I am a persistent dreamer. I am good at day-dreaming and most nights I dream dreams in full colour, HD quality complete with sound tracks usually classical-strings, clarinets and piano sometimes with compositions that I am not familiar with.
I think I inherited my "dreaming" gene from my parents who were often comparing their dreams. My late mum said her dreams were black and white like the TV she grew up watching. I thought it strange. Oh!!! I never needed contact lenses when I am in dreamland. Everything is so real, all my senses are alive and the best part is I often wake remembering in detail my dreams.
Lately, while my good friend was in Hong Kong for a family holiday, I dreamt a rather weird dream concerning her. In it, she was totally radiant and happy and sharing with me how someone she had not been in active contact for a long time, a certain guy whom she deeply loved had surprised her with a proposal on their first date. I was elated to hear the good news and was jumping with joy for this dear friend of many years when her phone rang and her brother was on the line with rather bad news. Her mum suffered a heart attack and the undertakers were on the way to help set up the wake etc. I was shocked and did not know how to react. One moment ago I received news from a friend, long awaited good news of a good marriage prospect. We were jumping up and down for joy on mount everest so to speak and the next I had to feel her deepest pain of losing a mum so suddenly. I was totally speechless and my mind was very blanked. I thought to myself. Oh God!!!Have mercy!!
What happened next in the dream was totally shocking!!! Instead of weeping for her recent loss of a loved one, my friend was ever more exuberant and excited. She was hilariously happy as if she had won the best top lottery prize in the world. I watched her in total disbelief and sheer horror. The next thing I knew Yan woke me up for church service at Suntec City.
What a strange dream. When i shared with Yan he thought it was weird and "a little bit funny," to Elton John's Your Song. Later, just before church service, I had a revelation that the dream was really symbolic. It meant the end of reign of a really domineering mum and the true freedom that she yearned for will materialise.
Imagine my surprise when this friend mentioned that is what she is yearning for exactly- freedom to lead her own life. I can't wait to see her blessed in the area of marriage and family which we had been praying for almost a decade now.
Wednesday, 26 May 2010
My Twilight years
I chanced upon the Twilight dvd while at the esplanade library last week. Isn't it amazing that we have a library that one can borrow videos, cds and movie screenplays etc. Personally, I am a cd and dvd collector even though one can easily download all these itunes and videos online. Perhaps its the ownership thingy. I prefer to have my favourite movies in my hands, read and reread whatever inserts there are and then there is the all time bonus stuff like subtitles (a must esp for french movies), and the making of the movie, interviews with casts etc etc.
I watched Twilight twice and the accompanying bonus dvd once. I loved it!! It brought back fond memories when I was young (pre-teens to late teens) and deeply obsessed with The Dark Forces, Twilight Zone, and later chilling vampire tales by Anne Rice. Interview with the Vampire was to me a classic, I had the Laser Disc(LD) then costing $50 and nothing haunted me like the jealous vampire girl Claudia.
In my girlish and womanish fantasies, yes, who would resist a eternally handsome, young, charming seducer with superhero capabilities. He can protect you yet there was this mysteriously dark sensuous pull towards death versus the quest for true love???????? Maybe this explains my penchant for handsome musical beings. And Edward Cullen (actually more Robert Pattinson) is yet another handsome talented UK actor, only 24 who sings well and composes on the piano and the guitar. The scene and the ending bonus of him playing the Kawai baby grand was totally mesmerising to me. (And I actually dreamt of a man in white tuxedo playing a white grand in a bright room when i was in my youth and did end up marrying Yan, a pianist.)
"I think Edward plays the piano better than daddy." I casually commented but Yan's number one supporter protested," Nonsense, Daddy is better than him and also Lang Lang!!!!!!!!" Oh...Lang Lang is definitely way up there, thanks to his strict but sacrificial parents, his driving desire to be No 1 and pretty much God watching over his every step, blessing him with plentiful favours and opportunities. We will be going to see him perform at the esplanade concert hall next year, hopefully without paying sky-high concert prices for the entire family. The Berliner Phiharmonic is coming here with Sir Simon Rattle late this year and the most expensive ticket will cost $680, while the most affordable at $80 will be snapped up in no time since it is very limited in quantity.
