It's off to City Square, again...

Started the day bright and early, on the 6th of May 2006. Unfortunately (or fortunately), I did not have to hit the polls. I did not have the chance to vote. All my life, I have never voted, to showw my support for the political party of my choice. However, I have followed the rallies closely, and sometimes I can't help but think that people will stop at nothing just to gain attention and hopefully the support of people...

Ok. Anyway, we (da and I) decided to pay CIty Square a visit. City Square, if any of you are still unaware, is a shopping mall in Johore Bahru. I love shopping there, I guess because everything is relatively cheaper, although they can be cheaper in the more rural areas of Malaysia. However, I am satisfied with this mall because it is the closest to SIngapore, and walking distance from the checkpoint in JB. We have been visiting it on the frequency of like once a month... ha..I wonder when I will be sick of it.


Anyway, went to daddy's place for breakfast, and also for a good cup of teh-si...(tea with evaporated mil and sugar...yummy!). I had the toast set...but the bread is special. It's not just the normal toast, but it's called the "tai kong bao" - loosely translated to mean "space bread". It's really nice. I also had two half-boiled eggs to go with the bread...sometimes I just love these for breakfast.

This is our stall. For those of you who do not already know, it's located at Margaret Drive (This is in Queenstown), and it's located at the farthest end from the bus stop, but the nearest stall to the QUeenstown library. You have got to try the coffee, and let me know if it's good, coz I think it's terrific...hee hee...

That's mummy, working in the stall today because she is not working. She helps out whenever she is not working... =)



This is da da, driving on the way back to his home, to carry out his sacred duty as a Singapore Citizen...VOTING!!!

**By the way, did any of you realise that in this photo, da is on the left hand side of the car? I seriously have no idea how the photo turned out like this...hmm...


Da's voting card. *Sob* I didn't have the chance. Never had a chance before...sigh.

Ok. ANyway, after da went to vote, which went very smoothly and he was done in 3 min's time, we went to return the car to daddy, and it was already about 3 when we left for JB. We took the train to Jurong East Interchange, and took 160 from there to JB.

The woodlands' causeway was alright, no major problems cropped up in the queue there.

Now, the real problem came when we reached the Malaysia causeway. Oh. My. God. We alighted from the 160 bus, and then, that was where the queue started. For those of you who might be familiar with the causeway, this is terrible. It could have easily been a thousand over people in the place. What makes it worse, is this: It's not that I want to say anything about the people there, but their system sucks, and there is no form of organization and order there. People ae blatantly and outrightly cuttting queue! There was even this HUGE malay family (about 10 of them), who simply wriggled their way across to the front of the queue, totaly ignoring the stares they are receiving from the people behind. They just pretended to look innocent, and it irritated the HELL out of me! Da and I were initially very patient in the queue, and tried to take it easy, following the queue and stuff. HOwever, after half an hour in a stagnant queue, we decided it was time to change a line. When I say "Stagnant", I mean STAGNANT. I mean, what the hell do you expect!? Everyone was cutting us!

Ok. So we move to this other line for another counter, and started waiting. Bear in mind this was already after half an hour of waiting. It was now 4:30. Da and I were just waiting for someone to be unhappy, and then start a fight. Then everything would get messy. Then this guy came up to us:

He: Want, 2 minute can clear checkpoint alreali. Want? 20 dollar only.

Us: No..thanks.

Hell! This was Wicked! There was even money to be made out of queueing! They worked sort of like an organization, and they had people in the queue, and when someone pays them the money, the person can just go in and "take the place" of this person.. sheesh. The creativity!

Ok. SO we queued, several times when I nearly lost my cool and started scolding people...There was simply no order at all! There were like 20 lines, but only about 10 available counters. Queues were converging into single lines, and that was where all the problem arose. If only they had some form of control, it wouldn't be that bad.

Ok. This was 4:50, and we were nowhere near the counter, and it doesn't help that the AIR-CONDITIONER inside the checkpoint worked like a roaster...

Finally, after much anticipation, the fight finally arose. I mean, there were like small squabbles around us, when people tried to argue with those cutters, that they should take the line properly, but decided it was useless after a while. There was this Indian woman, whom I think has a child and was desperate to get across the checkpoint because the child needed the toilet or something like that. Then there was this uncle who was reluctant to let her pass. This huge quarrel ensued, and it only ended when the officer asked them to stop it, and the people around asked the guy to let her pass first. Begrudged, she was still cursing and swearing after she passed the check...sigh. Nothing exciting happened after that.

