Down Last Week

Yupz.. was on MC for 4 solid days last week.
Suffered from acute back pain. Doctor's advice is to CRIB - Complete Rest In Bed.

Just a little knowledge about back pain.

Lower Back Pain/Sprain
A back sprain or low back pain is a common condition of the back that causes pain with movement and impairs normal activities. Symptoms usually result from repetitive lifting, bending or twisting. Onset may be gradual or all at once depending on the circumstances. Discomfort may last a few days to a few weeks (or sometimes many months). X-rays are generally not necessary when there was a only a minor injury bringing on the condition, unless uncommon or unusual signs or symptoms are present.

sigh.. I guess I just have to bear with it now.. though back to work already, but sometimes still feel that there is a slight aching pain if I tend to sit too long or stand too long.

No more long shopping hours for me. Cannot take it.

Last weekend went to Q to buy 4D, wah.. damn long Q, but bo bian, still have to queue mah.. buying hope leh.. but damn buay tahan lor.. Queued for more than 30mins.. thereafter head straight home. Completely LIE in bed.

Oh, btw, the four days were spent watching Da Chang Jin vcds.
Thank God for that !

Don't Answer A Question with Another Question !

Sometimes it can be quite exasperating when you needed answers quick, but the other party will pose you another question in answer to your question.

E.g.

A: "Where to go for lunch arh?"
B: "What you feel like eating leh?"

A: "Then what you feel like eating leh?"

C: "Do you all want buy something to munch during the movie?"

D: "Do you want to buy?"

Hey, here am I asking you a question, and expecting an answer.

But since you don't provide me with an answer / solution, we will be going in circles, till the cows come home, we still can't reach a conclusion.

Probably it's just polite that the other party ask u back with another question, maybe to be more clear of what you answer you actually requires.

In short, it's still very exasperating..

But I guess, it's all these Q&As that make the world go round and round

( in circles again! )... hahaha !

A Gift from Vancouver

Just received a nice little card from my friend, Rina, in Vancouver. See ?

Top right hand corner of the picture is Fide and her little brother, Isaiah.

Was there to "bunk" with her family for 2 nights when I holidaying in Canada earlier May this year. That time when I was there, I couldn't get those orangey/red maple leaves which occurs only during their autumn (fall) season. I was there during end spring/beginning summer time thus only green leaves are seen everywhere. But being such a sweet friend, Rina (& Fide - her daughter) remembers that I want to collect them, so during this time, they made a special effort to go picking these leaves for me. Thanks Rina !

Another Weekend Trip

A Weekend Trip to Kuala Lumpur

Me and two other colleagues went KL over the weekend.

Took the night train at 2215hrs at Tanjong Pagar Railway Station. Well, this is the first time I take this kind of train, (MRT not counted) so I was a bit like mountain tortoise lor. But since it was a night train, there was nothing for me to "..wah wah wah.." about during the journey. Basically is to get myself comfortable on the bed and try to get some sleep. But having so used to motionless bed, the nightmare begins. The tracks were so old that the train was very(x50) bumpy. And to make it worse, there were hundreds of people trying to make themselves tired and sleepy by trying to walk around. As I was near the auto door, I could practically hear the door slammed onto me everytime it shuts. Luckily I brought along my Creative Zen MP3 Player, so managed to get some sleep in between.

Finally at 630am, we arrived at Stesen Sentral Kuala Lumpur. Lugging our haversacks, we quickly made our way to the nearest washroom, hoping to freshen up. But since there were hundreds of people in the train, all flocked to the washrooms. So we decided to head somewhere else. Walking across the road just directly opp the train station, we saw HILTON *wink wink* and quickly chiong there. And good enough, there were 3 basins so we all can take our own sweet time to freshen up and have a change of clothes.

Thanks to 3-jie (sam jie in cantonese), we had the luxury of a 4-wheeled vehicle to bring us around, and the first stop she brought us to was to have a sumptous breakfast to make up for the bumpy sleepless night that we had. Klang Bak Kut Teh. Real nice. Real different. Not the usual clear soup pepper jway jway (a lot) type. More like gravy, but can drink as soup. *Burp*

After the filling breakfast, we made our way to the next destination, the Menara Kuala Lumpur, which means KL Tower. Something like observatory place where you can see the whole of KL City high up at the tower. But of course, as this is a tourist attraction, it is not cheap to go up for the view. It costs RM$20 each tourist, and RM$8 for their own countrymen. Hmm.. really an eye-opener.