I believe that my fondness of such books ultimately influenced my being drawn to melancholic, musically inclined handsome guys who seemed impossible, unavailable, aloof and mysterious. Looking back, this could be why I allowed myself to fall for Wilson. He seemed so cold-blooded and inaccessible most of the time. Yet I was totally drawn to him when he sang alongside me in the church worship team for 2 years and tried to play Ballade Pour Adeline for me. Unfortunately, complications arose when the leadership tried to "make things happen" etc. Nevertheless, I thank God, that horrible, all too painful episode of my life was ten year past and I am blest with someone better, a male buddy. (My Jacob???? friendly, trustworthy, always available.)
Wait a minute!!! I am no Bella. I am certainly not shy nor am I clumsy though I know I am courageous when it comes to relationships yet squeamish with all things blood, shit and vomit. Yet like her, I am willing to follow my instincts and plunge myself into the deep sea of eternal love when I know the right person.
It's funny, as a kid I watched Bram Stoker's Dracula with my mother and now I am watching Twilight with my daughter.OH!!! i thought the daddy vampire is quite cute, that Dr Carlisle, it can only mean one thing, I am more matured now!!!!!. Afterall, Robert Pattinson is more than a decade younger than moi. Still, he makes the movie very compelling and I can't wait to watch New Moon, Eclipse and whatever they are filming now- Breaking Dawn.
Tuesday, 25 May 2010
The many hats I wear
Apart from chores and home-schooling Rachel, I am forever wanting to go shopping and also to practice my violin.
Chores wise, thanks to the machines, Mr dishwasher, Mr washer and Mr dryer, I spent most of my time cleaning floors (short cut paper method most of the time) and occasionally Miss Osim Mermaid. Ironing happens only once a week 10 pieces since Yan returned to the work force. It's relaxing and if done in air-conditioning with the TV or music on, quite therapeutic. We hardly cook since we moved here since with 7 eleven at our doorstep, many conveniences abound and largely because we prefer to eat out.
Home-schooling wise. Rachel is fantastic. We're about to finish the Pri One English and Math and apart from composition, she still writes with a very egotistic, huge hand-writing, short sentences, we are ready to progress on to the next level. Her mandarin is making much progress since she completed the Hanyu Pinyin for pre-schoolers, she does recognise a whole lot of chinese characters. Writing chinese is another thing altogether. It's alright that she learn to speak and understand basic conversational chinese first. Though I pretty much prefer she does not need to, and therefore I do not need to teach Mandarin at all.
It takes much effort on my part since I need to consult English-Chinese dictionary sometimes. I hardly speak mandarin at all. But since its important, even the foreigners are learning the language and culture as Chinese we should embrace the language and excel in it if possible. I did CL1 or chinese as the first language from 13-16 years old and afterwards I was exempted from the language examinations having scored distinctions in the O level exams. Shortly afterwards, I became monolingual. I spoke only Mandarin to my late mum and after she died in 2008, I hardly have to use the language at all.
I so envy my husband who does not speak or read Mandarin and he is Chinese!!!! Well, as a former Malaysian, Melayu was his mother tongue and he was even in the debate team!!! It's an added advantage when we travel to Malaysia, he could read signs everywhere and communicate to the local people very fluently.
French. Its the official foreign language in this family. I had a french tutor once in my early 20s while he did A level French. Rachel adores the language and whenever possible, especially with DVD, we would learn la francaise together and appreciate the culture. We so want to visit Europe soon and live there when we are ready.
Rachel understands why she is home-schooled. At this moment she loved the fact that she can "control" her time to play, to study, to learn music, to watch tv, go movies, to go shopping, visit the bathroom, have meals etc instead of "following a structure time table from Mon to Fri plus CCA on Sat. Please do not be mistaken that everything is wishy-washy here. We do have a time-table, in fact we had updated it thrice, its reviewed every 6 months according to her rapid progress and each day she puts in 1-2 hours on music, another 1-2 hours on art / free play, another 1-2 hours on languages inclusive of grammar, punctuation, vocabulary, another 1-2 hours on math/science/history and the rest watching TV, little chores and cooking.
