Cycling Trip to Pulau Ubin

Being right in the mid-point of my self-proclaimed long vacation, my bloody shoulder still refuses to recover, depriving me of the ability to engage in sports such as swimming and kayaking. Craving for some sports to keep myself alive, I decided to organize an adhoc cycling trip to Pulau Ubin together with Laibao. To my amazement, Eddy decided to join us when I casually told him about my plans for today.

The three of us met up at Changi Village at around 11 in the morning. Since none of us had really eaten lunch yet, we decided to have our lunch at Ubin itself. We strolled to the jetty. It took about 10 minutes before the bumboat was ready for embarkment. Along the way to Ubin, we snapped away with our cameras like no one's business. Another 15 minutes passed, and we have reached Ubin.

Eddy was probably the most excited the moment we alighted from the bumboat. He took shots of whatever crappy objects he could find. Time for lunch. We headed through the village towards the restaurant area, passed the touting owners of the bicycle rental shops, and settled on the restaurant which I usually patronize. We decided to go with the individual-main-course-plus-a-side-course ordering system. Though the food there was not particularly cheaper than the food back on the mainland, the serving was rather generous.

After lunch, we were actually quite fast in choosing our bikes. We decided on getting the older ones at a lower cost, since they didn't look too shabby anyway. We left the village on our bikes in no time. We didn't really have a destination in mind yet, so we picked our path randomly, stopping by once in a while to take pictures or hydrate ourselves.

Along the way, we passed by a swamp. Laibao and me actually spent like half an hour there trying to catch some small fish with a net we improvised using a small plastic bag and a twig. However, we did not catch anything at all =( . We gave up and moved along, passing by Mamam Beach and Nordin Beach. No special encounters such as snakes or wild boars, though we had to be particularly careful when there was any motor vehicles passing on our route. Eventually, we ended up back at the village at around half past 3.

Feeling it was still a little too early to leave, we made our way into the pandan garden and plantation. We found a creepy, abandoned beach further in. We spent abit of time there fooling around with the crabs and mudskippers, and looking around for weird objects. A very unusual find was a piece of deck from a broken kayak. There was still quite alot of time left after that, so we decided to head for the south of the island which we apparantly missed earlier on. I wanted to show Eddy the eagle's nest which Laibao and me saw on our previous visit. Just as we reached the deepest part of the plains near the eagle's nest, the weather took a sudden change for the worse. Me, having expended almost all my energy, had to keep Eddy and Laibao waiting one in a while as I was lagging behind. In the end, we reached the village, drenched.

We returned our bikes and Laibao suggested having dinner at Ubin as well, since there were lots of restaurants around. This time round, we tried the food at a different restaurant, which was rather good as well. We headed to the jetty after that, getting ready to board the boat back to the mainland.

Visit to the Fish Wholesale Market (ASA)

"Oh shit," I thought to myself as I completed a wrong turn into Paya Lebar, which was usually the choice of route I take to Eddy's house, due to light traffic as compared to Geylang. I'm supposed to be picking up Eddy at Kallang instead. It was already 12.20, which was the time I was supposed to reach Kallang. Soon, I arrived at a red light. I reached for my phone and hastily punched in the message:

"Gimme another 10 mins. I took the wrong way."

I managed to hit the 'send' key a few seconds before the light turned green. Having bought more than enough time, I changed my course towards Kallang.

As I approached the carpark beside the Kallang Mac, I spotted Eddy sitting on some nearby bench and I pulled over for him to get onto the car, at the risk of blocking any vehicle which might happen to be entering the carpark. I expected him to board the car fast, but being the ku-niang he is, he actually took his time to open the back door, slowly loaded his stuff in, closed the door, opened the front door, got on gently, and closed the door. We were lucky there wasn't any vehicle behind us. I droved into the carpark, turned out, and headed towards the ECP.