It was 5:30 before we finally cleared the bloody checkpoint. Seriously, they should look into the matter. It was out of hand, and it could have easily turned into a bloody incident. In fact, I am confident that this sort of thing would not happen in the SIngapore checkpoint, if ever there was this influx of people into Singapore from the causeway.

Enough of negative issues. Now's the fun part.

When we entered Malaysia, we were famished. We decided to try this restaurant on the third floor, called "Home Recipe". They serve those home cooked sort of food, and we always walked past it but never tried it.


We ordered the white kway teow. It was like hor fun, and when it first came, I was a bit turned off by how plain it looks. It looks all soupy and stuff, and doesn't look the least bit appetizing. However, when I tried it, it was alright. In fact, I thought it tasted good!


This is the special thai tou fu. It is sour, and the small toufu pieces are fried to perfection. It is crispy on the outside, and yet soft and watery on the inside. They also have you tiao with it. Nice! 4/5.

This is the fried pork. This dish, on the other hand, nothing spectacular. It is just a very thin slice of pork coated with the flour, and fried, with this orange, toxic looking dip. I thought it was average. 2/5.

Hmm. The fried vegetables. Nice. Tasty enough, palatable. 4/5

This was the dish that da and I favoured the most. It's fried bitter gourd egg. It's nice...Juicy egg, and the bittergourd was not too raw...and then the ingredients just complement each other... Nice! 4/5. Everything came up to about 40 plus ringgit. CHEAP! haha...

After our "Lunner" (Lunch + dinner), we attacked the shops, ready to shop!!!! To infinity and beyond!! =)


Here's the spoils for the day..

Da got a jacket for his cousin's wedding in June. He wanted to wear a jacket, with a tee in it, and with a pair of pants. I thought it looked good. I always thought da looked good in a jacket, because he is tall, and he can definitely carry it off... (hee.. Though I think it would look even more delicious without the paunch..hee...)

Here's the jacket he got. Oh, trust me, it doesn't look very impressive here, but he looks good in it..

Here's the tee that he chose to go with the jacket. For now, that is. Until a better candidate comes into the scene.. haha...

MINE!!! Muhahah...I have been eyeing this tee for a long time, but I thought it was expensive in SIngapore. Not that it's any cheaper here, but somehow I feel that I bear to buy it more when it's in RInggit...weird, i know...=X..But I simply LLLLOOOOOVVVVEEEE bling stuff...hee

A cap we got for Kelvin. Here's the interesting thing about me. We went to many of the cheap shops, where they have lots of caps for sale, all sorts of patterns and designs, that look exactly like the real one. However, nothing caught my eye, until we went to a shop selling authentic Billabong stuff, and then I immediately saw this. I still feel that whatever is genuine, cannot fake. IfI cannot afford it, I would rather not possess it. Serious! Authentic stuff have an air about it that fake stuff cannot replace, however hard the replica is.


Haha...just some random stuff we got, in preparation for the mahjong game later that night. Coffee to keep me awake...

Crackers to munch on while working my brains to think of what tile to play next...



Oh Yah...And I nearly forgot to mention this. Da got his ears pierced, and the vain guy made me take a photo, and made sure I posted it on my blog. He also said to mention that it was because of ME that he went to get his ears pierced. I DID encourage him to go get his ears pierced, but time and again, we would walk to a shop, and leave the shop, because he was scared. This time, when we walked past this shop, he stopped immedately, and then went over to ask the uncle how much it cost. He then asked me if he should do it. I told him it was entirely up to him.

Haha. Then he was hilarious. He went to the uncle, and asked him "Uncle, what sort of needle you use one ah? Got sterilize one or not ah? Is the stud disposable one?" And only after clarifying all his doubts did he dare to take the giant leap.

I still find it weird that cautious, careful, paranoid da will get his ears pierced in MALAYSIA. of all places, seriously.

The illegal items...hee...

Oh yah! When we got home, we started a game of mahjong, and played all the way till 3 plus. I was already feeling rather sleepy, when I was playing this game. Then I got excited. Very Very excited... This game won me most of my money... Only for the eyes of those who understand, I apologize...I really dunno how to go about explaining the game online..haha..