We are flexible too, if she watches a cartoon in French/Mandarin, it could be counted as learning that language for the day. Art is often infused with many subjects from languages to the sciences and music.
A review of her time-table is due in June. Due to her longer attention span and interests, we will (we already are) having music lessons daily. At this beginner level, I am the primary piano teacher and I supervises her when she practises the violin. I am also teaching her theory with games and I do play for her enjoyment little music pieces within my ability and sing along the disney love songs and other pop songs usually sentimental that we both love.
Singing is very important!!! I learnt to sing before I had the chance to learn any instrument and it certainly helps in achieving the bel canto tone essential for good violin playing. Whether its the piano or the violin, a good musician will make the instrument sing!!!!!! It's a VOICE and sometimes many layers of voices I do hear!!!
Exercise is so important to a growing child and we do climb stairs whenever possible and I let her bike or scoot about when the weather permits. Last sunday, Rachel participated in her inaugural Cold Storage Kid's Run 2010 and she wants to take part again next year. She wants to be Number one but with her tiny frame its kinda impossible. She is 5 years old equivalent to a 3 year old caucasian build. Anyway, its good healthy fun, bonding too when she ran alongside the daddy while I spent the precious moment at home figuring out this:
Chores wise, thanks to the machines, Mr dishwasher, Mr washer and Mr dryer, I spent most of my time cleaning floors (short cut paper method most of the time) and occasionally Miss Osim Mermaid. Ironing happens only once a week 10 pieces since Yan returned to the work force. It's relaxing and if done in air-conditioning with the TV or music on, quite therapeutic. We hardly cook since we moved here since with 7 eleven at our doorstep, many conveniences abound and largely because we prefer to eat out.
Home-schooling wise. Rachel is fantastic. We're about to finish the Pri One English and Math and apart from composition, she still writes with a very egotistic, huge hand-writing, short sentences, we are ready to progress on to the next level. Her mandarin is making much progress since she completed the Hanyu Pinyin for pre-schoolers, she does recognise a whole lot of chinese characters. Writing chinese is another thing altogether. It's alright that she learn to speak and understand basic conversational chinese first. Though I pretty much prefer she does not need to, and therefore I do not need to teach Mandarin at all.
It takes much effort on my part since I need to consult English-Chinese dictionary sometimes. I hardly speak mandarin at all. But since its important, even the foreigners are learning the language and culture as Chinese we should embrace the language and excel in it if possible. I did CL1 or chinese as the first language from 13-16 years old and afterwards I was exempted from the language examinations having scored distinctions in the O level exams. Shortly afterwards, I became monolingual. I spoke only Mandarin to my late mum and after she died in 2008, I hardly have to use the language at all.
I so envy my husband who does not speak or read Mandarin and he is Chinese!!!! Well, as a former Malaysian, Melayu was his mother tongue and he was even in the debate team!!! It's an added advantage when we travel to Malaysia, he could read signs everywhere and communicate to the local people very fluently.
French. Its the official foreign language in this family. I had a french tutor once in my early 20s while he did A level French. Rachel adores the language and whenever possible, especially with DVD, we would learn la francaise together and appreciate the culture. We so want to visit Europe soon and live there when we are ready.
Rachel understands why she is home-schooled. At this moment she loved the fact that she can "control" her time to play, to study, to learn music, to watch tv, go movies, to go shopping, visit the bathroom, have meals etc instead of "following a structure time table from Mon to Fri plus CCA on Sat. Please do not be mistaken that everything is wishy-washy here. We do have a time-table, in fact we had updated it thrice, its reviewed every 6 months according to her rapid progress and each day she puts in 1-2 hours on music, another 1-2 hours on art / free play, another 1-2 hours on languages inclusive of grammar, punctuation, vocabulary, another 1-2 hours on math/science/history and the rest watching TV, little chores and cooking.
We are flexible too, if she watches a cartoon in French/Mandarin, it could be counted as learning that language for the day. Art is often infused with many subjects from languages to the sciences and music.