I decided to exit at Telok Blangah and stop at the petrol kiosk near Ro's house as I was in urgent need of a piss. At the same time, I wanted to consult the map so I could plan the route. It seemed like an easy one. Go by AYE, turn out by exit 15, go all the way straight pass a crossroad, turn left into the next minor road, and turn left again. I made myself memorize the directions before leaving the petrol kiosk. In no time, I was back on the expressway.

It was approaching 1am. The road was rather clear, consisting of mainly a few taxis. It was a rather relaxing journey towards Jurong. Confidently, I followed the directions which I had memorized earlier on. I passed through Jurong Port Road, made my turn, and finally arrived at a huge compound which we believed was our destination.

The security of the market was relatively tight compared to that of the Vege-Market, probably due to the presence of the boat docking bay there. Before we were allowed to enter the market, we had to exchange our ICs with some security pass. I drove through the gates while Eddy alighted to do the pass-exchange. Like the Vege Wholesale Market, vehicles entering the compound would need to drive through an ERP gantry.

Once I was in, I stopped to make way for a reversing lorry. In the meantime, Eddy was done at the security post. He came back into my car just in time as the lorry had completed his maneuvre. We started searching for a parking lot, and soon found one. A noob driver had parked his vehicle too near to the left side of our lot, allowing very little space for Eddy to get out of the car. Luckily, he isn't as fat as I am, so he managed to squeeze through.

After a short walk, we reached the main marketplace block. In terms of size, it looked only slightly smaller than the Vege-market - roughly the size of 4 ordinary wet-markets combined. At 1.30 in the morning, it was already full of activities.

As we walked through the marketplace, we really noticed the visual difference between the fish sold here and those sold in supermarkets. The scales of the fishes wore an unusual shine, and there were even buckets of fish and prawns that has just reached the market and were still alive. Bags of fresh catches were transported on trolleys and poured out upon reaching the stalls. We took out the camera and went "snap, snap" all over the place. Just as we were feeling weird taking pictures there, 2 girls holding a camera each squeezed past us. However, we still tried to minimize the attention caught by deactivating the camera-flash. We strolled through each stall, ensuring that we've had a glimpse of every variety of fishes and seafood sold in each stall. At the same time, we tried to identify each fish we could, and evading moving trolleys at the same time. Through the crowd, we even spotted a group of students who were having an excursion there. After some time, we came across a stall where the hawker was tying some crabs. We spent some time there watching how he actually tied the crabs.

Time passed really fast as we walked through the market. By the time we were done walking through the place, 2 hours had already passed. It only felt that we've been there for half an hour! Before we left the ASA area, we had a look at the docks and searched for the toilets. Thereafter, we went to collect our ICs and left ASA. $2 were deducted from my cashcard by the gantry. >=(

We left Jurong by the exact way we came. This time, the traffic was almost zero, particularly after we hit the AYE. Feeling hungry, we decided to drop by Kallang Mac for supper. I was so hungry that a regular meal did not fulfil me, so I ordered an additional box of McWings. At around 4.30am, I sent Eddy home and rushed home, eager to continue the restoration of my PC as I had formatted my hard drive.

A fun night outing

Phew.. WTF it's 5+am in the morning liao??!?

As usual on Friday nites, Eddy and I met up for our weekly supper/chitchatting. I was supposed to be downstairs his house at 11.30pm, but we hadn't decided on a venue yet. So on with spontaneous ideas. We headed to East Coast at first, then feeling tempted to try going to new places, we made for Labrador instead. Halfway thru, I remembered that there was no food at Labrador (wad's the point if there's no food??), and once again, the destination was changed to West Coast Park. Yes, that's it.

Parking at the West Coast Mac car park wasn't really as hellish as I had expected it to be on a weekend night. Quite a few empty lots were available, and we were lucky enough to get one which is quite near to Mac. Supper at Mac. I ordered a fish dipper meal as I was interested only in the fish dippers, and Eddy was only interested in the fries. Perfect. We hanged around, chitchatted and decided to have a walk around the park. Found this huge spider-web structure, and we decided to climb up to chitchat and relax. Though I am now not as scared of heights as before, I still refused to lie down on the flat net, worried that my head might go through the net and I'd fall. It was comfortable just sitting there, though I wished I had the courage to lie down. Wahaha.. Still need to get rid of this last bit of fear man..