Thereafter we proceeded to check in the hotel - Corus Hotel. The reason why we chose this hotel was for convenience. As we will be taking the Aero-line coach bus the next day at 10am, and the bus pick up point is right at the door step of this hotel, thus we chose this hotel. And moreover, Maybank cardmember (me) has promotional rate.

After a 2nd round of freshening up, we went for economy boosting. Yup, we went shopping. At KLCC. All the way from 12pm till 4pm. Walk walk and walk, shop shop and shop ! Sale and no sale we all 不放过 !!

3rd round of freshening up back at the hotel before we went out for our dinner. We had steamboat porridge for dinner. Too bad I didn't take a snapshot of the cuisine. Maybe too tired and hungry. Different concept of eating steamboat. For those who know what is "um" in porridge, you agak agak can visualise how the "soup" is like for the steamboat. The rest of the ingredients are more or less the same.

After dinner, we went to KL's Chinatown for a slow walk. Real crowded. But nothing really Chinese can be found there. Most stalls either selling cheap watches, or handbags, or t-shirts. Maybe bak gwa and the tau sa piah shops were the only indication of Chinatown? haha...

Next we went to Bukit Bintang. Another round of shopping. But probably because we spent the whole afternoon chionging KLCC liao, so the night shopping ends up with empty hands. We also combed Lot 10, and Sungei Wang. Happened to see this comical figure outside Sungei Wang building, and as the name suggested, Wang means $$.

As night was still young, about 2200hrs, we made our way to our next stop, HARD ROCK CAFE. We were in time for their live band - TELEFON - performance. Quite good. We stayed there enjoying the music, the drinks and the crowd till 115am. Then it was back to hotel and sleeping time.. Finally !

2nd day - morning breakfast was traditional roti canai - in simple Singapore terms, it means roti prata. Having breakfast together with the three of us were 3-jie, 2-jie and 2 jie-fu. We tried different types of prata - telur, pisang, and of course the kosong one. We also had the luxury of tasting KL's murtabak and roti tisu. Again, too bad I was too busy tasting the good food that I forgot the existence of my A95.

After a wonderful breakfast, it's time to hit the roads. We took another mode of transport for our journey home. Comfortable coach bus ride. Similar to aeroplane concept, they have a "cabin crew" serving on the bus too. Proper announcements were also made at the appropriate timings. Really maciam on planes lor, but on these coaches, you are able to use your handphone anytime ! The coach bus departs from KL at 10am, and we arrived back in Singapore at 330pm. Quite fast - cos no jam at the 2nd causeway, and the destination point was at Grand Copthorne Waterfront. For those who are interested, you can visit their website at https://www.aeroline.com.sg/

<-- One of my most rewarding buy this trip is this

Haha.. ok, I think this blog is long enough liao..

Lunch Time ! :)

一种米养百种人

For those who dun understand wat my title means, literally it means, one kind of rice but can feed many hundred kinds of people.

One "Hundred" Kind of People
Don't understand how one person can really argue until throat dry liao, still gneh si (die die) want to continue to rebutt me ! How I do work, I dun need another person (not senior staff) to come give me advice.

Another "hundred" Kind of People

And last nite, I had an argument with the oldest man in my family.

He still don't understand that it is NOT Necessary to attend all cousins' weddings.

I had planned for a trip to Malaysia long time ago, and who the hell will still remember the wedding date (since it is not MY wedding date) when it was first mentioned during CNY earlier this February 2005. So the whole nite, I was in own room, watching DA CHANG JIN vcds, not wanting to step out into the living room - yes, to avoid another argument.

Yet Another "Hundred" Kind of People

Was reading TODAY's papers forum page - VOICES.

The readers were commenting on the "Art of Naming" - but i feel they Eat full no shit to put (jiak ba bo sai bang)

Me myself had stayed in Sengkang for the past 7yrs+ liao, since 1998.

The street names, RIVERVALE, COMPASSVALE, ANCHORVALE, FERNVALE - sounds so much better than ave 1 ave 2. And once you are familiar with this place (even taxi drivers will agree with me), you will not get lost. And even if you do, there is always a handphone where u can easily make a phone call to the person who is staying in that region. That's what my best friend always do - she calls me whenever she thinks she is lost in Sengkang.

I must admit though - even when Ang Mo Kio and Toa Payoh have those traditional street names, I still do not know which avenue belongs to which Lorong after so many years...