A review of her time-table is due in June. Due to her longer attention span and interests, we will (we already are) having music lessons daily. At this beginner level, I am the primary piano teacher and I supervises her when she practises the violin. I am also teaching her theory with games and I do play for her enjoyment little music pieces within my ability and sing along the disney love songs and other pop songs usually sentimental that we both love.
Singing is very important!!! I learnt to sing before I had the chance to learn any instrument and it certainly helps in achieving the bel canto tone essential for good violin playing. Whether its the piano or the violin, a good musician will make the instrument sing!!!!!! It's a VOICE and sometimes many layers of voices I do hear!!!
Exercise is so important to a growing child and we do climb stairs whenever possible and I let her bike or scoot about when the weather permits. Last sunday, Rachel participated in her inaugural Cold Storage Kid's Run 2010 and she wants to take part again next year. She wants to be Number one but with her tiny frame its kinda impossible. She is 5 years old equivalent to a 3 year old caucasian build. Anyway, its good healthy fun, bonding too when she ran alongside the daddy while I spent the precious moment at home figuring out this:
Monday, 10 May 2010
It's May
Wow...time flies!!!! It's May now!!!
Thankfully the past few months had been great. We had a new HDTV, payable via credit card instalments while the original TV from our first matrimonial home is received with enthusiasm from Rachel. She now has her own TV/DVD system to watch her many animated movies in the sheer comfort of her own room. I had imagined she having her own handphone first but she has NO desire for one yet, preferring to play the games in both our phones.
A new TV great but unfortunately the huge living/dining area in this rented apartments does not have air-conditioning!!! Room temperature can be as high as 34 deg celeius since the West sun beams strongly directly and the dark-out curtains did little to block out the sun. It's quite pointless to stay home in the afternoon and use the air-con full blast when the walls are hot to touch and the furniture and floors really warm. So, usually in the afternoons, I will be studying and shopping the some malls and be home when the sun sets. Our aircon bill has been going up since my kid needs the air con to sleep or do anything at all!!!
The only thing I liked about this place, Neptune Court is the size of the apartment. 1636sq feet feels just nice for a family of 3 but personally we could make do with something twice or thrice this size since we have so much "possessions" and furniture but also I often envisioned my home with a living area so large that we can place a big grand piano. I was checking out the outdoor set with Yan at Ikea last night but personally I think it safer to have on on ground floor beside the swimming pool and the well maintained garden (implying the need of a gardener).
With less than 3 months of the lease left, I really do not know if we are moving???? Ideally, we should be able to renew for a year or two, at a favourable rate, by God's grace, so as to minimise disruption in Rachel's young life and purchase our own place when the market crashes!!!
I sounded EVIL but I am so praying for the asset bubble to super burst so that ordinary folks like us can get our own apartments. Many 3 bedroom flats in Marine Parade are asking for 350K-450k and those of private, freehold commands $1m to above $2m. Rental too seems to be escalating. Somehow I feel the government is not doing enough to REGULATE property prices, be it COV or restricting private property owners from buying HDB flats meant for lower income majority. Still, God is my provider and HE is able to provide us with a good, comfortable and even luxurious home. Nothing is impossible with him and I no longer worry myself sick over where I am going to stay, the horrendous packing for 3, the equally exhausting unpacking and re-organising for almost 3. This alone can put me off having more kids. Imagine packing for 5!!!!
Twins run in my family and there is nothing more horrifying than ending up with 3 children when you just wanted to add one more cute baby to the family.
Rachel is ready to get out of this HOT house!!! So here we come, shopping centre for studying in comfort and general shopping. Today I need to buy bathroom mats and a whole lot of other needs!!!
Thankfully the past few months had been great. We had a new HDTV, payable via credit card instalments while the original TV from our first matrimonial home is received with enthusiasm from Rachel. She now has her own TV/DVD system to watch her many animated movies in the sheer comfort of her own room. I had imagined she having her own handphone first but she has NO desire for one yet, preferring to play the games in both our phones.