After hanging ard the web for a bit, we continued our walk around. Upon our arrival at the adventure course, we turned wild and started fooling around with the equipment there. There was this structure whereby we would sit on a rubber disc, hold on to the chain and swing across from one point to another. We were having some cheap thrill on the structure, and later on a group of JC girls came along, and they also seemed to be enjoying themselves, shouting and screaming with thrill. Next we moved on to the huge ring of obstacle course. I managed to clear almost all of the obstacles, except the part where I have to jump across from a platform to another one, as I felt I couldn't leap such a huge distance. By the time I was done, I was perspiring like mad. We relaxed a while, and got back to the car. I was about to send Eddy home and call it a night when Eddy suddenly came out with another suggestion - visit the wholesale market at Pasir Panjang. It was already approaching 3am.

Initially we wanted to visit the market to browse around for fishes, but after our arrival we realized that there were only fruits and veges there. Nevertheless, we we amazed by the size of the market as well as the massive amount of veges being sold there. It seemed to be much fresher than those we get at the supermarkets. The place was equivalent to the size of more than 3 normal wet-markets. I wanted to take some pics at first, but upon seeing the crowd, we decided that it was not a wise option as eyes would definitely be staring if we had drawn out the camera. Nevertheless it was really an eye-opener and worth the visit.

At 4, we were about to leave the place, when Eddy suggested going to the kopitiam there to have a look at the food they have. Bad move. It drew us into our 2nd supper! We had fishball noodles and some drinks. Finally, I sent Eddy back and went home.

I spend most of my day today reading my previous blog entries all the way from 2003, thinking back and realizing how much I've changed between 2003 and now. Feels like I'm reading about another person, not myself. I chuckle to myself thinking how childish that person is. Yeah, for some reason, I matured really slow, until late last year. In fact, I have to admit that I still have a long way to go before I'm a really mature person.

This year, I really have alot to look forward to. The biggest, will of course be the end of my biggest nightmare, on the 4th August. I will be sure to throw a huge party to celebrate it. Maybe the second biggest event, which I have already accomplished, thanks to my friends and parents for their support, is the acquisition of my Class 3 license and very own car. Next on the list will be either one of these: enrolment into a university, helping my dad with his business, or enrolment into NIE. Other than that, I have quite a number of plans on my list too. Acquisition of Class 2B, shopping trip to Thailand, trekking trip to Malaysia, completion of my 4-star kayaking expeditions, 5-star kayaking course, etc. I am looking forward to it all. And I know this year will be really worth celebrating.

After our spontaneous 2-person suntanning trip to Sentosa last week due to the closing-down of the Big Splash slides, Ray and I decided to have fun at Jurong Swimming Complex today, after attending my occasional church service in the morning. It was my 3rd visit to the pool. It was around 3pm when we got there. We got changed, rented the floats and headed to the tidal pool immediately as the tides were just starting after we came out from the changing room. Compared to my previous visit there, I was having lots of trouble getting onto the float probably due to my increased weight. Wahahaha..

After around 10 minutes of getting thrown around by the artificial waves, we headed for the slides. We decided to try the lower slide first so as not to have the kick taken away from the lower slides if we had tried the higher one first. Ray got himself stuck in the slide so as to wait for me, and we slided down together instead of one by one, which was actually prohibited. But trust me, sliding down together is magnitudes of fun more than sliding down one by one. We had 3 tries and I was too tired/lazy to climb the stairs again, so we went to the stream pool to relax.

