Saturday, October 28, 2006
how i spent my hari raya ;p
while our malay counterparts were busy celebrating hari raya, i was "busy" going to temples coz it was "jiu wang ye" (loosely translated as the 9th emperor)'s bday on the 9th day of the 9th lunar mth... it wasnt the actual day but it was better to go earlier than on the actual day coz of the crowd..
buses dropping off bus loads of devotees
lotsa yellow lanterns (looks like the other temple with red lanterns in my cny pictures) was dragged out of bed early in the morning to go to this small temple in defu industrial estate. hv been going there since we were kids but nvr knew wat it was all abt except that we have to tie this yellow cloth on our hands for the whole month. even though the temple was out of nowhere, plenty of pple came to pray. there were bus loads of pple coming either from community centres or all the way from m'sia.
the paper boat which they are going let out to the sea when they are sending the gods off to sea (the red papers are all slips of paper with names of devotees on them)
"jiao zi" (dunno how to translate ;p) for the gods to sit in
i was chopped on the hand coz i didnt want them to stamp on my clothes :P in the afternoon, went with dad n his frens to kusu island for the annual "pilgrimage" to pray there. tink tis is the only period of time when pple actually still goes to kusu island. there's nothing much to do there except visit the temples n maybe hang round the beach abit. the ferry terminal has shifted from "hong deng ma tou" or clifford pier @ raffles area to this ferry terminal @ an ulu area @ marina south. (speaking of marina south, tink it has become a gathering place for philipino, banglahs, chinese nationals etc etc to gather for picnics n cheap food. there were so many of them waiting for their frenz to gather there ;p)
the ferry we took
had to take a train down to marina south n take bus 402 fr there to reach the terminal. took one of those penguin ferries (like those we take to batam, suspect these are the older smaller types they used last time to ferry pple to batam). the ticks were veri ex nowadays, $14 each for adult during wkends n ph.
welcome to kusu island~~
was pretty disppointed coz despite being a ph, it wasnt crowded at all. missed the earlier days when pple came in crowds n the whole place felt like a carnival. maybe like wat mum said, the ferry ticks are too ex nowdays n hence detering families fr coming. only spent ard 2hrs plus on the island praying, taking pics n strolling ard the beach b4 returning to mainland.
temple
view fr inside the temple
wishing well
statues of turtle donated by devotees 30yrs ago
152 stairs leading up to the malay gods on top of this mini hill
malay temple
tink this is some lucky 4d tree which has markers for devotees to write their numbers all over like wat the lady was doing. those red plastic bags hanging on the trees are filled with stones. in the past, all the trees were hung with such plastic bags by devotees to make wishes. so disappointed the trees were mostly bare nowadays
the beach facing to main land. see how the stupid haze blurred everything
another pair of huge marble turtles
amazingly green n clear waters
top of the new ferry terminal for pple to sit ard
2:45 PM star light star bright... Y
Thursday, October 19, 2006
importance of learning english in school...
while writing emails to complain abt the inefficiency of an idiot from another dept in my company, i suddenly realise n appreciate the importance of learning english in schools. it enables us to complain abt irritating colleagues "professionally" without sounding too sarcastic ;)
finally all those hours spent on english n gp classes make sense! :P
10:30 PM star light star bright... Y
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
vivo city 
despite the haze, went down to vivo city to check out the new shopping centre even though abt a third of the shops werent open for biz yet. most were still under renovation whereas some were doing finishing touches to their display items. official opening is scheduled on 1st december. by the time we reached ard 2plus, the whole of sg was there. even really old aunties n uncles came together to shop. and we even met my uncle and his whole family there... there were 5 levels, b1 actually not counted coz only have carpark there. the whole place was HUGE~~(heard a couple of staff at the shops trying to find their way back to their own shops :P
view from the open area on L3
cable car in the background
view of the waterfront below
started from the top level, l3 where the open air area/park? was. thot it was pretty nice to have such a huge outdoor area where the scenery wasnt too bad, facing sentosa n the cruise centre. was pretty windy up there too and could hv taken nice pictures if not for the horrid haze, spoil all my pictures ;p... there were lotsa pools of water ard to make the place and it looks like a mini beach as there were children n adults wadding in the ankle deep waters. not sure whether they are supposed to do that but there werent any sign boards ard n no security or staff to stop them from doing so... there was even an open air atrium which would be nice for performances and attracting singers to come here to do their album promo.
cruise centre
this statue actually moves, does n 360degree turn at a certain time interval
children wadding in the water pools
the whole place felt like a beach luv the food court on level 3. there were actually 3 foodcourts, food republic on l3, banquet n kopitiam on b2, on top of the numerous restaurants n fast food outlets and can't believe all were fully packed during dinner. thot food republic was the best coz of the retro decor, the whole place was designed to look like those food stores in olden times and even minor details like the planks used on the floor n on the book shelves of the newspaper vendor are those faded, run down planks that look as if they were really taken from those old wooden houses in the kampongs. "antique-looking" decor were all over the place, like wooden baskets, brooms, radios etc were used to decor the place.
