Weekend in Singapore

Last Saturday, after the Gunung Datuk climb, Rajen and I went down to Singapore. Expecting a terrible jam caused by the fact that it's the last weekend of school holidays, we braced ourselves to be stuck for at least an hour at the Immigration crossover. LiteFM kept us informed of the traffic situation and up to 9.45pm, it was reported that traffic is bumper to bumper both at the Causeway and the Second Link.

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We were sensible enough to leave Seremban at 7pm instead of our planned 5pm. The ride was pleasant and even though I was exhausted from lack of sleep and my morning climb, I was wide awake during the first 3 hours of the drive. We only made one stop at the Machap rest area where we filled up our tank. Rajen and I played a "guessing game". How much will it cost to top up the tank (we left Seremban with a full tank). The petrol gauge showed 3/4 tank full and I guessed RM40. Rajen guessed RM70. It came to RM55. (!!!!!!!!!!)

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We went past the Malaysian Imigration smoothly and when we came to the Singapore Imigration, THERE WAS NO LINE AT ALL. The Immigration personnel in the little booth told us that the jam had just cleared. Phew!!!!

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We arrived at Aunty's place at 11.45pm.

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The next morning, I had breakfast with Frances, my Skype friend from the Philipines who came to Singapore to work. After that, we went shopping. Err... "I" went shopping. Within an hour, I managed to contribute more than S$120 into the Singapore economy. Here is the evidence:-

I always find craft fascinating. And even though I possess many funny-shaped scissors, I would still go out and buy more. Also, that interchangeable stationery only cost me S$5 (RM12). :)

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The other purple stuff is some cutting gadgets which I will so need when I do my scrapbooking. I like the way the cutting mat is made - it's actually two pieces that can be joined. And then there is that cutter which can cut a perfect circle or oval shape (I haven't tried it out, though)

Books!!! I love desserts and always look for nice (and cheap) recipe books. Also, when I saw Grisham's latest paperback on the rack WITH 20% discount, I grabbed it. Patterson's 6th Target was also on a 20% discount. I saw Nora Roberts' latest paperback only AFTER I've paid for my stuff.... and decided not to spend too much. Now I'm not sure if I regretted that decision or not.

Frances and I parted ways at 11.30am and I sort of dreaded the journey back to Aunty's place, mainly because it meant walking in the afternoon sun from the MRT Station. To my surprise, it was cloudy and throughout my walk back, the sun stay hidden behind the clouds. However, when I arrived at the block of apartments, I had to go into the nearby 7-eleven to cool off.

I arrived at aunty's place and was greeted with so many people. Uncle Lawrence, Aunty Helen, Christopher, Jude and Sharon were there. After lunch, I was packing my things when I realised that my John Grisham book was missing. So was my pack of scissors. I was calm and had the good sense to go down to the 7-eleven to check if I left one bag there. I remember putting down all my things to snap some pictures outside 7-eleven. THE BAG WAS STILL THERE. "This IS Singapore, not Malaysia", I reminded myself.

Again, we braced ourselves for a terrible jam at the Second Link but was pleasantly surprised by the lack of it. Well, we only waited 5 minutes to get to a booth. Further ahead, we were told to get down from the car to have our thumbprints scanned. Apparently, a criminal escaped from the Singapore prison a few weeks back. This person is said to be dangerous and is a terrorist. The thumbprint scan was needed to identify this person so that he would not be able to escape using disguises and a fake passport.
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The rest of the journey was smooth sailing until we arrived near the Senawang toll. Earlier, it was reported that there was an accident between the Labu and Nilai tolls. We were hoping that the cars would not back up to the Senawang toll as we were planning to exit there. We weren't so fortunate. About 2km before the Senawang toll, we were crawling at 10kmph. That was not too bad - at least we were moving. We managed to get out of that jam in 10 minutes and arrived home at 6.45pm.

Sharon (Aunty's daughter) is now living in the US with her family and does not come back as often as she could. We managed to snap a few group pictures for remembrance.