We started off at the place with the ticklish jets of water. Being too lazy to get into the water then climb up the float, we tried to jump into the water while landing on our floats. Halfway, we had a stupid game. Ray was trying to out-float me and I was losing speed, desperately trying to catch up with him on the stupid float. After a while, I decided to get off my float and chase him by swimming instead. It was so damn tiring, but in the end I managed to catch up, threw my float over him, swim under him and hey presto! I was in front of him!! Wahaha.. Nice try Ray.. =P..

Next we went for the highest slide and once again, we slided down together instead of individually. It was fun, so my legs didn't mind climbing up the even higher flights of stairs to get to the slide. I thought that the tidal waves were going to start soon, so I hurried Ray to get to the tidal pool, only to find it starting only 20 mins later. Talk about bad timing.. Haha

Back to the stream pool. We did the same thing of jumping down and trying to land on our floats once again. However, DISASTER STRUCK. When I landed on my float, it gave way and I fell. I head a loud 'THUD!', and was totally stunned for a few seconds. My head hit the bottom of the pool hard. I went to the side of the pool to rest for a few minutes, checking if I was bleeding. Fortunately, no. However a headache started, and I was still kind of stunned. We went to the jacuzzi to relax, and by the time we had enough of the jacuzzi, my head seemed to have recovered slightly. Ready for the slides once again!

Our plans this time was to alternate between the low and high slides 2 times, then try the floatless slide 2 times as well. Though the floatless slide was lower than the other 2, it was much scarier. Satisfied with the last dose of fun and worried about the approaching thunderclouds, we headed for the showers.

After the shower, we exited the pool gates and headed towards the car, only to realize that I had left my goggles behind! My $32 optical goggles.. So I spent another $2 just to get back in and check the shower room, but the goggles have already been taken by some itchy hands. Let's hope the person who took my goggles regrets it..

It was around 6 after we headed back to the car and went to some kopitiam nearby for a drink. Cheryl was meeting us at Marina Square as Ray wanted to go there for his favorite ice-cream, so I drove down slowly, as I was probably too tired to speed after the slides and stairs. The only 2 purposes of going to Marina was to meet Cheryl and eat the ice-cream. Our next plan was to have dinner at the Bedok 85 market, as Cheryl was going to be on braces soon and she wanted to have all the food she likes before the 2 months of oral torture. I was lucky enough to get a parking lot soon after I reached the usually-crowded carpark. However, we were not too lucky at the hawker center itself. Had some trouble looking for seats until some auntie set up a makeshift one for us near NTUC.

We had a sumptious dinner there consisting of porridge, bah chor mee, chilli crab, BBQ'ed stingray, BBQ'ed chicken wings and sugar-cane juice. Cuz of the chilli crab and chicken wings, Ray had to go back to my car to get my giant-pack tissue paper. And mind you, we finished almost half of the tissue paper. After that, I sent Cheryl and Ray home. Now there's still one thing left to do - get MC for the bumps on my head.

I drove home, went up to get my mum, and then my sis drove us to the hospital. There was a super-long queue there, but it was worth it. 2-days MC.

Chinese New Year!

After a busy week of shopping around for my New Year clothes and accessories, the Chinese New Year is FINALLY here!! Still the same old New Year routine - visit the relatives on my mum's side of the family on the 1st day of the New Year, and those on my dad's side on the 2nd day.

So yesterday, which was the 1st day, things were a little boring. Basically, went to my grandaunt's house after waking up at 1.30pm, stayed awhile to make sure that I've collected all the angpaos, then headed to my uncle's house to offer respect to my late grandma. Home after that.

Today was slightly more interesting. There was a buffet lunch going on at my grandma's place, so my gluttony nature took over from there. Most of the food was catered; some were brought by my mum. Got to talk to my cousin Liping about choosing NIE as our future path. The conversation really got me thinking, especially later on. In the late afternoon, I decided to head to NUH to pay Minghao a visit, so I drove down, with my brother following as he wanted to take my car home after my visit to the hospital. When I reached NUH, I checked around and found out the Minghao was already discharged, so I returned home to wait for Laibao's and Shaoqi's arrival.