even the sign board looks retro
the mountain of butter ;p
pork floss toast n kaya toast
look at the decor of the place
wooden baskets n stuff placed randomly all over the place
there was an outdoor playground for kids and rite beside it were mostly shops selling kiddy clothes and of coz a huge toys 'r' us. veri good marketing planning strategy. other shops consist of a gd mix of up market brands and other affordable common brands. also liked the vivo mart where they sold "unusual pdts" such as my mascarphone cheese, which i have been looking all over the place for, and all those organic n healthy food ;p
outdoor playground
the crowd
staff on these dunno wat u call them things and going round the place to attract shoppers (there were others in costumes walking ard giving directions to shoppers)
think will definitely go there more often when all the shops are operating, esp when the train btw sentosa n the shopping mall starts operating too :)
9:59 PM star light star bright... Y
Sunday, October 15, 2006
cycy's wedding 101006
day started off at 6++am, had to wake up early to dress up n meet rachel for breakfast b4 going over to cycy's hse. had to go buy the ingredients for the "salad" at the mkt too ;p
one of the nicest card i hv made ;p
rachel with the card :) arrived @ cycy's hse ard 9plus...went upstairs to the beautiful bride n cool down in the air-con room b4 starting preparations for the sabo session... didnt hv much time for the sabo session coz was onli allocated 20min n groom n gang were late so onli had 3 segments. (me had plan at 5-6 diff segments but werent enough time :P)
cycy checking out our gifts 
heard that the groom liked this :P
covering up the veil since the groom was late, they 1st given punishment of 10 push ups each (at 1st wanted burpees but they bargained down to push ups)... next was the "suan tian ku la" (sour sweet bitter & hot) salad... the portion was a lot smaller than planned coz cycy's aunts n uncle were monitoring us all the way n didnt really approve of wat we were doing coz apparently, there werent such practices in kuching. her uncle even said "better not marry singaporean girls" ;p... the groom took only abit of each n his own bro actually helped me finish the rest (except the chili padi) while the other two bros juz stood aside to watch.
sisters troop getting ready
all natural salad (bitter gourd, pineapple, chilli padi n lemon slices drenched in lemon juice)
groom n gang arriving
arrival at the door
punishment
sour~~
2nd segment was q&a. tink qns were abit too easy coz the groom got most of them correct.
last segment was the balloon popping but not b4 the ang bao bargaining coz the keys to the door was supposedly hidden in one of them. tink the groom got off abit easy coz we didnt actually bargain for a bigger ang bao.
let me in please~~
for the ballon popping segment, we hid a few keys into 8 ballons filled with confetti n glitter powder... they were tied in a bundle n hung fr the 2nd floor window down to the corridor outside the hse. the groom was supposed to stand in a box marked out right under the ballon to ensure that he can escape fr all the glitter n stuff n bust the balloons with a stick we had prepared. b4 dat the groom had to shout "lao po wo ai ni" (darling/wife, i luv u) b4 mei mei n rachel lowered the balloons down. one of the bros found a chair fr the neighbour's hse n hence forcing them to pull them real high up.
in the end all the keys in the balloons were all dummies to ensure the groom had to burst all the balloons :P... there were some unexpected incidents along the wat such as halfway thru, i heard someone say the door's open n i turned ard to find cycy's daddy had opened up the padlock with his spare keys but luckily, i brought along n extra bicycle lock which onli i had the keys :P.. after eventually bursting all the balloons, the gang were quite surprised that all the keys couldnt open up the lock, some thot the keys was stuck on the ledge above or elsewhere but cycy's dad manage to once again bao toh us by telling them the key was with me...
happy bride waiting for the groom to sing to her
rushed upstairs to join the gals after unlocking the lock. the groom was forced to sing a song to the bride b4 finally allowed to enter...
finally got to see the bride
unveiling the bride
dessert for all the rest of the afternoon was spent going to n from the groom's n bride's hse for the tea ceremony which we managed to complete ard 2, which was an hr ahead of schedule n hence allowing me n rachel more time to rest n get ready for the evening banquet.
the car troop
the big red umbrella
re enactment of citigem's commercial by cycy n meimei
arrival @ groom's hse
tea ceremony at groom's place (was helping out with the tea at the bride's side so didnt hv time to take pics ;p) popped down to the hotel ard 6pm to take a look at cycy n her huge hotel rm at carlton nearby... went down to restaurant to help with the preparations to find that mei mei n gang had already set up most of the things n we onli had to sit down at the reception to prepare for the guests' arrival. was abit chaotic at 1st was the lighting at the place was abit dark n had problem locating the names of the guest n getting them to ensure their names were on the ang baos. luckily the bride's list was much simpler n shorter than the groom's side... while rachel went over to pick up the bride fr the hotel, i helped to do some last min check with meimei n cycy's mum on the guest list.
@ hotel rm b4 dinner
mum n dad arriving early for dinner onli managed to settle down after cycy had marched in n we have packed up the things at the recept. wasnt able to help to take video as planned as the venue was too dark to see anything at all so left the rest of the photo taking to the professionals.
mei mei n her bf, emcees for the night
couple watching surprise slide show by the groom (which comprises of the "horrid" photos of cycy's hen nite :P)
decor at the restaurant
the banquet
the hyper bride wandering ard during dinner
p.s. did i mentioned how TL i was with one of the groom's bros troop. told rachel i wld whack him the next time i saw him. yah, he did help to take time off n drove the others ard but else then that, he did nothing to help. @ the banquet, he n the other bro was supposed to usher guest to their seats but all the while, he juz sat at his own table n started drinking wine even b4 the guests arrived. i even went in to ask him to come out to help coz the other one couldnt cope once the guest started swarming in but he juz refused to move. the most irritating part was when i had to go the toilet, i bumped into him n 2 female guests, i overheard that the female guests didnt know where the ladies were so i pointed out to them. at this moment, the stupid a**h**** said "yah loh, never do your job" (as in implying i was suppose to bring the guest ard). shouted back at him "dunno who's the one who nvr do their job 1st"...
on top of this, his table drank most of the wine throughout the whole nite n cant even "yam seng" properly (our table started 1st n they tried to follow)... cant even "yam~~" without stopping at least 10 times, no breathe dun show off lah, not even paiseh!!
moral of the story (which both me n rachel concluded): choose ur brother troop wisely, dun choose pple who talk big n dun do anything ;p
11:58 AM star light star bright... Y