Unfamiliarity breeds Contempt.. ?? hahaha..

The Sun, The Siloso and the Shangri-LA !

in continuation from my prev blog The Sun, the Sea and the Shang...
Spent a totally zo-bo (literally means do nothing) weekend at Sentosa..

All plans or agenda were thrown out of the balcony, as our dear LFY was too tired/lazy to move around the island.. So practically only the younger ones get to go out to the beach, the food centre, side-viewed the musical fountain show etc..

Anyway, just to start off, we waited more than one hour for the check-in. The receptionist kept telling me that there is no available rooms as per what I have requested. But i refused to accept any explanation, cos I have specifically made those requests weeks ago. So, in the end, while waiting for them to find available rooms, I decided to make use of that "valuable" time and filled up a FEEDBACK FORM. Within minutes after I dropped the completed form into the CUSTOMER SERVICE FEEDBACK BOX, one of the receptionist came out to do postman work. And again within minutes later, BINGO ! I got my room.. and it's an upgrade ! Wow.. comments really can make the world go round man !

From the pool-view room,









we were upgraded to SEA-VIEW room.

Ok lah.. cant complain much liao lor.. upgraded from the 5th Level to 8th level room. Scenery also much much better....

Well.. in summary, the 3 days 2 nites there not that bad lah. Probably one word of advice though- dun ever try to attempt to eat at the food centre cos of convenience. The standard price for the food there is $5.00 and the food is NOT value for money. Really!

Some nice shots to share with you all..

The Sun, the Sea and the Shang !

Looking forward to this Sentosa trip since last month.

Promised my granny that I will bring her there since she mentioned that she long long time didnt step into Sentosa liao. So since it is the long alternate holiday week, i decided to spend this time n ($) with her and of cos, the rest of the family too... The moe the merrier rite? oops... shld be the more the merrier..

Well.. no actual agenda though.. told everyone that it will be solely OTOT* as well as F&E**.
No meals provided for.. but of cos there will be other sideline programmes too..

I did considered the following :
1) Carlsberg Sky Tower - will cost $10 just to go against the gravity (www.skytower.com.sg)
2) The Merlion
3) Sentosa Luge - maybe the older ones can stand one side to see.
4) Musical Fountain - got 740pm & 840pm time slots. But need to be seated by 7pm to ensure a safe and comfortable experience for all. Gates will be closed at 7pm if full house.
5) Underwater world - not sure if LFY wants 2 go there..
6) Fort Siloso - see Dua Pao? :p

Anyway, no firmed plans yet....
if you want more information on sentosa..visit the website yourself !
www.sentosa.com.sg

All packed and ready to GO ! :)
TGIF !

* OTOT - own time own target
** F&E - free n easy

Hari Raya Puasa

Another holiday tomorrow.. yippie !
And yes, today is the last working day of the week for me..
Decided to take the Friday off.. planning something this weekend.. *grinz*
hehehehe..

ok.. back to my blog topic

HARI RAYA PUASA





Hari Raya Puasa is a very important occasion that is celebrated by Muslims all over the world. It is also known as the festival that marks the end of one month of fasting-Ramadan. The words ‘Hari Raya’ mean 'day of celebration.' And nope... Hari Raya Puasa is NOT the Muslim New Year.

What is Ramadan?
Ramadan is the name of the one-month fasting period when Muslims fast for a period of almost 12 hours. They fast from dawn till sunset.

In Singapore, Hari Raya preparations can be seen at least one month before the festival. Geylang Serai, the place that is known for the Muslims to gather, will have the whole street lighted up with nice decor... Usually at break fast time, it is always filled with large crowds. Bazaars (something like pasar malam) would be set up and they would be selling numerous festive items for Muslims. Food, clothes and decorative items. I went there once, many yrs ago.. Walked the whole street, enjoyed being in the crowd with them.

Went to a muslim friend's house before during Hari Raya Puasa. My secondary school classmate to be exact. Nur Sharon. Still remembers her name.. But cant remember wat i ate there.. oops! There was a few of us there.. some Chinese, one Indian, and the rest muslims.. One thing I remembered though.. the cookies were nice.. *slurp*

oh, come to think of it, we used to have a malay neighbour (same floor) and the nice couple (pakcik n macik) will bring over some nice food for us to eat. Now don't have liao.. But then, the flat is now occupied by an Indian family.... hehe.. we still get nice goodies and makan too..

Okie.. now my makan time.. LUNCH !