Laibao reached my house a few minutes after I stepped in. I put my computer to entertain Laibao, while feeling guilty for eating so much, I decided to workout on the treadmill while waiting for Shaoqi. Halfway during my workout, Shaoqi arrived. Soon after I was done, we decided to go to Mount Faber for a drink, since I was able to drive us up. The sky was dark by then.

Upon reaching Mount Faber, I found out that all the parking lots were full, to our dismay, until we came across this kind carpark attendant who allowed us to park along the road, as long as we didn't block the way. When we got to Hill Bistro, it was full, so we had to make a reservation and hang around until a seat was available. I left my handphone number with the guy and we decided to explore around the place. We managed to enter this posh complex which somehow led to the cable car stations. The scenery overlooking the city in the evening sky there was marvelous, and I regretted not bringing my camera.

Soon, the Hill Bistro guy called to inform us about an available seat. We made our way to the cafe and ordered milkshakes and a course of chicken to share. It was probably the first time I was trying out their special milkshakes. It was a sinful treat, but who can resist that?? Halfway through, the fireworks from Marina suddenly illuminated the sky, capturing the attention of the patrons there. I was too lazy to bother walking to a better spot to see the fireworks, so I just remained seated and continued slurping on my milkshake. It was approaching 10pm soon and we were trying to plan more programmes for the night. In the end, we agreed on going to the River Hong Pao near the Esplanade.

The River Hong Pao wasn't much of an experience as the entire place was PACKED TO THE BRIM, and most of the stuff there were either food or chinese ornaments which didn't really appeal to us. I did, however, clear my Malaysian Sens at the wishing well, getting a few hits in the process. Next, we noticed that alot of people were crowding around the 'Cai Shen Ye', waiting for the lucky numbers to be released. I didn't really believe in that stuff, but just decided to join in just for the fun. At first, I thought that the confetti released from the 'Cai Shen Ye' was the main attraction, until I was told that people were actually waiting for the lucky 4D numbers.

Shaoqi's next suggestion was to go to Geylang for some "sightseeing", but upon reaching Geylang, I realized that I really dread driving along those Lorongs, so I proposed to leave in a hurry. I sent Laibao home first since his house was nearby, then drove down to Sengkang to send Shaoqi home.

Back in Temasek Polytechnic

Been back to Temasek Poly a few times lately, mostly to help out with school projects and just to hang around there. And I managed to take a swim on one occasion. Though it's nearing 2 years since I've graduated, nothing seemed to have changed much, with the exception that the new ITAS foodcourt has been completed. Looks closely similar to public foodcourts such as Food Junction. I tried the fried carrot cake there, and it sucked. However, I've not tried the other stalls yet, so I can't give more comments. Mensa still remains largely the same, and though some of the guys at the vegetarian stall are replaced, the serving still remains HUGE. The legendary 'Plate of Mountain'.

During my 4 years of study in TP, all I've tried from the Japanese stall was Katsudon, Unagi, Corokke and Sushi. One day during my visit I decided to try the Tempura Bento set. $5, not cheap, not ex. However, the serving size far exceeded my expectation. A generous serving of both Tempura prawns and veggies.

Being a visitor and a student in TP feels completely different. When I was a student there, I didn't really know I loved the place so much. Being just a visitor now, I realize how much I miss TP, and I feel that I would have given anything if I can just relive my days in TP. Maybe it's just the human nature that we won't treasure what we have until we lose it??

Just as I thought I've had enough of driving lessons and stuff, I attended driving lesson again today. This time, it's a refresher course, as my dad wanted me to get more familiar with new situations such as driving on the expressway and parking without poles, before allowing me onto the road. But today, I'm no longer using my instructor's car for lessons. YEPZ I've got my own car now~!! My dad's old Honda Accord LXi which I was eyeing on!