A new TV great but unfortunately the huge living/dining area in this rented apartments does not have air-conditioning!!! Room temperature can be as high as 34 deg celeius since the West sun beams strongly directly and the dark-out curtains did little to block out the sun. It's quite pointless to stay home in the afternoon and use the air-con full blast when the walls are hot to touch and the furniture and floors really warm. So, usually in the afternoons, I will be studying and shopping the some malls and be home when the sun sets. Our aircon bill has been going up since my kid needs the air con to sleep or do anything at all!!!
The only thing I liked about this place, Neptune Court is the size of the apartment. 1636sq feet feels just nice for a family of 3 but personally we could make do with something twice or thrice this size since we have so much "possessions" and furniture but also I often envisioned my home with a living area so large that we can place a big grand piano. I was checking out the outdoor set with Yan at Ikea last night but personally I think it safer to have on on ground floor beside the swimming pool and the well maintained garden (implying the need of a gardener).
With less than 3 months of the lease left, I really do not know if we are moving???? Ideally, we should be able to renew for a year or two, at a favourable rate, by God's grace, so as to minimise disruption in Rachel's young life and purchase our own place when the market crashes!!!
I sounded EVIL but I am so praying for the asset bubble to super burst so that ordinary folks like us can get our own apartments. Many 3 bedroom flats in Marine Parade are asking for 350K-450k and those of private, freehold commands $1m to above $2m. Rental too seems to be escalating. Somehow I feel the government is not doing enough to REGULATE property prices, be it COV or restricting private property owners from buying HDB flats meant for lower income majority. Still, God is my provider and HE is able to provide us with a good, comfortable and even luxurious home. Nothing is impossible with him and I no longer worry myself sick over where I am going to stay, the horrendous packing for 3, the equally exhausting unpacking and re-organising for almost 3. This alone can put me off having more kids. Imagine packing for 5!!!!
Twins run in my family and there is nothing more horrifying than ending up with 3 children when you just wanted to add one more cute baby to the family.
Rachel is ready to get out of this HOT house!!! So here we come, shopping centre for studying in comfort and general shopping. Today I need to buy bathroom mats and a whole lot of other needs!!!
Tuesday, 4 May 2010
Kluang Mother's Day Reunion
This can be a rather interesting post. The fact is the after praying and believing God, my sister in law Sarah's family was able to join us at her mum's place in kluang for the Inaugural Mother's Day Reunion.
While I had imagined a lot of dining out at Red Star Restuarant or wherever convenient with good food, we ended up with the usual food prepared by my mother in law's (mil) helper, a auntie in her 40s with 4 kids that lived about 4 units away on the same street.
One thing I learnt from these home cooked food, usually stir fried veg with ikan bilis or anchovies and fried soya sauced or tomato sauced fish fillets or simply pork rib soup with carrots and corn is that home cooked food need not be so "cuisine". I shall occasionally prepare stir-fry beansprouts and lotus soup with carrot, dried scallops etc instead of mainly western grill that I so loved. Fruit salads and food that my fussy eater loves like crabstick, fish balls, chicken, pasta are a must.
Our first stop at Kluang after the no frills bus ride on Five Stars from Golden Mile Complex aka Singapore's mini Thailand sans all the red, yellow shirt protesters was to Milky House for a Mother's Day cake. OMG, that cake house must be famous, it was packed with customers!!! I've never seen so many people buying cake at the same time and we bought 2 for about RM20 each, dirt cheap!!! One decent half kg cake here costs easily S$20-30. One thing I hate about shopping in Malaysia is most shops do not understand simple English!!! Yan had to translate every thing!!! "Is it freshly baked?" We were still spooked by the incident in Rachel's childcare.
During her 2nd birthday which was a day 03 Jan, after the NY holidays, we bought 2 cakes from a reputable shop in Parkway. One for the childcare centre, the other for our family. While the cake tasted alright, our family was down with diarrhea for a few days!!! It should be the cake since we ate nothing much in common those days!! Then to my horror, I was told that the cake may have "aged" since the shop was closed for the NY holidays which means the cake was baked last year!!!!Thankfully none of the kid took ill. Enough said, it took me a while to buy cakes again!!!
