This is the birthday cake for my ah ma.



During the singing of the birthday song, my ah ma stood very still for my cousin to take picture. Haha!!! We didn't expect her just to stand there.


My ah ma and ME! My bank 'opens' again. Haha.

This is one of my cousins. Quite pretty right? Haha.
After this post, I would be all ready for tomorrow's kukup trip!!!! AD 15 and 25 finally able to go to kukup! We had discussed before when we were year 1. Haha. Finally until now we can go! Whoo!

Saturday, December 13, 2008

13 Dec 08

It has been 2 weeks i think from my last post. Let me start with today's event and track back slowly....

Today my second sis and her boyfriend met the property agent. My neighbour, just a flat besides ours, intended to sell the flat. I thought the discussion would went smoothly, so obviously it did not went as smotthly as I have thought.

My second sister's boyfriend, kept mum throughout the discussion, all the until we had to settle to meet the agent tonight. None of us could figure what he was thinking as he did not want to speak. So, we allow them to think about it.

Before a decision was made, I went fairprice to buy some stuff for my mother. During my trip, I recalled that my right eye was twitching quite "fiercely" this morning. The right eye even had tears flowing out *I was not crying*.

Then it struck me that would it have been this matter? As this matter can be considered as a major decision. Following this, I hoped that my left eye would twitch, to balance off the bad things and good things will come. Luckily, it did and when I got back, yes! My second sister's boyfriend agreed.

The reason why her boyfriend was holding on to buy the flat is that he would still like to travel to different places to work, do not wish to settle in Singapore yet. I also thought of this which is holding him back, but only confirmed with my sister after he left my house. I was so afraid that I sms my eldest sister, hoping that she could give us some good ideas, comments. But it was unnecessary. Haha.. So, everything was settled at least.

The funny thing about this matter is that we could not find any reasons to reject this offer. Haha. This is because the flat is just beside us, they just have to pass through 2 doors to come over here for dinner etc. It's so 'fang bian' and her boyfriend could save the money on renting another room. He would have his very own house.


Alright, enough of this issue. It has been confirmed, and that this can be put aside for awhile as there would be more things coming for us to settle.

Now... I wanna talk about last week stuff..

03 December 2008

I remembered that day I was shocked to see my second sister's boyfriend (his name is Tony la... so tired keep saying boyfriend boyfriend) cooking at my house kitchen when i was standing at my house gate. I thought my mum would be the one preparing our dinner.

He was on 1 week leave to clear his leave.


Then, we waited for the dishes. When we start to have our dinner, everyone of us kept nodding our heads. Haha.. It was simply delicious! That's the reason why I was so full. I ate so much is not to waste all his effort and that I enjoyed all the food that he has cooked.

First, noodles were ready. This was the noodles that he cooked.
Followed by it was fried chicken wings and prawns!! Both were really really nice. Especially the chicken wings.. My mum could not even reached the standard!! Haha...


Last of all, we also had tofu...
Overall, we really had 'zhi cha' style of dinner man... Really enjoyed.. My stomach could be seen also. Haha...
04 December...
The next day Tony came to cook also... The same thing happened to me after having the dinner.. BIG stomach!! Haha...

This is 'ka kuay' with meat balls.. I don't know what 'ka kuay' called in english... If you know, please come and tell me.. Haha.. Thanks!


This is steamed egg with tofu and minced pork on top, adding flavours to the plain steamed egg and tofu.
A chef is indeed a chef... Multi-tasking between 2 to 3 dishes at the same time; having to control the fire of the stove and to stir fry the noodles. 赞! Haha...
05 December 2008... (Friday)
This day no more cooking by Tony.. My mum did not cook also... Then my sister was hungry until she wanted to have instant noodles. She wanted to have hot water by using the electric heater. This was the extension socket that was plugged in..


Like dots la!!! An uncovered plug could still be used!!! Nobody knows who did this and lucky enough, nothing happened.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

我生气了!

Oh.. Today small small thing happen ar.. Haha...
Today was the last lab session for AIA. I guess none of us will expect it to be so so slack. I think the lab session is just to let us experience Fourier Transform Infared Spectroscopy (FTIR).
I found the lab session to be boring as there is nothing for us to do *except for us to play*. Haha.. So I decided to take out lyrics of songs that I have wanted to practise. Some songs I really like it and that I want to learn it well, so that next time can sing when I go for k. One song is to sing to kai siang! Haha. That song for kai siang is "Lips of an Angel'. I heard from Yuying that he would always play this song in exxon mobil everyday without fail for a period of time. So I wanna ka jiao him!!! Haha..
I actually printed out the lyrics so that its easier for reference whenever I am free or too bored with.
So when i was holding the paper (lyrics) in my hands, people anti me singing (haha) tried to stopped me. Then, not long after, the paper i was holding onto tore.
My thinking at that split second was: "I just want to practise that's all, and I have no intention in singing OUT LOUD. Why do my paper have to be torn!!!!!!!! And that the paper is not recycled paper (rough paper) lor.. I used a NEW paper...".
I nearly nearly cried out. My eyes at that moment were already one-third filled with tears and my face turned red. So to avoid that, I walked out of the laboratory to cry out or cool myself down in the toilet.
But when I reached the toilet, there were some girls then too paiseh to let my emotions out. So, i kept my tears back. Also on second thought, it's not worth crying over a torn paper and the tearing of the paper is an accident, nobody expects that to happen. Also, only me i guess that treat a piece of paper so important.
So why be angry over such a small thing that might 破坏our friendship? Not worth it right? *Yeah* Haha..
So i was playing my handphone game in the cubicle, I didn't picked up kai siang's call as I don't know what to say to him at that point of time, I heard all the shoutings that asked me to come out. Hahahahaha....
When i got back into the lab, I don't feel like talking for whatever reason(s) which I don't know myself also. Maybe it is because that I need time to recover after something happened. I was really feeling a bit down should be because I'm tired..: I chiong out of my hosue today, I nearly unable to board my 23 early in the morning as I didn't keep a lookout for it; and lastly lastly, its b'cuz of AIA report....
I really appreciate all those who came out to look for me. At the same time I am sorry that I have made some of you to be worried.. But it's now ALL OVER!!!

Don't worry.. 我没有放在心上. Really... I know I need to have guy's thinking: do not remember such a small thing...