The switch from my instructor's manual Lancer to my auto Accord wasn't as easy as it seemed. For a start, I was terribly uncomfortable with my left leg dangling around, as I would subconsciously feel for the clutch, only to remember that I'm driving an AUTO. Secondly, my car would ACTUALLY MOVE when my feet wasn't on the accelerator. And thirdly, the overwhelming size of the car made cornering tough for a 1-week old P-plate holder like me. However, once on the expressway, I got tempted to try out the full power of the car, so I would find myself excuses to floor my accelerator whenever I could, e.g. when filtering. I learned some poleless parking at some deserted carpark, and made my way home again via the PIE.

At night, Ro came to my house to help me with the cleaning of the car. There were lots of rubbish to be cleared, and the worse piece of shit to clear was probably the SHIT-WATER in the boot. It was around 10cm deep, and I just couldn't help flinching occasionally while draining the water out using a piece of cloth. After the water was cleared, we moved the car down to the washing bay and I did some further cleaning on my boot using clean water. After that, I filled my petrol and chitchatted with Ro at the playground downstairs, until around 12+. Fortunately there's no work tomorrow.

Driving On!~

Today, I woke up at 6.30, earlier than my usual wake-up time. No, I'm not going to work today. For those who don't remember, today is the big test for me.

Taking a deep breath, I hopped onto my dad's car. He sent me to my destination - Ubi Test Center, and we had breakfast together, as we reached early. My lesson was at 7 while we already reached at 6.50. My instructor was an early bird, as he was already there, having breakfast too. Soon, the time was up. My final lesson, before the test.

I started off by driving around the test routes. Nothing big, road's in a normal condition. The road was no big deal, considering the fact that I've driven from Ubi to Clementi countless times. However, when I went into the circuit, some of my common mistakes re-surfaced. I stuck too close to the vehicle in front at the uphill slope. To my surprise, however, my instructor did not screw me like he always did. He probably didn't want me to turn disoriented before the test. Things at the circuit weren't too smooth, but nevertheless I told myself to stop worrying.

Soon the time was up. It was 9, 15 mins just before my test. My instructor led me to the holding room, and from there on I was alone. My heart started to beat fast, and I could feel myself getting colder by the seconds, because of both the aircon and my anxiety. I couldn't take it and decided to head to the cafeteria for a drink to cool myself down. I made it quick, and returned to the holding room, right in time for the balloting of our testers. I felt my hope sink as I met my tester, he seemed like a super-stern old man who would stop at nothing to fail his testees. I knew there was no turning back.

The moment I got onto the car, I could feel my feet vibrating like jelly. It was vibrating so hard that I couldn't control the clutch properly, resulting in the engine dying off a few times while I navigated the circuit. Vertical parking, no problem. Parallel parking, no problem. Crank course, no problem. S-course, no problem. Upslope - BINGO! I tailgated another car into the slope, resulting in a remark from my tester, "Do you know it's very dangerous?? What if he rolls back??". "Sorry, sorry", was all I could say. I still managed to clear it, to my relief. So I made my way out of the circuit. Suddenly, my tester yelled "Hey!! There was a stop line!! Didn't you see it?!?". I went "Oops, sorry, sorry" again. My hopes were TOTALLY DASHED. I knew the mistake I've just made constitutes an immediate failure.

Instead of stopping me, the tester told me to continue on to the test route. I did, and everything went smoothly, thanks to the experience I've gained from the Clementi trips. Finally, I drove back to the circuit, and before my tester alighted from the car, he said "Anyhow hantam! Fucking dangerous!". I thought I had failed.

My instructor appeared out of nowhere, and told me to follow my tester, as I was quite lost on where to proceed next. I followed the tester to his office, and he started to mark my scoresheet. "Shouldn't have let you pass," he commented as he handed me the scoresheet. I held my breath and took a peep. WHAT I SAW NEXT ALMOST MADE ME FAINT WITH JOY.