Since our family adores chocolate and dislike vanilla and Sarah's family prefers vanilla, we bought 2 only to receive one more, pandan flavour from the same shop from guests. The guests were a young couple, think they are Yan's cousins (though not blood related) with their 2 month old colicky baby that wailed for a long time. It was a chaotic hour or so, with mil's TV at loud volume, people talking at louder volume and the baby wailing for attention at a louder volume. I felt dizzy then!!! Noise-related pollution!!! Just like the ones emanating from VJC, I cannot understand why they must bang on metal trash bins to cheer lead various activities and shout "VJ..VJ>>VJ" and make me hate my alma mater so much that I called the police to complain about the noise and the vibrations in my house!!! I am most probably the first to lodge a complaint since most residents here being elderly could be hard of hearing. Most are old retired school teachers as well.
A visit to Kluang must include the newly opened Kluang mall. I am so glad to let Rachel play at the "Polliwogs" type of playground and its ony RM$4 for 2 hours verus $18 entrance fee at the Eact Coast Parkway location. While the dutiful dad watched over her listening to his ipod, I had my pedicure cum nail art for only RM$48 so cheap!!! Only trouble is the manicurist is only conversant in local Mandarin and no English fashion mags for my reading pleasure!!
My bro in law, Paul also brought us to savor the Tingkat beef. Its delicious!!! Only RM $4.50 a bowl.
At Kluang Mall, I also managed to buy a balloon sculpture, "Lollipop" that "popped" within a few minutes!!!! These are mainly for customers who signed up expensive children's education software retailing at RM1000+ and the balloon sculpturist agreed to sell me these "free" balloons. From RM$10 to RM $3, I could tell he is a money-faced that readily accepts "bribes" though dispensing company products "balloons" that are meant to be for customers.
Well Rachel and Aerin had a great time with the balloon sculpture leftovers!!!
Mil also passed us some old coins mostly S$5 and $10 commemorative uncirculated coins and Old Orchid series banknotes that her late husband had collected. Anyway since we do not enjoy collecting and amassing these old stuff, we are going to sell them and save the cash for Rachel.
Lastly, I must say I quite enjoy walking uphill 10 minutes in the hot sun with an umbrella to Kluang Mall from mil's place, something that no locals will do, walk!!! But it's good exercise and I do get to see the poor living conditons of some "villagers??" In fact, my mil's helper the auntie's slippers were so worn out and fastened with tape that I immediately felt sorry for her and her brood of 4 kids!!! I shall get her new footwear on the next visit or through Yan/Sarah. Why should she suffer the agony of improper spoilt footwear and cook for my mil almost 5 meals a day???? Here I wore Fitflops almost $90 a pair that is said to improve posture but after a while I find them rather heavy and chunky!!! Crocs is the best!!! For casual footwear beach wear even to the malls and the airport. Beware of escalators though!!! And they do wear out so fast. Melted I would say!!!
Personally, i prefer mil to relocate to KL, perhaps near sil. It's more convenient to visit via air than to endure the long 3 hour bus ride that include causeway jams!!! Plus I get to visit Pavillion and KLCC malls that boast of brands I love and good dining!!! What's a trip without shopping and good hotel stay??? Let's hope we can shop this Dec/ Jan 11 holidays again!!!
While I had imagined a lot of dining out at Red Star Restuarant or wherever convenient with good food, we ended up with the usual food prepared by my mother in law's (mil) helper, a auntie in her 40s with 4 kids that lived about 4 units away on the same street.
One thing I learnt from these home cooked food, usually stir fried veg with ikan bilis or anchovies and fried soya sauced or tomato sauced fish fillets or simply pork rib soup with carrots and corn is that home cooked food need not be so "cuisine". I shall occasionally prepare stir-fry beansprouts and lotus soup with carrot, dried scallops etc instead of mainly western grill that I so loved. Fruit salads and food that my fussy eater loves like crabstick, fish balls, chicken, pasta are a must.
Our first stop at Kluang after the no frills bus ride on Five Stars from Golden Mile Complex aka Singapore's mini Thailand sans all the red, yellow shirt protesters was to Milky House for a Mother's Day cake. OMG, that cake house must be famous, it was packed with customers!!! I've never seen so many people buying cake at the same time and we bought 2 for about RM20 each, dirt cheap!!! One decent half kg cake here costs easily S$20-30. One thing I hate about shopping in Malaysia is most shops do not understand simple English!!! Yan had to translate every thing!!! "Is it freshly baked?" We were still spooked by the incident in Rachel's childcare.
During her 2nd birthday which was a day 03 Jan, after the NY holidays, we bought 2 cakes from a reputable shop in Parkway. One for the childcare centre, the other for our family. While the cake tasted alright, our family was down with diarrhea for a few days!!! It should be the cake since we ate nothing much in common those days!! Then to my horror, I was told that the cake may have "aged" since the shop was closed for the NY holidays which means the cake was baked last year!!!!Thankfully none of the kid took ill. Enough said, it took me a while to buy cakes again!!!
Since our family adores chocolate and dislike vanilla and Sarah's family prefers vanilla, we bought 2 only to receive one more, pandan flavour from the same shop from guests. The guests were a young couple, think they are Yan's cousins (though not blood related) with their 2 month old colicky baby that wailed for a long time. It was a chaotic hour or so, with mil's TV at loud volume, people talking at louder volume and the baby wailing for attention at a louder volume. I felt dizzy then!!! Noise-related pollution!!! Just like the ones emanating from VJC, I cannot understand why they must bang on metal trash bins to cheer lead various activities and shout "VJ..VJ>>VJ" and make me hate my alma mater so much that I called the police to complain about the noise and the vibrations in my house!!! I am most probably the first to lodge a complaint since most residents here being elderly could be hard of hearing. Most are old retired school teachers as well.
A visit to Kluang must include the newly opened Kluang mall. I am so glad to let Rachel play at the "Polliwogs" type of playground and its ony RM$4 for 2 hours verus $18 entrance fee at the Eact Coast Parkway location. While the dutiful dad watched over her listening to his ipod, I had my pedicure cum nail art for only RM$48 so cheap!!! Only trouble is the manicurist is only conversant in local Mandarin and no English fashion mags for my reading pleasure!!
My bro in law, Paul also brought us to savor the Tingkat beef. Its delicious!!! Only RM $4.50 a bowl.
At Kluang Mall, I also managed to buy a balloon sculpture, "Lollipop" that "popped" within a few minutes!!!! These are mainly for customers who signed up expensive children's education software retailing at RM1000+ and the balloon sculpturist agreed to sell me these "free" balloons. From RM$10 to RM $3, I could tell he is a money-faced that readily accepts "bribes" though dispensing company products "balloons" that are meant to be for customers.
Well Rachel and Aerin had a great time with the balloon sculpture leftovers!!!
Mil also passed us some old coins mostly S$5 and $10 commemorative uncirculated coins and Old Orchid series banknotes that her late husband had collected. Anyway since we do not enjoy collecting and amassing these old stuff, we are going to sell them and save the cash for Rachel.
Lastly, I must say I quite enjoy walking uphill 10 minutes in the hot sun with an umbrella to Kluang Mall from mil's place, something that no locals will do, walk!!! But it's good exercise and I do get to see the poor living conditons of some "villagers??" In fact, my mil's helper the auntie's slippers were so worn out and fastened with tape that I immediately felt sorry for her and her brood of 4 kids!!! I shall get her new footwear on the next visit or through Yan/Sarah. Why should she suffer the agony of improper spoilt footwear and cook for my mil almost 5 meals a day???? Here I wore Fitflops almost $90 a pair that is said to improve posture but after a while I find them rather heavy and chunky!!! Crocs is the best!!! For casual footwear beach wear even to the malls and the airport. Beware of escalators though!!! And they do wear out so fast. Melted I would say!!!
Personally, i prefer mil to relocate to KL, perhaps near sil. It's more convenient to visit via air than to endure the long 3 hour bus ride that include causeway jams!!! Plus I get to visit Pavillion and KLCC malls that boast of brands I love and good dining!!! What's a trip without shopping and good hotel stay??? Let's hope we can shop this Dec/ Jan 11 holidays again!!!
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