"PASSED"

YESSSS!! ON MY FIRST TRY!! WAHAHAHA.. Immediately, I sms'ed all my friends while waiting to watch the passers' video. For the whole day, my spirits were damn high, although I must admit I know I'll miss my driving lessons. Finally, I've acquired what I've been waiting for. MY CLASS 3 DRIVING LICENCE!! Oh wait, I still need a car!!!

p.s. if anyone is looking for a good private driving instructor let me know. I'll recommend mine to you. He's great!

The Border-Crossing

Yesterday, I went on a eating cum new year shopping trip to Malaysia, with Eddy. My driving lesson ended at noon, and right after that I rushed down to Eddy's house. He was still going some last-minute packing, so I hanged around his house in the meantime.

In no time we hit the void decks, and hurried down to Bugis via MRT. It was my smart idea to catch the bus from there, and we were somehow lost on where to go in order to take the bus service, and thanks to my reluctance to admit that we're lost. In the end, we hurried down to the MRT station control to check it out, and we bolted to the place at once. Just before we crossed the final traffic light, we saw the bus leaving, and gasped in unison. I cursed my ill luck while Eddy still wouldn't stop whining about my "poor sense of direction". But we were soon going to realize that it was actually a blessing in disguise. The moment we reached the bus stand, another bus was there, and once it was on its way it swiftly overtook the bus we missed!!

The journey to the causeway wasn't as long as it might have seemed. In no time we were filling up the declaration forms at the custom. Passed the Singapore custom, got back onto the bus, and went through the Malaysian custom. As we walked down the building, we looked up, and realized that we had just crossed the border! Johor, here we come!!

1pm. As we walked the first few steps through the streets of Johor Bahru, plenty of taxi-drivers approached us, trying to strike up a deal. However, we decided to travel by foot until we find ourselves a hotel. As we walked through the underpass, we were greeted by the sight of beggars, some who were mutilated. Though I feel sorry for them, I did not have any small change on hand. Can't really bear to part with one of my RM100 notes.

After a little walking, we arrived at a busy town. It is called 'City Square', I supposed. Or 'City Square' could just have been the name of the mall we saw and associated the town with. Both of us realized that we had forgotten to bring a small pouch to carry our valuables in, so we headed down to the City Square Shopping Mall to see if we could manage to get a bargain. I bought an imitation Quiksilver waist pouch for RM29, and we settled for lunch at the same time, at Secret Recipe. So what's so special about Secret Recipe when Singapore also has them?? Ans: The ones in Malaysia are FREAKING CHEAP! Approximately S$12 per person - A chicken bolo-wadever, a baked rice, additional french fries, 2 milkshakes. How does that sound?? There might be even more items which I've forgotten to add to the list.

As a result of walking around with our heavy bags after lunch, we were really dying to get a hotel so we could travel around with less load. I was initially all in for spending RM209 per night to get a more luxurious hotel called Something-Pacific, but after Eddy stated the point that it would be wiser spending our money on food rather than lodging, we decided to check in at Vista Melati. It was quite a basic hotel with 2 beds, a wardrobe, a dressing table, a TV, and a smoking lounge. Bathing facilities features a warm-water shower. RM99 per night. Not a bad deal.

Time check - 3.30pm. Once we were done repacking the more important stuff into my new waist pouch, we headed out. Most of the town was lined with VCD shops, handphone shops, and food places. Most of it seemed so Singaporean, so we hit for the mall instead. Saw Angela along the way. Felt that she's damn bold for a woman, travelling to Johor Bahru alone. Aniway, the mall kindda dazzled us. Storeys after storeys of shops selling funky youngsters' stuff. Initially I was planning to get a new pair of shoes for the upcoming Chinese New Year, but one pair of slippers caught my eye, and I got it immediately. Meanwhile, Eddy was more conscious with his spendings, and wouldn't buy anything until he's sure he has seen all in that genre.

Approaching 4.30pm. Time for a break. We had some fruity snow shake at a small cafe in the mall before continuing. That was when we realized that like 70% of the patron at that mall looked like they're Singaporeans! Anyway, we decided to take a break from slipper-shopping. Looked around a furniture shop, took some pics around, then headed back to the hotel to relief the load from my shopping.

Around 6 to 7pm. Time to scavage for food. Good food. So I thought of Sentosa. We walked around the town to look for good deals for a taxi, and managed to get one just as the sky was turning dark. I didn't know where to tell the driver we're dropping at, so we ended up at some random spot. The best impression I had of Sentosa was the shopping mall there, so we began searching for it. With a stroke of luck, we managed to find it in no time, but we noticed that it was deserted. Lots of shops were demolished, and there was NO ONE. I was getting freaked, and suddenly we realized that the 'happening' area was on the other side of the building. We found our way there, and to my relief, it was indeed the place in my faint memories. We decided to hunt for dinner before starting our rendevous there.

8.30pm. We went past one Kopitiam, into a long stretch of road with lots of streetside stalls. Somehow, we decided to head back for the Kopitiam for our dinner instead. I tried the Yong Tau Fu Laksa there while Eddy ordered Fried Kway Tiao. My Laksa rocks more!! Wahaha.. We were looking for something worth doing after dinner, and somehow the idea of KTV came up. There MUST be a KTV place there. Somehow, we stepped into one, and soon, we were whining into microphones like drunkards.

12.15am. Had BBQ'ed chicken wings and fried oysters for supper before heading back to the hotel via taxi. I've ran out of RM after the KTV session. Explored the hotel building, but did not discover anything interesting. Had a bath and a quick rest.

Time check - 2am. Woke up and went out.. for supper AGAIN! Had some delicious wantan noodles at some noodle house. As we were walking past the alleys, some papasans kept pestering us to get horny, despite my fat lies about us being underaged. I came up with a smarter lie and told them that we were going to bring another friend along later. The nightlife at City Square was HIGH. In addition to handphone shops, countless shops selling.. ahem.. VCDs.. lighted up the streets. We were getting sleepy, so we decided to return to our hotel and hit the bed.

I reluctantly pull myself up the bed at 10am the next morning, to find Eddy already being the early bird. We went back to the mall, but the shops were not even open yet. I felt lucky though, as the money changer was open. I seriously needed some RMs. Ok, I've became 100RM richer once again, but S$50 poorer. We had breakfast at Macdonalds. I seriously feel that the Macdonald's at Malaysia offers much better service than that of Singapore, e.g. self-service free-flow of chilli sauce.

11.30am. Headed back to hotel for final packing up and bathing. Upon checking out at 12 noon, we found out that we were entitled to a lucky draw based on our stay at that hotel. A trip to Australia, but the draw results would only be out at the end of 2006 . Pray hard that we'll win! Wahaha.. We went back to the mall for some last-minute shopping, photo taking, and lunch at some Taiwanese fried spicy chicken stall. Soon, it was time to go. Grabbed some Ramily Burgers before we hopped onto the bus.

Time check - around 3pm to 4pm. Phew.. Home Sweet Home!! And I've really enjoyed the trip!

2 Week sBefore The Big One!

Hmm.. When was the last time I've updated my blog?? 4 freaking months ago!! Somehow some stupid people at work discovered this personal little space of mine, so I decided to go on low profile for some time. Trust me, I was really pissed. But since I feel it's safe now as they've lost interest in tracking down my blog, so I'm back!

Nothing much these days. Been juggling my time between Eddy, Ro & Ron, Laibao, family, and my driving lessons. My test is in exactly 2 weeks time. 70% confident in passing on my 1st try while the other 30% constitutes uncertainty about the more tricky situations like last-minute lane change/filtering, as well as movements around the circuit. Surprisingly, parking seems to be my speciality. Some of my weaknesses:

• jerky gear-shifts
• extremely sharp cornerings
• moving about in the circuit
• my kancheong'ness

That aside, I'm really looking forward towards the upcoming holiday season. Better if I have a car + license to go along with it!